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      The Dead

      PG Released Dec 17, 1987 1h 21m Drama List
      94% 32 Reviews Tomatometer 77% 2,500+ Ratings Audience Score A festive holiday dinner in Ireland at the turn of the 20th century brings epiphanies for a married couple. At the home of his spinster aunts Kate (Helena Carroll) and Julia (Cathleen Delaney), the socially maladroit Gabriel Conroy (Donal McCann) and his reserved wife, Gretta (Anjelica Huston), reflect on their marriage, Gretta's memories of her first love and what it means both to live and to love. Director John Huston's final film is a faithful adaptation of the James Joyce short story. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Nov 30 Buy Now

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      Audience Reviews

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      Marc L This might be one of the 10 worst movies I have ever seen. I watched it waiting for something to happen. Nothing happened. I saw it in the theater when it was released. I talked to other people who saw it and liked it. I told them that I hated it. They said: "You had to have read the story." I'm sorry, but a film has to stand by itself. If you need to have read the story to appreciate it, then it is a failure. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/21/24 Full Review valerie d Superb. Saw it when it first came out in the 80s and still think about it. If you're looking for horror or Captain America, you won't see it here. This is a very deep and contemplative film. Angelica Huston is excellent in this. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Watching "The Dead", one feels like a fly on the wall contentedly witnessing the goings-on at a 1900's dinner party with the anticipation that something's going to happen, yet not much ever does. The production value and cast make it easy on the eyes and ears, but the story's almost entirely bereft of spikes, two brief, unexploited political exchanges being among the sole exceptions. The finale's dramatic reveal and basic philosophical musings show some overdue and thus pointless signs of life. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member The movie is perhaps as good as it can be. Not having read the book, not sure how much better can the movie be if it followed the book. Much of Its worries and concerns are outdated. Perhaps the truly inspiring moment is really its end: the notes about love and death - thoughts that come to surface after an party and we ding ourselves alone again Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review s r 1001 movies to see before you die. Perhaps it would have been better for me to have read the story before watching this. I started it with others and it dragged. Of course, I had to come back to it to finish it. It still dragged until the end of the party when they all parted and it looked into the tragic reverential themes of life, lost love and enduring these trials. Ultimately, it had good things, but I am not sure I want to see it again. It was on VUDU. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review William L Just to make you aware, The Dead is a slowly paced, melancholic period drama that takes place for the most part in stuffy Edwardian parlors and bedrooms. Not saying that makes it a bad film by any means, but it does take either a certain personality type or a very particular mood to get invested in quickly. With the advent of long-running TV series focused on the upper crust behaving badly in gilded corridors, dramas featuring posh accents and large dresses now carry certain expectations, all of which The Dead seems to operate against. Directing from a wheelchair, Huston gives his characters distinct identities and weaknesses as originally conceived by James Joyce, presenting a turn of the century dinner party with less of a focus on 'the scandal of Freddy Malins' drunkenness' than it is on small-scale human conflicts layered together with the rather frivolous formality of the day and a distinctly Irish identity (Catholicism, Free Ireland and all that). However, towards the end of the film the more overtly dramatic elements come to a head, including a personal reckoning between Huston's Greta and McCann's Gabriel in which she recounts in detail the passionate love that she lost previously. Gabriel is then confronted with a moment of intense self-reflection in his competition with a long-dead former suitor, coming at the conclusion of a night of awkwardness and unfulfilled expectations. It feels very human and rather distressing. Important as the last film to be directed by John Huston (and using material that doesn't seem reminiscent of his typical style) and stays on strong thematic footing, but it's tough to call this one a film that I was particularly in love with. (3.5/5) Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/13/21 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (32) Critics Reviews
      Pauline Kael New Yorker The movie is a demonstration of what, in Huston’s terms, movies can give you that print can’t: primarily, the glory of performers -- performers with faces that have been written on by time and skill, performers with voices. Sep 11, 2023 Full Review Gene Siskel Chicago Tribune Anjelica Huston is effective as a woman mourning a love lost. Rated: 3/4 Aug 23, 2017 Full Review Joseph Jon Lanthier Slant Magazine What redeems Huston's last gasp is the observational framing and agile editing with which the Morkan sisters' soiree is captured. Rated: 3/4 Nov 2, 2009 Full Review Farah Cheded A Good Movie To Watch Even if it wasn’t the capstone to [Huston's] illustrious career, The Dead would still stand as one of the finest treatments of mortality and longing ever committed to the screen. Rated: 88/100 Aug 4, 2023 Full Review Wesley Lovell Cinema Sight The Dead is not the kind of film people rush out to see. It’s a slow, methodical film that highlights Huston’s skills as a filmmaker while feeling as intimate and uncomplicated as any film he’d ever made. Rated: 3.5/4 Nov 26, 2022 Full Review Ángel Fernández-Santos El Pais (Spain) The film is bitter but serene, tough but fragile. [Full Review in Spanish] Apr 17, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A festive holiday dinner in Ireland at the turn of the 20th century brings epiphanies for a married couple. At the home of his spinster aunts Kate (Helena Carroll) and Julia (Cathleen Delaney), the socially maladroit Gabriel Conroy (Donal McCann) and his reserved wife, Gretta (Anjelica Huston), reflect on their marriage, Gretta's memories of her first love and what it means both to live and to love. Director John Huston's final film is a faithful adaptation of the James Joyce short story.
      Director
      John Huston
      Producer
      William J. Quigley
      Screenwriter
      Walter Anthony Huston
      Distributor
      Vestron Pictures
      Production Co
      Channel 4 Television Corporation, Vestron Pictures, Liffey Films, Zenith Entertainment, Delta Film
      Rating
      PG
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Dec 17, 1987, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jun 1, 2007
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $766.4K
      Runtime
      1h 21m
      Sound Mix
      Surround
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