Just perfect...

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Director Peter Weir and actors Jeff Bridges and Rosie Perez deserve their share of credit here. But this film was built on a SCRIPT. And that script was built on a novel. And the builder of both was Rafael Iglesias. I've no actual idea how Iglesias had come to have such a =deep= understanding of the symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder, but... a great deal of what I saw in this wonderful film points directly to the remarkable body of work done by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk at Harvard in the 1970s and '80s. The author of Traumatic Stress, The Body Keeps the Score, and other books provided scores of superior articulations of what happens to people when they are become so overloaded with stimulation that their nervous systems cannot handle it. What he saw then, and what many of us have witnessed since then is that such people have to force bits and pieces of the experience out of consciousness into vaults with pass codes and combinations they may never be able to remember. The upshots of that fragmentation often include "crazy" behavior designed to make sure those vaults are sealed forever."Fearless" was therapeutic for me. And I expect it may be so for those of us whose minds came apart -- just as that airplane did when it hit the ground -- and left us hunting for the fractured memories.

A CRIMINALLY unknown film, especially in the UK, where it is close to impossible to get hold of, this Peter Weir outing, with Jeff Bridges taking the lead, also boasts star turns from John Turturro, Isabella Rossalini, and Rosie Perez, the latter of whom received an Oscar nomination. Everybody is on top form in this perfectly executed, beautiful meditation on what it is to be a human being.To explain all the subtext of "Fearless", all the symbolism, the various layers of allegory, would be an essay in itself; safe to say this is a film that sends you away reeling, thinking and talking about life for a long time. It sounds melodramatic, but when you see it, it makes perfect, serious sense. I understand it received standing ovations when it premiered, and rightly so! Many have said in the past, and I'll say it as well, that the final 10 minutes of this film is pretty much the most powerful cinema I've seen. Jeff Bridges nails it, and I find myself inexplicably in tears each time. Trying to explain it is tough; it speaks to something fundamental in you, and is truly life-affirming, if you choose to listen. A film that proves cinema, when image, performance, music and meaning are meshed perfectly, is sometimes able to convey what nothing else can.

Peter Weir has always been a filmmaker to admire. 'The Truman Show' is a legendary film, my all-time favorite film. 'Fearless', which released way back in 1993, sadly ranks amongst his weak efforts. However, this does become 'A Must Watch' film due to the strong performances by it's lead cast.Academy-Award-Winner Jeff Bridges stars as a man's who's personality is dramatically changed after surviving a major airline crash. The aftermath of the character and his connections with the world... is what 'Fearless' is all about.'Fearless' begins wonderfully, but 40-minutes into the film, it loses the pace. Even the culmination leaves a lot to be desired. Weir's direction is satisfactory, but the Screenplay has loose-ends. The Cinematography is good.As mentioned, 'Fearless' is packed with strong performances. Jeff Bridges plays a highly difficult role with brilliance. This truly is one of his best performances to date. Rosie Perez is outstanding in a role that, again, is very Hard to play and execute. Isabella Rossellini is marvelous. Tom Hulce is hugely effective. Benicio del Toro leaves a mark, he's superb.On the whole, Not A Gem, but surely deserves a watch for the Performances, that leave you stunned!

Fearless (1993)Peter Weir has directed some great, unique movies--Galipoli and Picnic at Hanging Rock are two of my favorites. So I watched this with curiosity at first. And then boredom. And then a kind of draining disappointment. I can see how the drama, and the various characters involved in it, might really draw someone in and move them. So this is just my own take on it, a fair balance to the others, I hope.The shock of being in a plane crash is played out by Jeff Bridges as a young professional who survives. This is gripping enough in the first scenes. This survival is played out through Bridges over the next fews days as he visits other survivors and sees the range of their inabilities to cope. Throughout, Bridges is asked to play with a calm that at first seems to be a blank slate for our growing into his complexity. His own complete acceptance and almost joy at having survived seems to have no down side, except having to run from television cameras or stand on rooftops screaming. Normal things, I suppose. This is how we are made to see his mind working through the horror he has repressed. But the blankness is a cover for an unresolved shock, and this doesn't unfold easily. Von Trier or Bergman or even Hitchcock might have made art out of this, but Weir can't pull it off. His earlier movies are gems of situation, of how groups of people behave within circumstances. Fearless is different in that it goes inward, trying to be about a person's mind. And yet, Weir still plays Bridges as if he were foremost a character among other characters. When we do go inward, it is mostly through his memories of the event, which are given predictable elements of fear and horror. (It's a plane crash, after all.) As for how Bridges copes, you will see either beatific gazes or screaming to himself.The basic idea is great movie material, but I didn't find the psychology convincing. The writing is stilted and worn out before it starts. The narrative is broken up with cheap flashbacks and with irrelevant and unconvincing scenes of tacky lawyers looking for money. Clichés. Even the extended and manipulative ending, which by that point is so unnecessary and indulgent for all its fire and visions of heaven, just leaves you feeling battered.