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Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 0794054895735
Format: NTSC
Label: Pbs (Direct)
Manufacturer: Pbs (Direct)
Publisher: Pbs (Direct)
Release Date: January 06, 2004
Running Time: 120 minutes
Sales Rank: 31393
Studio: Pbs (Direct)
Theatrical Release Date: May 24, 2003
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Thornton Wilder's venerable and shiver-inducing Our Town may be one of the most frequently produced plays in the American repertory, but rarely has it been graced by the likes of Paul Newman's sure hand and stellar clarity. The star was asked by the Artistic Director of the Westport County Playhouse--who just happens to be Joanne Woodward, Newman's wife--to inhabit the role of the all-seeing stage manager in a live production of the show (which subsequently played Broadway). As evocatively re-staged for this video version, the New Hampshire town of Grover's Corners breathes again its crisp air and sad aura of mortality. The show is well acted, especially by vets Jayne Atkinson and Jeffrey DeMunn and heartbreaking newcomers Maggie Lacey and Ben Fox. Newman holds down the center, and his meticulous gestures and singsong voice perfectly conjure up the stage manager's detached but vaguely regretful view of life's transience. The moon is still bright over Our Town. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - "Choose An Unimportant Day"
"Choose an unimportant day" is the advice her mother-in-law gives Emily, newly arrived at the land of the dead, when she decides to return to the world briefly in Thornton Wilder's incomparable classic. Emily chooses her 12th birthday to return to earth and finds even that day all too painful and quickly leaves Grover Corners to be with the dead. This heartbreaking scene still makes my eyes burn as the play remains powerful, having survived countless high school productions. Paul Newman as the stage ... Read More
Rating:  - Our Town; If you missed it on Broadway ... .
... see it here. Newman as the Stage Manager is completely in charge, and does not succomb to sentiment. A reader, or viewer, who thinks this play is sentimental, may stand corrected, especially when dismissed by Newman at the end of the production. The staging is minimalist, as originally intended; this is about masterful actors and dialogue, and stagecraft that evokes and insinuates. Well done!
Rating: - Great stage production
If you can't see the real thing this production is the next best thing. Wonderful staging and acting from all the cast.. Paul Newman's performance is worth the price of the DVD on it's own.
Rating: - Our Town is powerful!
We bought this DVD because our daughter got the lead (Emily) in her college's presentation of it and we wanted to get an introduction to the play before we went to see it live. When we watched the movie, we were thoroughly impressed with the acting of the entire ensemble and with the quality of the production.
Rating: - "there is something eternal about every human being"
Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize winning 1938 play is one of my favorites, and this in an exquisite production of it. Paul Newman as the Stage Manager, in one of his most memorable performances, leads a superb ensemble cast. So much of this play is mime...cooking on the invisible stove, eating the imaginary breakfast...and the actors flow through the movements so easily, one almost sees the missing objects.
Wilder's play, which was inspired by Gertrude Stein's 1925 "The Making of Americans", draws ... Read More
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