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Seize the Day (1986) More at IMDbPro »

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent acting, possible connection to Dead Poets' Society, 5 April 2005
8/10
Author: Vanessa Poholek (vpoholek@yahoo.com) from New Haven, Connecticut

8 out of 10. An unrecognized gem. His acting is excellent, better than most all other actors. He is particularly gifted in his drama and dramedy (drama/comedy) skills. He is specific, vulnerable, and challenges the very audience who watches him. This film (and his others) deserve greater recognition and he should be cast in more meaty roles. And more movies. And then win all the awards... Was the title "Seize the Day" was an unknowing sign of things to come? Maybe. Who could have foretold of his future excellence in the dramatic flick "Dead Poets' Society"? For those who remember, in that film, he taught the boys the importance of living. He repeated Carpe Diem, Carpe Diem, which is Latin for Seize the Day.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Bellow's Death of a Salesman, 5 April 2004
Author: ken2000 from San Francisco

This film is a match for Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. A very tightly controlled drama with richly vivid characters and the casting is excellent. Robin Willimas has never done anything better and without all of that comedy schtick that he is so famous for. Joseph Wiseman is an absolute monster and that 'hotel' they live in might as well be hell. It is even depicted as hell with those scenes in the steam room/spa with all those walking corpses wondering around. I read the novel this was based on nearly thirty years ago, and my feeling then as now, seeing the film, is that there is no resolution. Wilkie has no exit from his situation. One thing for sure, he needs to get away from those people (his girlfriend seems to be in love w/him, regardless of the money, so that's something). I give this a very strong recommendation.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
ROBIN WILLIAMS' BEST ONSCREEN PERFORMANCE, 6 June 2002
Author: george.schmidt (george.schmidt@hbo.com) from fairview, nj

SEIZE THE DAY (1986) (MADE FOR TV) **** Robin Williams, Jerry Stiller, Glenne Headly, Tony Roberts, Joseph Wiseman, William Hickey. Williams delivers the best performance of his career in this little-seen but genuinely excellent film as Tommy Wilhelm, a loser on a continuous downward spiral, who desperately grasps at straws and for his father's unwelcomed love. Heartbreaking yet powerful Saul Bellow short-storyesque feel with one of the most realistic nervous breakdown ever captured on film. A must see for quality acting and directing.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
little known gem, 30 November 1998
9/10
Author: anonymous

This is an obscure little film that is probably Williams' best dramatic role--at least on par with the troubled psychiatrist in "Good Will Hunting". He plays a man victimized by his life--everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Williams is painful to watch in this role, but proves that his dramatic talent knows no bounds. Absolutely compelling; a film I am not likely to forget. Why this sleeper is so underrated and obscure I will never know. If you can get your hands on it, do so!

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Robin's touching performance!, 7 December 2006
8/10
Author: Sylvia Marciniak (sylviastel@aol.com) from United States

I remember this movie because I took a junior college course entitled literature and film. One of the books was Saul Bellow's novel, Seize the Day. I don't remember much about the story but I remember the film. It's set in New York City about a poor man played to perfection by the one and only Robin Williams. It's not a laughing matter with him in the starring role as the Jewish salesman. The final scene leaves more questions than answers. I remember the film was faithful to the author's version. After all, Saul Bellow is a Nobel Prize winner for literature. Robin's performance is no laughing matter because his character can never catch a break in New York City. You just realize that he is one of thousands who are more or less suffering from society's neglect. In the end, society can be hell after all.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Daeth of another Salesman, 20 February 2005
6/10
Author: (caspian1978@hotmail.com) from Attleboro, MA

Robin Williams stars in another version of Death of a Salesman. A shorter and more entertaining version, Williams stars as the struggling salesman who can not get by. The world around him and the people in it are against him. At the age of 40, it seems like he is still a teenager as all his friends from the past and the elders in the city treat him like he is still a child. Set in the city in the 1950's, the production value of this movie is terrific. From the old style automobiles to the wardrobe, one of the movie's highlights is the set value. Along with Williams, Jerry Stiller is a surprise hit as the weird sidekick / backstabber in this comical supporting role. The movie tries to end on a funny note but ends up too sad to explain. Instead of at a grave site, Seize the Day ends at a funeral service. As equal as Death of a Salesman, the plot is the same. The opening of the movie has the look of an after school special with the cheaply credits. Don't be fooled by this. This is a good movie to see. Williams and Stiller are great.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
happy dispair, 19 July 2003
Author: dreed444 from Austin Texas

I have to say that Robin Williams has come a long way regarding his acting. This is an early work and one that probably had folks confused since he was best known as the manic comic. But this Saul Bellow story of dispair and humor would have been considerably more depressing (good or bad) with, perhaps, Dustin Hoffman in the lead. Being 1986 and for TV, this was quite a groundbreaker. Don't get me wrong, I liked it -- I just couldn't help but wonder what a re-make would be today with our current abilities (and obsessions) at making rage and dispair truly palpable. There was a bit too much self-awareness on the part of the director/writer at making sure there was comic relief where none was needed......

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Miller revisited by a living dead salesman, 20 March 2007
9/10
Author: Dr Jacques COULARDEAU from Olliergues, France

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

An interesting film adapted from Saul Bellow, the famous Nobel Prize winner. Here the character, a middle-age Jewish man, is accumulating all kinds of difficulties: he is fired, he is separated from his wife who hassles him for money, he is rejected financially and emotionally by his own father, he is fooled by a fake finance wizard who practically robs him of his money, and I should say etc and so on. The character is perfectly hysterical in an absolutely paranoid direction and we can see him going down little by little and it all ends up on a total dead end blind alley impasse. In other words a perfect loser in the Jewish culture who ends up crying on his own fate in the funeral of some other guy he does not know at all among people who don't know him nor he them. That is pure Saul Bellow who dedicated his whole writing career to such losers and total misfits in the world of making money not only to survive, not even to live, but to exist. In other words he is self immolating himself at the social stake of financial failure. Brilliant.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
A great film, 29 March 2002
9/10
Author: rustyjewell from Alabama USA

The acting was very good, but I found that I was even more impressed by how the scenes were set - to me the settings convey as much of the meaning as the dialog. Towards the end when Robin Williams visits his father in the steam room, it has the look of a mausoleum and the people there appear to be more ghosts than men. To me the story is not totally depressing although in parts it hits close to home. I see it as a social commentary and as such it perhaps has some hope of waking up people. So although our "hero's" life is depressing the film has a message that might wake up and change some real life people - for me therefore the movie plot is not a downer. I have not read Saul Bellow's book but I suspect, from what I know of his writings, that this movie captures well the sense of what he wrote.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Agree - small gem of a film, 5 April 2001
7/10
Author: madbard

Saw this on American Playhouse years ago. A very powerful performance by Robin Williams. A slice in the life of a man on the brink of desperation, a life long midnight of the soul. There is no resolution because there is not supposed to be a resolution. I don't necessarily recommend seeking it out, but if given a chance to see it please do so.

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