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City of Joy (1992)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
15 April 1992 (USA) moreTagline:
True heroism lies in the quality of the struggle. morePlot:
Hazari Pal lives in a small village in Bihar, India, with his dad, mom, wife, Kamla, daughter, Amrita... more | add synopsisAwards:
1 nomination moreNewsDesk:
(6 articles)
Patrick Swayze: 1952-2009 (From The Hollywood Interview. 24 September 2009, 6:03 PM, PDT)
Encore Pays Tribute To Patrick Swayze With Three Films
(From toxicshock. 16 September 2009, 7:25 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
One of the best movies ever made more (29 total)Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Patrick Swayze | ... | Max Lowe | |
| Om Puri | ... | Hazari Pal | |
| Pauline Collins | ... | Joan Bethel | |
| Shabana Azmi | ... | Kamla H. Pal | |
| Ayesha Dharker | ... | Amrita H. Pal | |
| Santu Chowdhury | ... | Shambu H. Pal | |
| Imran Badsah Khan | ... | Manooj H. Pal | |
| Art Malik | ... | Ashok Ghatak | |
| Nabil Shaban | ... | Anouar | |
| Debatosh Ghosh | ... | Ram Chander | |
| Suneeta Sengupta | ... | Poomina | |
| Mansi Upadhyay | ... | Meeta | |
| Shyamanand Jalan | ... | Ghatak - Godfather | |
| Shyamal Sengupta | ... | Gangooly - Con man | |
| Rudraprasad Sengupta | ... | Chomotkar |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
132 minLanguage:
EnglishColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
DolbyCertification:
Iceland:12 | UK:12 (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating) | South Korea:15 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Norway:11 | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PGFun Stuff
Trivia:
Two assistant directors were accused of the murder of a local journalist who had worked for Ashok Dasgupta, editor of "Aaj Kal", one of the leading Indian newspapers. Dasgupta launched a series of personal attacks against the production, at one point even accusing Roland Joffe of making a porn film. Although it later transpired that the journalist in question had died of lung cancer, Dasgupta refused to withdraw his attacks, charging Joffe with paying off the autopsy physicians and police, and demanding that he hire two Indian crew members because they had insulted him. Joffe refused his demands. moreFAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (29 total)
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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for City of Joy (1992)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| Patrick Swayze never forgotten | lunaventure |
| Swayze done good. | shneur |
| Burning Midget | Travisrob77 |
| Nice textures in many shots | matt_powers |
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Bizarre reviews of this film that fail to explain why they are against its excellence don't stand up in the face of critics like Jim Whalley of Cinema Showcase who called it "the best picture of the year" and Susan Granger of WICC who commented that Patrick Swayze gave "the performance of a lifetime". This is the true story of a disillusioned American doctor who, like so many people, (the Beatles and Alanis Morisette, for example) travelled to India to find himself in a search for enlightenment. At first, he is unwilling to help the locals stand up against the oppressive 'godfather' of the area because he feels that all he'd be doing is trying to "drill a hole in water".
Having been to an English-speaking Third World country like India, myself, I found the reactions of the Swayze character extremely true to life. This seems to be the point that many viewers of the film don't seem to understand. I witnessed many Anglo-Americans in a Third World country surprising themselves by blowing up in anger at seeing the locals cowering away from injustice and later being transformed by the love and patience of the poor. I watched this movie while I was in Guyana and it was like an echo of many of the things I was going through and many of the events with which I had faced. Even the characters and their characteristics and reactions in the film matched many of the people I knew in that land!
"City of Joy" was an excellent and faithful adaption of Dominique Lapierre's richly written masterpiece. Om Puri's performance was deserving of an Academy Award. Patrick Swayze's character - his reactions to his surroundings - was extremely realistic. The conclusion of the film was beautifully touching. The strengths of American culture and Indian culture joined together - both races learned to accept one another's ways of life and borrowed virtues from one another's culture to breathe new life into the slums of Calcutta. "City of Joy" is one of the best movies ever made (10 out of 10).