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The Whole Wide World Customer Reviews (7 - 9 of 32 Reviews)

Sometime "Unknown" movies are a joy!
"The Whole Wide World" is not available in the UK,on either DVD or VHS, so, having read some of the reviews on this page, I decided to send "across the pond" for it. Thank heavens for multi region DVD players! Having seen Vincent D'Onofrio only in "Law & Order - Criminal Intent" (sorry Vincent, I DID see "Men in Black" et al, but didn't really notice you until "C.I" - oh the shame!! - and the UK are 2 YEARS behind the States with that) what a revelation the movie was. I knew it would be good, but I wasn't expecting it to be as superb as it is. Vincent & Renee's performances were faultless from beginning to end and it looks just beautifull. OK, no car chases or shoot outs for the boys, but it's a love story bewteen an author and a school teacher, so no surprises there then. Just a fabulous movie and I hope one day, it gets shown (OR released)in my country, so that others can see just how good it is. Highly recommended!!

Robert E. Howard from the liberal-feminist perspective
From a liberal-feminist perspective this is a very well made and sensitive film. I will assume it is true to the biographical `impression' upon which it is based, and thus deserves praise for its honesty in that respect. However, that leaves us with a very one-sided, limited portrait of "The Greatest Pulp Fiction Writer of All Time" (quote from the film). In reality Robert E. Howard shares this honor with such notables as H.P. Lovecraft, Dashiell Hammet, John Steinbeck, Stephen King, Dean Koontz and more recently Dan Brown.

"Two-Gun Bob" Howard (Lovecraft's appellation) was certainly a Texan and spoke with a Texas-Southern accent, but was otherwise literate and articulate. His knowledge of ancient history and classical literature was extensive. He researched his fiction in the library, not at the Saturday matinee as this film implies. Even if he used grammatical errors in his everyday speech (I doubt that he did )they should not have been included in the script because this implies that his writing was also illiterate. In fact there is a conscious effort in the script, and in the direction, to denigrate and satirize Howard's work. We are never allowed a glimpse of the inner power and ferocious splendor of Howard's vision; only brief mockeries and indirect, pathetic distortions are offered.

On the same theme I suggest that Mr. Ireland & Company make another `sensitive film' on the life of William Blake from the perspective of his semi-literate wife Catherine. In this effort they could be careful not to show Blake's art or recite his poetry while concentrating on his lower middle class (cockney) background, his radical political ideas, his inability to get along with his peers and patrons, and his Olympian ego.

We can see Catherine and Will struggling in their home print shop, in their roach-infested London flat, cranking out another of his self-published `masterpieces' that nobody wants. Will mutters: "`Ere I am, the world's greatest bloody prophet, poet and artist an' none of them bloody swells `ill gimmie me the bloody time `er day!"
"Maybe if you `wath `nither to `um...?" Catherine timidly suggests.
"Coo-blimey, Katie! `Ooze side `er you on?"

And the ghost of Robert E. Howard might be whispering to the makers of this film: "Whose side `ah you `fellas on?"

Poke Runyon - author: Drell Master, From the Tower of Darkness.



If I could give it more than 5, I would
I ran across this movie accidentally and it is without question one of the best finds I've ever stumbled upon. The actors were not acting, but channelling. I have never seen two better performances. I'm never sure how much we owe to a director when the actors perform as D'Onofrio and Zellwegger did, but in this case, it seems he knew right where he wanted to take the movie and, along with D. and Z. (and the wonderful supporting cast, as well as the cinematographers), that's exactly where they took it. I was so caught up in the movie that when the end came, I was literally stunned. Tremendous story, beautifully told.

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