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Summary: Wonderful movie!!
Comment: This movie is sad, but very heart warming. The story is very dramatic. I think that this movie is a great family movie that makes everyone feel happy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "Everything That Rises"
Comment: Great movie, breathtaking scenery, stunning performances (especially by Ryan Merriman). Just one flaw...could Turner possibly put it on DVD in a letterboxed format??? All that scenery, bigger than life performances...and that lousy full-screen format!!! Please put it on DVD and in a letterboxed format!!!!!
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Summary: Touching story of family and hardship...
Comment: The only disappointment I can possibly associate with Everything that Rises would be the fact that I can not purchase it on DVD. Directed by Dennis Quaid, Everything that Rises has an all-star cast and takes full advantage of its beautiful Montana setting. On the surface it is a story of a family falling on hard times financially, compounded with the debilitating injury of their 12 year old son. On a deeper level, it is a celebration of human relationships, the resilience of the human spirit and the bonds between sons and their father figures. The characterizations are excellent and seeing the characters transformed by the events in their lives will touch anyone! You will laugh, you will cry, and your heart will be filled with joy as you rise and fall with the characters in the film.
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Summary: Mare Winningham my favorite
Comment: I have never seen anything that Mare Winningham was in that wasn't five stars and this one doesn't fall short. She is my favorite and I'd like to see all her work.If you love touching story lines like I do you will love this film. Diane
Customer Rating:
Summary: Strong story of father and son
Comment: This made-for TV movie has many of the cliches of the modern-day western -- young family struggling to hang onto a ranch, the bank threatening to foreclose, developers buying up land to turn into "ranchettes." The difference in this case is that the writer, Mark Spragg, knows this material first-hand. He grew up on a dude ranch in northwestern Wyoming and knows the people who have lived in this part of the world all their lives. He's written about it in a fine collection of essays, "Where Rivers Change Direction," and many of the themes in that book emerge again in this very enjoyable movie.The struggle to hang onto the ranch is a backdrop, like the breathtaking footage of Montana, to the personal story of a father and son. Dennis Quaid, who also directed, plays a very convincing rancher-cowboy, who has learned to live in the unforgiving man's world that he inherited from his own father, but who knows little how to communicate his love to his own 14-year-old son (Ryan Merriman), eager to grow up and be a man just as strong. Their relationship is prickly until the boy is injured in an accident, and the difficulties between them are aggravated by the father's concern that he's about to lose the ranch.
The link between them is the rancher's wife (Mare Winningham) and an old cowboy (Harve Presnell) who lives and works on the ranch. Each in their way try to bring boy and father together and help keep the family on the ranch. Spragg's gift for revealing character through dialogue (evident in his book) and Quaid's direction make the scenes between characters rise again and again above the preditable. It's also a pleasure to have the "bad guys" come across sympathetically -- it's painful to watch the loan officer at the bank squirm in discomfort as he has to deliver bad news, and the land developer is portrayed as a generous man making every effort to preserve another man's wounded pride.
I recommend this film to anyone interested in the modern west, especially the high plains and mountains, and the details of ranch life. It's also a fine father-son story, with moments of well-earned pathos that bring a tear to the eye. As a companion, I recommend any of Mark Spragg's books. He's a fine writer.
