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IMDbPro

Avalon

  • 1990
  • PG
  • 2h 8m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
6.6K
YOUR RATING
Avalon (1990)
Home Video Trailer from Columbia Tristar
Play trailer1:40
1 Video
68 Photos
Drama

A Polish-Jewish family comes to the U.S. at the beginning of the twentieth century. There, the family and their children try to make themselves a better future in the so-called promised land... Read allA Polish-Jewish family comes to the U.S. at the beginning of the twentieth century. There, the family and their children try to make themselves a better future in the so-called promised land.A Polish-Jewish family comes to the U.S. at the beginning of the twentieth century. There, the family and their children try to make themselves a better future in the so-called promised land.

  • Director
    • Barry Levinson
  • Writer
    • Barry Levinson
  • Stars
    • Aidan Quinn
    • Elizabeth Perkins
    • Leo Fuchs
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    6.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Barry Levinson
    • Writer
      • Barry Levinson
    • Stars
      • Aidan Quinn
      • Elizabeth Perkins
      • Leo Fuchs
    • 58User reviews
    • 30Critic reviews
    • 68Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 4 Oscars
      • 2 wins & 23 nominations total

    Videos1

    Avalon
    Trailer 1:40
    Watch Avalon

    Photos68

    Armin Mueller-Stahl, Elizabeth Perkins, Aidan Quinn, and Joan Plowright in Avalon (1990)
    Armin Mueller-Stahl in Avalon (1990)
    Aidan Quinn in Avalon (1990)
    Barry Levinson in Avalon (1990)
    Elizabeth Perkins and Aidan Quinn in Avalon (1990)
    Armin Mueller-Stahl and Joan Plowright in Avalon (1990)
    Joan Plowright in Avalon (1990)
    Armin Mueller-Stahl, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Pollak, Aidan Quinn, and Joan Plowright in Avalon (1990)
    Armin Mueller-Stahl, Leo Fuchs, Lou Jacobi, and Israel Rubinek in Avalon (1990)
    Armin Mueller-Stahl, Elijah Wood, Elizabeth Perkins, Aidan Quinn, and Joan Plowright in Avalon (1990)
    Armin Mueller-Stahl and Elijah Wood in Avalon (1990)
    Elijah Wood and Aidan Quinn in Avalon (1990)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Aidan Quinn
    Aidan Quinn
    • Jules Kaye
    Elizabeth Perkins
    Elizabeth Perkins
    • Ann Kaye
    Leo Fuchs
    • Hymie Krichinsky
    Eve Gordon
    Eve Gordon
    • Dottie Kirk
    Lou Jacobi
    Lou Jacobi
    • Gabriel Krichinsky
    Armin Mueller-Stahl
    Armin Mueller-Stahl
    • Sam Krichinsky
    Joan Plowright
    Joan Plowright
    • Eva Krichinsky
    Kevin Pollak
    Kevin Pollak
    • Izzy Kirk
    Israel Rubinek
    • Nathan Krichinsky
    Elijah Wood
    Elijah Wood
    • Michael Kaye
    Grant Gelt
    Grant Gelt
    • Teddy Kirk
    Mindy Loren Isenstein
    • Mindy Kirk
    Shifra Lerer
    • Nellie Krichinsky
    Mina Bern
    Mina Bern
    • Alice Krichinsky
    Frania Rubinek
    • Faye Krichinsky
    Neil Kirk
    • Herbie
    Ronald Guttman
    Ronald Guttman
    • Simka
    Rachel Aviva
    • Elka
    • Director
      • Barry Levinson
    • Writer
      • Barry Levinson
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The home in the suburbs where the Kaye family moves from Avalon is Writer, Producer, and Director Barry Levinson's actual childhood home in Forest Park, west of Baltimore's city center.
    • Goofs
      When Baltimore's Bromo-Seltzer clock tower is shown at the movie's opening, that 1914 depiction omits the brightly-lit 51-foot tall blue Bromo-Seltzer bottle that had adorned the top of the tower from 1911 through 1936. Descriptions from the time period report the blue glow could be seen from miles around. The oversight is particularly notable because the film's concurrent narration mentions the city's bright lights.
    • Quotes

      Sam Krichinsky: If I knew things would no longer be, I would have tried to remember better.

    • Crazy credits
      The credits roll over a photograph of Avalon, which begins as a sharp color photograph, but fades into a worn black-and-white picture at the end.
    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Avalon/Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones/Henry & June/Desperate Hours (1990)
    • Soundtracks
      Anniversary Song
      Music by Iosif Ivanovici, arranged by Saul Chaplin, lyrics by Al Jolson and Saul Chaplin

      Performed by Al Jolson

      Courtesy of MCA Records

    User reviews58

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    Thank you Barry Levinson!!!!!
    Avalon is really a beautifully written story and Levinson's cast is excellent. This really is one of the better stories of the American experience. Actually I'd have to say it's the BEST story of the American experience ever brought to film. I say that knowing that it really is the urban Jewish-American experience and not one that is necessarily shared by other groups. I dont care for rigid definitions of the American experience because it can be a vastly differing one. Having said that though, I must still say that Avalon is a wonderful chronicling of an American immigrant family originaly from Eastern Europe who put down roots in the Avalon section of Baltimore. It is refreshing in that New York City is generally credited for this kind of narrative. So much so that it's easy to forget that ethnic communities sprang up in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco etc. Not just NYC. Through the narration of Sam Krichinsky we see his children and grandchildren grow up and he grow old. We are with him when his wife (Joan Plowright)passes away, When his son's business is destroyed by fire, when he argues with his oldest Brother and a great rift divides the Krichinskys forever. we hear his stories of this and that and always he returns to the 4th of July 1914 when he arrived in Baltimore for the first time. Levinson is fantastic as he films what is obviously an idealized representation seen only in Sam Krichinsky's "rose colored" memory of the event. There is so much poignance, sorrow, and love in "Avalon" and small details become deeply profound moments in the life of an elderly man struggling to remember the good times while the world moves on. The closing scene in which Sam's Grandson (now a father himself), with whom he has always had a close relationship, visits him in a nursing home. We know from Sam's state that the end cannot be far. Its a brief scene with little dialogue but it is AWESOME!!!! in the sublime way it conveys it's message. I choke up just thinking about that scene. See "Avalon"!!!
    helpful•11
    0
    • ddicarlo-2
    • Aug 4, 2000

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 19, 1990 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Sony Movie Channel (United States)
    • Languages
      • English
      • Yiddish
    • Also known as
      • 適者生存
    • Filming locations
      • 3170 Cliftmont Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland, USA(Ann and Jules' new home)
    • Production companies
      • TriStar Pictures
      • Baltimore Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $20,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $15,740,796
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $226,613
      • Oct 8, 1990
    • Gross worldwide
      • $15,779,578
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 8 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby SR
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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