Hey, as the owner of over 600 DVD's, and by far most of those from top movie lists, I can honestly, easily put this movie in the top 60 of all time. Including all the movies I've seen and aren't worth owning, B&J lands neatly into the top 2-3% overall.
It's a simple fairy tale, but simple neither in its creation nor execution. The layers of theme and the reality and originality of characters, so well performed in every way, almost put it beyond genre, and certainly it is neither a comedy nor a drama. It precedes and predicts smart dramedies of the later 90's and beyond.
But the tale's most significant moral, so subtly and honestly delivered--one real reason this movie stands out--is the prescient confronting of our society and culture's treatment, both legally and personally, of the so-called mentally ill.
Finally today we are beginning to acknowledge how disgustingly medieval is our approach to mental illness via heavy drugging, chopping of brains and nerves, and even electric shocking "patients". Add to that the fact, highlighted in this movie, that our supposedly free society takes away any personal control from either the individual or the family when someone has been labeled "mentally ill" and gives that control to the pscyhiatric organizations (not to any legal or governmental body, you notice).
It is estimated now that all these "mass control" methodologies, originated by Germans mostly in the early 20th century and polished in Nazi Germany and under Stalin, will be eliminated in the United States within 20 years. This movie has helped contribute to that motion and heralds a major positive turn in our society from the long trends of worsening education and rising crime that began when pscyhs were given control of our educational institutions and our mental health methodologies.
The obvious, demonstrable fact is that changing the way one acts toward a person--any person--to a positive from a negative will assist them in improving their own ability to live their life. (Negative being absolutely any motion or communication that compromises or reduces their own control, confidence or positiveness toward the future). Many people are not even "insane", but just individual enough to cause the established mental health industry to label them with a disease so they can prescribe drugs for them. The old joke, "Are there really more insane, or just more definitions of insanity?" applies.
Like Joon, simply being treated with dignity and as a regular person is all they need to lead a successful independent life--they really weren't a big problem until someone said they were and kept telling them so.
But even without the tremendous significance of this thematic message, the movie is extremely clever and subtly entertaining. The DVD contains an excellent and different little piece where John Schwartzman, the cinematographer, comments over about 20 minutes of makeup and lighting tests of the lead characters. Much better than the usual 20-minute "making of". His comments plus the director's commentary give an excellent context for how the movie was conceived and made, and shows that they were well aware of the issues and challenges they faced.
Of course, I believe they met all those challenges exceedingly well and produced a timeless little classic.
It's a simple fairy tale, but simple neither in its creation nor execution. The layers of theme and the reality and originality of characters, so well performed in every way, almost put it beyond genre, and certainly it is neither a comedy nor a drama. It precedes and predicts smart dramedies of the later 90's and beyond.
But the tale's most significant moral, so subtly and honestly delivered--one real reason this movie stands out--is the prescient confronting of our society and culture's treatment, both legally and personally, of the so-called mentally ill.
Finally today we are beginning to acknowledge how disgustingly medieval is our approach to mental illness via heavy drugging, chopping of brains and nerves, and even electric shocking "patients". Add to that the fact, highlighted in this movie, that our supposedly free society takes away any personal control from either the individual or the family when someone has been labeled "mentally ill" and gives that control to the pscyhiatric organizations (not to any legal or governmental body, you notice).
It is estimated now that all these "mass control" methodologies, originated by Germans mostly in the early 20th century and polished in Nazi Germany and under Stalin, will be eliminated in the United States within 20 years. This movie has helped contribute to that motion and heralds a major positive turn in our society from the long trends of worsening education and rising crime that began when pscyhs were given control of our educational institutions and our mental health methodologies.
The obvious, demonstrable fact is that changing the way one acts toward a person--any person--to a positive from a negative will assist them in improving their own ability to live their life. (Negative being absolutely any motion or communication that compromises or reduces their own control, confidence or positiveness toward the future). Many people are not even "insane", but just individual enough to cause the established mental health industry to label them with a disease so they can prescribe drugs for them. The old joke, "Are there really more insane, or just more definitions of insanity?" applies.
Like Joon, simply being treated with dignity and as a regular person is all they need to lead a successful independent life--they really weren't a big problem until someone said they were and kept telling them so.
But even without the tremendous significance of this thematic message, the movie is extremely clever and subtly entertaining. The DVD contains an excellent and different little piece where John Schwartzman, the cinematographer, comments over about 20 minutes of makeup and lighting tests of the lead characters. Much better than the usual 20-minute "making of". His comments plus the director's commentary give an excellent context for how the movie was conceived and made, and shows that they were well aware of the issues and challenges they faced.
Of course, I believe they met all those challenges exceedingly well and produced a timeless little classic.