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List Price: $28.95Amazon.com's Price: $16.99 You Save: $11.96 (41%)Prices subject to change.
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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
EAN: 0796019810258
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Label: The Weinstein Company
Manufacturer: The Weinstein Company
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: The Weinstein Company
Region Code: 1
Release Date: June 03, 2008
Running Time: 122 minutes
Sales Rank: 3183
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Editorial Review:
Description:
Control tells the remarkable story of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the influential band Joy Division and one of the most enigmatic figures in all of rock music. Based on his wife's memoir, Control follows Curtis' humble Manchester origins and his rapid rise to fame, tormented battle with epilepsy, and struggles with love that led to his death at the age of 23.
Amazon.com:
In his elegiac debut, Anton Corbijn combines the music film with the social drama to stunning success. Based on Deborah Curtis's clear-eyed biography, Touching from a Distance, Control recounts the wrenching tale of a working-class lad about to hit the highest highs only to be waylaid by the lowest lows. Born and raised in Macclesfield, a suburban community outside Manchester, Ian Curtis (newcomer Sam Riley in a remarkable performance) dreams of fronting a band. Just out of high school in the mid-1970s, he finds three like minds with whom he forms post-punk quartet Warsaw--better known as Joy Division (Riley and castmates ably recreate their somber sound). All the while, he falls in love, marries, and fathers a child with Deborah (Samantha Morton, turning a thankless role into a triumph). While Curtis should be enjoying parenthood and newfound fame, he's plagued by seizures. A diagnosis of epilepsy leads to powerful medications with unpredictable side effects. Then, while on tour, he falls in love with another woman. His solution to these problems is a matter of public record, but Corbijn concentrates on Curtis's life rather than his death. Just as Control establishes a link between such disparate black and white works as fellow photographer Bruce Weber's Let's Get Lost and kitchen-sink classics like The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, the Dutch-born, UK-based director presents his subject not as some iconic T-shirt image, but as a deeply flawed--if massively talented--human being. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Excellent composition
Sam Riley's performance definately made this movie. He is entirely convincing as Ian Curtis. The atmosphere, mood, and composition is also dead on, creating a wonderful and moving look at the early post-punk movement. I find myself agreeing with other reviewers who say that the movie could have been better...though I'm not sure what that would entail. There is, however, a lot of emotional subtley I think, and in the places where people claim that the movie "drags on", I think there is a virtue ... Read More
Rating:  - Where is the motivation?
As a longtime Joy Division fan, I approached this film with trepidation. Knowing that Anton Corbijn is a huge JD fan eased my concerns, but the film is a bit of a mess. Yes, it looks good and the black and white photography plays to Corbijns strengths, but I kept saying to myself "If I didn't already know this story (and why is is so monumentally important) why would I care about it?" I could not identify what was motivating the characters in the movie and I think most people would have a difficult ... Read More
Rating: - Indispensable but Limited
Of the three Joy Division films available, "24 Hour Party People," Grant Gee's excellent documentary "Joy Division," and "Control," "Control" is the least fun and the most demanding. It suffers from concentrating on Ian Curtis and his final days - it moves quickly through the formation of Joy Division to the chaotic and disastrous last week of his life, exploring his final hours in some detail. So it's depressing - interesting and beautiful to watch, but it ends badly, of course. The film does justice ... Read More
Rating: - subtle, well-acted docudrama
"Control" is a biopic about Ian Curtis, the lead singer of the 1970's British rock band Joy Division, who killed himself in 1980 immediately before the group was to embark on its first American tour. The movie chronicles Curtis' early days in Manchester, the formation and rise of the band, his unhappy marriage, his serial philandering, his uncontrollable epilepsy, and his lifelong battle with depression.
One might be tempted, looking at the bareboned detailing of his life, to ask if there ... Read More
Rating:  - I expected more
This film is made in black and white which immediately fosters idea that it should be treated as an art movie. It starts that was but half way thru it, it simply drags on. I did not know much about "Joy Division" and Ian Curtis, until I started reading film and book reviews about him. Surely, it is always intriguing for anyone to try to figure out what drives a person of 23 years to commit suicide, the way Ian did. Born and raised in Manchester, with no education and not much to do, he marries young, ... Read More
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