Year:
2001
Studio:
USA Films, Capitol Films, Film Council
Feature: 4/5
DVD:
4/5
Gosford Park is
two things. The first is a movie about English class and manor society
in the 1930's. The second is a murder mystery. The first is what the
movie is really about, the second is just an excuse to make the movie.
The basic plot is that members of an extended family visit Gosford Park
for a couple of days of entertainment and hunting. Everybody goes in
with their own little subplots, including the "downstairs" people which
are all the servants. During the weekend one of the "upstairs" people
is murdered (more than half way through the movie) and the rest of the
movie is trying to find the killer and how everyone deals with the
murder.
It's a good film, although it took watching both commentary tracks
before I came to that conclusion. The problem being that it's a very
dense film. As I said, just about everyone of the 30+ characters has
their own little subplot and virtually nothing is repeated. If you miss
a point earlier in the movie you will not understand as that subplot
develops.
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It is a good movie and a
good look at English society in the 1930's.
Most people growing up in the USA, or even English people today, don't
have that experience of having this sort of servant class that does
everything and that you for the most part ignore. Especially with the
commentaries, it's interesting to hear about why people did this and
what benefits they got out of this arrangement.
Overall it's a worthwhile movie to see. But it is very slow and dense
so I think a lot people will be quite bored watching this movie.
Extas
Commentary track with director Robert Altman.
Commentary track with screenwriter Julian Fellowes.
Deleted Scenes - 20 minutes with commentary.
Cast and Filmmaker Filmographies - including helpful character
summaries.
The Making of Gosford Park
- 20 minutes
The Authenticity of
Gosford Park - 9 minutes.
Cast and Filmmaker's Q&A Session - 25 minutes.
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