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List Price: $24.96Amazon.com's Price: $21.99 You Save: $2.97 (12%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780767821773
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0767821777
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 1
Release Date: June 15, 1999
Running Time: 94 minutes
Sales Rank: 39162
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: November 13, 1998
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
This affecting, bittersweet tale--adapted from Brian Friel's semi-autobiographical Tony Award-winning play--examines the emotional lives of the five unmarried Mundy sisters in 1936 rural Ireland. In their mutual care is 8-year-old Michael (sweetly understated Darrell Johnston), the illegitimate son of youngest sister Christina (Braveheart's Catherine McCormack). A voice-over from the adult Michael recalls that significant summer, in the month of August, during the feast of Lughnasa. The bolder townfolk dance around a fire to Lugh, an ancient god of light. Yes, this is fiercely Roman Catholic Ireland and Lugh a pagan god, but that irony is at the core of the film, the hypocrisy of tradition. The dramatic change in the richly metaphoric movie comes with the arrival of two men: eldest sibling--and only Mundy brother--Jack (Michael Gambon), a priest returning from many years in Africa, now addled, and Christine's long-absent lover and Michael's father, the charmingly flighty Gerry (Rhys Ifans). Beautiful music and excellent performances highlight the film, which also features gorgeous cinematography of the Irish countryside. Meryl Streep is stern eldest sister Kate; Kathy Burke is lively Maggie; Brid Brennan (who appeared in the stage play) is thoughtful caretaker Agnes; and Sophie Thompson is simple sweet Rose. It's a quiet film, but one filled with ironic and haunting meaning. Directed by Pat O'Connor (Circle of Friends). --N.F. Mendoza
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - TOO MUCH TALKING AND TOO LITTLE DANCING
FIRST LET ME SAY THAT THERE IS NO BIGGER FAN OF MERYL STREEP THAN I AM. THAT BEING SAID, THIS MOVIE WAS A DISAPPOINTMENT. I HAD HEARD JAMES LIPTON EXTOLL THE VIRTUES OF MERYL'S IRISH DANCING IN THIS FILM WHICH MADE ME WANT TO SEE IT. HER DANCING LASTED ALL OF THREE MINUTES! SHE IS HER USUAL TERRIFIC SELF, BUT THE MOVIE WAS TOO SLOW FOR ME.
Rating:  - Lovely period piece of Ireland
"Dancing at Lughnasa" meanders winningly through a summer in 1936 in Donnegal, Ireland. It's a child's memory of the summer -- with four aunts, an uncle, his unmarried mother,a free spirit father and, always present, the magnificent green countryside of Ireland. A countryside so beautiful that one can hardly believe that suffering could take place there. Still,as the summer slowly unfolds, the viewer takes in the real complexities of the family's life, with worries about food and money and work ... Read More
Rating: - Grim, but beautiful
It's 1936 Ireland, and the world is on the verge of many things. The five Mundy sisters live together in a small cottage with Michael, the love child they all share.
Comes summer and two men come to change their lives. Father John, the elder brother, has returned from his mission in Africa--he says, to die. Gerry, Michael's father also comes to stay the summer before he goes to enlist to fight Franco in Spain.
The film depicts a world of contrasts--Catholic strictures ... Read More
Rating: - A worthy Irish film adaptation of an exquisite Irish play: DANCING AT LUGHNASA
I had the great good fortune to see Brian Friel's stage play DANCING AT LUGHNASA live in 1992.It was a phenomenal, yet bit of a downer piece of work (it was Irish after all....and we Irish don't seem to do comedy all that well!!!).
How did this moving play about five cloistered sisters in remote Donegal translate to the big screen? Actually, quite well.I have watched it several times now, and upon my most recent viewing,I,again, was struck at how the poignant Bill Whelan soundtrack and the ... Read More
Rating: - deliciously melancholy Irish family ballad
The boy through whom we generally see this story declares this to be a happy summer, a last summer when they would all be together, his family. In the backdrop is the August celebration of Lughnasa, a pagan festival which troubles the Irish Catholic Christian consciousness and gives the story a nice edge as five sisters labor to keep the family from financial ruin in the late '30s in northeast County Donegal, Ballybeg. Those of us with Irish roots are particularly touched by the tongue and the human struggle, ... Read More
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