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50 reviews in total

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21 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
Wonderful walk down memory lane, 12 January 2005

Author: Tom from United States

Although this film takes place 15 years before I was born, growing up in an ethnic family in the early 60's had changed very little.

My family is Greek, but this film will appeal to any ethnic group especially first or second generation Americans. Back then we all still gathered at one member's home for holidays and on Sundays. We all dressed up (and still do) for church and holiday gatherings. Watching little Elijah Wood with his bow tie reminded me of myself at that age.

Mr. Levinson through film, and Randy Newman through his haunting musical score did a magnificent job of recreating a world that has all but disappeared. A time when family was the center of our lives, children respected the adults and were expected to behave in a civilized manner, people didn't spend Sundays running all over town to football, soccer games etc, and the elder members of the family were revered instead of ignored or worse, placed in a home.

We, those of us in the post-war generation would to well to look at this film as a guideline for how to bring values back into our lives and realize that we all need to re-think our priorities.

If you want to relive your childhood for 2 1/2 hours laugh one minute and cry the next, I HIGHLY recommend this film

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13 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Less-than-nostalgic slice of Americana, 27 February 2003
Author: george.schmidt (GSchmidt0609@aol.com) from fairview, nj

AVALON (1990) **** Armin Mueller-Stahl, Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Pollak, Joan Plowright, Lou Jacobi, Elijah Wood, Leo Fuchs. Barry Levinson's personal masterpiece, loosely autobiographical, on family values. Absolutely charming and at times poignant account of the Krachinsky clan, spanning four generations of the Baltimore based Jewish immigrants, and the effects of suburbia, television and the decline of the closeness of American families at large. Wonderful ensemble of talent with a steadily paced and absorbing calmness in tone. Stahl gives a sterling endeavor as does young Wood as his wide-eyed grandson. Loving valentine for all families perfectly realized. Great production design and cinematography.

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12 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
"You cut the turkey?!", 11 August 2002
Author: JoeytheBrit from www.moviemoviesite.com

AVALON is a meticulously constructed movie that provides a worthy conclusion to Barry Levinson's Baltimore trilogy, while perhaps overplaying its hand with its relentless hammering home of a message that is neither new or particularly insightful. The movie opens strongly, with a beautifully photographed depiction of the wonder and elation experienced by a newly arrived immigrant to the shores of America. His introduction to his new home is effectively played against a backdrop of 4th of July celebrations that emphasise his sense of wonder at this strange new land (in fact, Independence and Thanksgiving days play an important part in the unfolding of this tale, acting as milestones against which the irreversible erosion of family and community life are measured).

The story then proceeds to chart the progress of the Krichinsky family over the next few decades, paying beautiful attention to detail as it concentrates mostly on the success of Jules (Aidan Quinn), and his relationships with his parents, wife, and children, and, to a lesser extent, his extended family of uncles and aunts. Unusually, the sensitivity and perception often comes from the men in the family. For example, when his uncle leads Jules' son from his wounded father's hospital bed, he tells the boy a tale that enables him to identify and understand the sense of helplessness he feels about an adult world that he is too young to understand. Next scene, his mother tells him with a jarring abruptness, that his father is going to be alright. Having said that, the older men are sometimes portrayed as figures of fun that verge on stereotype.

The acquisition of wealth, and with it material goods, coupled with the progress of technology (symbolised by television), correlate exactly with the slow deterioration of the family identity, and conversation between family members diminishes as the size of the tables grows smaller. Large wooden dinner tables are first replaced by small formica-topped tables, around which the family bicker where they once laughed, and then by individual tables at which each family member sits as they silently watch TV. As they grow more affluent, the strands of the family move further apart. Even when they move together to a new neighbourhood, their new houses are so far apart they can't talk to each other across the street the way they used to.

Eventually, the message takes over the story to such a degree that every incident can be seen as a tool to reinforce it and, in terms of character development, the film grinds to a halt somewhere during its last third. However, this movie is superior fare fashioned at the hands of a master, and deserves the positive reputation it enjoys.

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10 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
A truly brilliant picture of the American Family, 6 July 2001
Author: David London (dtlfl@aol.com) from Deerfield Beach, FL

AVALON which is the third leg of the Baltimore Trilogy was unfortunately overlooked at Oscar time in 1990. It is a truly brilliant film written and directed by Barry Levinson.

It is about the evolution of the storyteller. Sam the head of the family comes to America in 1914 on the Fourth of July. It was a time when family meant something and those that came here first sent money back so that other family members could join them in the land of hope. Sam is the the family storyteller. He tells the family history to the children in hopes that they will always remember where they came from. As the years go by the family moves away from Avalon, the neighborhood that they first came to and the family begins to change. They move apart and splinter and the new technology known as the television becomes the storyteller. Thanksgivings which are the unifying holiday throughout the story begin with the family waiting for all of the brothers to arrive before "they cut the turkey" and proceeds through smaller family groups sitting at TV stands watching television and ends finally when grandson Michael, with his son visits Sam in a nursing home where the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade plays silently on the televison in Sam's room.

As the film concludes Michael, who is the embodiment of Barry Levinson in the tradition of the storyteller shares his grandfather's story with his son.

All of this backed by Randy Newman's haunting score one of the most fitting ever written for a film.

This is a must see.

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13 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
A stirring tribute, 27 September 1999
Author: Petunia-2

It is heart-warming to read comments from those of you who do not even live in Baltimore and enjoyed the movie as much as we Baltimoreans did. What a stirring tribute to the city and to our immigrant grandparents.

My ancestors came from County Cork to Baltimore in the late 1800's. We too, grew up in rowhouses (retitled "townhomes" by realtors in the 1980's) nearby our cousins. Many scenes brought back wonderful memories: the kids playing in the "back alley," the marble steps of the rowhouses which my mother used to lovingly scrub, the "bee" incident, trips to the lake, Thanksgiving dinner with extended family members and tables to seat all the kids extending into the next room, etc., etc.

This could have been just another sappy movie but the actors were so immersed in their characters, I was swept away. Apparently, so were you.

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10 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
The best family film of the '90's, bar none!, 7 October 1999
Author: BobLib from Cherry Hill, New Jersey

If you want a film that celebrates a way of life that's almost gone, that's well-acted in every department, and that gives you a major case of the warm fuzzies in a way the movies seem to have forgotten how to, Barry Levinson's "Avalon" is definitely it.

First, let's examine the cast: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, Elijah Wood (some ten years pre-"LOTR"), Joan Plowright and Lou Jacobi ("Time to make the donuts!") all give fine, understated performances. Mueller-Stahl, in particular, is the sort of gentle, old-world grandfather anyone might have wished for.

But, as I said earlier, what this film is mainly about is a loving salute to a way of life that's almost gone. As a second generation American growing up in New York, what strikes me about "Avalon" is how real it all is, especially if you grew up in this era, as I did. Young Michael Kaye might have been myself in many ways. And a recent family reunion brought this feeling all back again.

A Wonderful, warm movie. See it!

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9 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
A brilliant film..., 19 May 1999

Author: LisaAllen123 from Sterling VA

Levinson does a spectacular job in showing us the life of a man and his family after coming to America and the different ways his offspring grows up. This film also shows how values have changed from the time that Sam was a young man to when his son Jules was in the workforce (the father, Sam was a wallpaper hanger eking out a meager existence and his son, Jules was a well to do salesperson with a country club membership). The father (Sam) could not understand why his son wanted to golf or why golfing was necessary at one point in the movie. It also dealt with the issue of the family eventually moving to the suburbs and how Jules' mother commented that she could not any longer take the streetcar when they lived in the suburbs. This film also shows us how television has changed the face of America. For example, Thanksgiving in an earlier part of the movie was spent at a dinner table, before the television was invented, and after the family has television, Thanksgiving dinner was spent in front of the TV.

Not bad performance acting wise by the cast the cinematography is also spectacular especially when Sam arrives in America on July 4th, 1916.

Barry you have done a great job of reminding us that what makes this a great country is fact that we should never forget our families, our traditions or where we come from.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Excellent ensemble cast and worthy script make this a must-see, 26 December 2000

Author: Robert Reynolds (minniemato@hotmail.com) from Tucson AZ

This film has much to recommend it-set design, cinematography and so on- but what makes it truly shine is a marvelous script and an ensemble cast that almost uniformly turn in excellent work. The characters live and breathe and fair jump off the screen at the audience. You come to care about them, even the ones you don't like. It's an entrancing, riveting journey through the 20th century as it was lived by one family. Don't miss this one. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll even be nice to that cousin you can't stand or your daughter's current boyfriend,who you swear is from Pluto! Most exceedingly highly recommended!!!

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
American Paradise Lost, 21 May 2001

Author: D S Russell (errata28) from Pittsburgh

This film is a powerful depiction of the loss of innocence experienced by so many immigrants who came to this country, believing it was a veritable promised land. Slowly and subtly, Levinson shows how their once close families are pulled apart by the demands of the culture. From the flight of the middle class to the suburbs and the loss of traditional business values, the transformations our society underwent in the post-war period are captured here with masterful storytelling. Watch how television gradually becomes the center of the home, rather than the family table. The turkey scene, as funny as it is, is profound. The extended family is falling apart, as the geographical distance afforded by the automobile grows.

The acting is tremendous. The performances of Quinn, Perkins, Muehler-Stahl and Plowright are worth the purchase alone. But don't miss young Elijah Wood in his first major film role.

This movie is one to treasure and revisit year after year--how about at Thanksgiving... :)

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Avalon as a Story of Stories, 19 April 2005

Author: tdent-1 from United States

Barry Levinson set out to show that the extended family has expired; the nuclear family is dysfunctional and the cause of our urban, suburban, and exurban blight. Stories passed down from generations, the life blood of our ancestors, have ceased to exist, replaced by stories created from whole cloth by unknown writers sitting in sterile offices, working for substandard wages so they can support their families' television viewing habits and other distractions.

The wholesomeness of the extended family, so necessary in the Old World, is not functional in the New World. Families break up, separate, and find, upon reflection, that it is the individual relationships which give us joy, and joy is the operational word that describes this work - joy of the innocent child and later, the joy of being loved, cared for, and wanted.

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