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The Winslow Boy | 
 enlarge | Director: David Mamet
Actors: Matthew Pidgeon, Rebecca Pidgeon, Gemma Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, Lana Bilzerian
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.96
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Rating:  62 reviews
Sales Rank: 17037
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: COLD04057D
ISBN: 0767837959
UPC: 043396040571
EAN: 9780767837958
ASIN: B0000372I3
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Release Date: February 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
As a family tries to prove their youngest sons innocence in a highly publicized trial the ties that bind and the lawyer for the defense are tested in full. Special features: making-of featurette theatrical trailers talent files and director and cast commentary. Subtitles in english and much more. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/24/2008 Starring: Nigel Hawthorne Rebecca Pidgeon Run time: 110 minutes Rating: G Director: David Mamet
Amazon.com
Many thought The Winslow Boy was an odd choice of material for David Mamet. It was originally a Terence Rattigan play from 1946, taken from a true incident in England in 1908 about a boy, 13, discharged from Royal Naval College for allegedly stealing and cashing a five-shilling postal order. The boy's father, Arthur Winslow (Nigel Hawthorne), mounts a lengthy and expensive legal campaign to clear his boy's and by extension his own name, with the rallying cry, "Let right be done!" The resultant notoriety, the dwindling fortune of the Winslows, as well as the punishment this pressure exacts on them, form the surface action of the story. Yet underneath the staid manners of the dialogue there roils a whole emotional life hardly hinted at in the actors' faces. The famous lawyer engaged to defend the boy, Sir Robert Morton (Jeremy Northam), makes a suitable sparring partner for the Winslows' daughter, Catherine (Rebecca Pidgeon), a suffragette whose suitors are scared off by the family's legal battle. The unspoken romance between these two is more the point than whether right is done or not. Pidgeon brings the same inscrutable countenance that complicated her role in Mamet's previous film, The Spanish Prisoner, to this film--but here everybody seems to have it. As the differences between appearance and actuality reconcile themselves, Mamet builds bridges to his other works, House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner, for instance, for the ways in which dialogue is a cover for someone's true nature. The Winslow Boy is masterful in its quiet treatment of human mysteries. --Jim Gay
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| Customer Reviews: Read 57 more reviews...
 THE WINSLOW BOY - A "MUST TO SEE" MOVIE November 12, 2008
Anna McGowan (Creswell, NC USA)
Period movie drama that has superb acting from the main characters: Jeremy Northam, Rebecca Pidgeon, Nigel Hawthorne, Gemma Jones, Matthew Pidgeon, and Guy Edwards. A real family drama. A big fan of Jeremy Northam, he was so good here as a lawyer, Rebecca Pidgeon as the big sister and daughter, Matthew as the big brother to Guy and a very understanding son, Gemma Jones as the supportive wife and mom, and Nigel Hawthorne as the head of the family trying to clear his boy's name, and the family's as well. This movie is a "Family Movie" since there are no lewd scenes, showing how a family deals with a circumstance such as this. Family values! Excellent acting from Guy Edwards, very convincing.
Mamet's Merchant&Ivory October 16, 2008
Amaranth (Northern California)
David Mamet's "Winslow Boy" is a break from his usual conventions. Instead of exploring contemporary American society,Mamet goes back in time to bring Terence Rattigan's play to life. Set in pre-WWI England, Mamet captures a society in transition. Catherine Winslow (Rebecca Pidgeon,Mamet's wife) is a suffragette. War on the Continent looms on the horizon. Set in 1908,the Russian Revolution is only a few years away. Beneath the calm,cool exterior,British society is roiling.
The plot is deceptively simple- Ronnie Winslow (Guy Edwards),a young cadet, has stolen a postage stamp. It sounds like a surefire yawner. A Conservative, Sir Robert Morton (the talented&underrated Jeremy Northam),takes up the case because he's smitten with Rebecca.
Robert&Rebecca's romance is superbly done. While they don't end up making passionate love upon a love seat, their dialogue sizzles. They have chemistry,despite their ideological differences. It's subtle. Robert's love inspires him to give an eloquent speech in defense of Ronnie,a discourse on Justice and Right. There are open-ended questions for the viewer: was Ronnie guilty? Was he kicked out because he wasn't part of the elite class? Do Robert and Rebecca end up together?
"The Winslow Boy" is Mamet's Merchant&Ivory masterpiece. He's as capable of depicting uptight Edwardian Brits as he is unscrupulous American scam artists. This movie has gotten short shrift. It's a beautiful movie. It echoes the words of Ludwig Wittgenstein,an Austrian philosopher who also lived during that era,"Whereof one cannot speak,thereof one must be silent."
Most of you missed the point August 10, 2008
Irene Adler (San Diego, California)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It must be discouraging to Mamet to have so many completely miss the point of this movie. This movie is not about "right" or "justice" or "honor" or "perseverance" or any of the stuff mentioned by many other reviewers (at least the several that I read). It is about epigamic differentiation, a biological phenomenon known to most of you as "love at first sight". It is a romance, completely and entirely, between Pidgeon's character (Catherine) and Northam's (Sir Robert). It is all there, but disguised by the apparent story about a boy falsely accused of cheating at school, or whatever. Sir Robert falls in love with Catherine on first seeing her in his office and all his actions from then on are driven by it. She does not catch on until the last scene. It is delicious.
Great movie for a Jane Austen fan June 24, 2008
Mom to Many (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This an enjoyable film.
I stumbled upon it in the video store.
I love movies that are clean and historical in nature.
I think I might just add this one to my collection.
A Case of Honor...And Potential Romance June 24, 2008
Deborah Earle (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Terrence Rattigan's 1946 play undergoes another onscreen incarnation in this study of a family whose honor is stake. The stereotypical staidness of the British upper-class makes itself felt, even in the elegant well-orchestrated theme music.
Based on the real-life 1908 case of young George Archer-Shee, the story is about the 13-year old son of a retired banker (Nigel Hawthorne)named Ronnie(a fair and staid looking Guy Edwards, whose sunny complexion stands out against his predominantly brunette family)is expelled from the Royal Naval College after being wrongfully accused of theft and forgery.
In Edwardian Britain, it was assumed the that the Crown was always right and those punished were always justly punished.
The publicity surrounding the case has scared off potential suitors for the Winslow's daughter, Catherine(an assertive Rebecca Pidgeon), a suffragette, and takes its toll on Arthur Winslow's wife, Grace(Gemma Jones)and other son, Dickie(Matthew Pidgeon)as well.
The family's solicitor, Desmond Curry (Colin Stanton) acquires an appointment for young Ronnie to be interviewed by one of England's best barristers, Sir Robert Morton.
Our first glimpse of Jeremy Northam's Sir Robert Morton is as he in his office readying himself to attend an important dinner. While waiting for the rest of her family to arrive, Catherine , who has often observed Morton from up in the galleries of Parliament previously, speaks with him. The cut away camera shots lend a certain drama to this scene, as do Northam's imposing 6"2" frame, the slight tilt of his head,which places emphasis on his broad shoulders, and sloe-eyed sidelong glances. The subtleties of the actor and the cinematography are a thing of poetry and play off very well on each other.
The interview convinces Sir Robert of the lad's innocence, and he decides to take the case. It is decided that a petition of right against the crown will be used to bring the case to court.
The attraction between Catherine and Sir Robert grows, captured in subtle ways at first, in an exchanged glance between Catherine and Robert as she looks through the wire barrier of the galleries while he is on the Parliament floor, and in Robert's signs of being impressed by Catherine's intelligence during her inquiries about issues pertaining to the case, which by now, has so enthralled Britain to the point where the family must find ways around reporters crowding around their home at all hours.
At one point, Mr. Winslow considers withdrawing the case, as someone close to the family who is in the Admiralty plans to levy grave consequences. But Sir Robert perseveres after convincing Mr. Winslow to delay the withdrawal of the case, and eventually, through the Winslow's faithful maid, Violet (Sarah Flind), we learn of the case's satisfactory outcome.
Sir Robert presents the family will the statement at their home, and is once more quizzed by Catherine regarding its details. Through all the staidness and reserve, Morton's other motives for winning the case become visible, especially during a slight stammer in response to a statement by Catherine regarding a particular sacrifice he had made for it. The banter between the two has often been highly provocative, but never more so than at this point.
All I could think while watching that scene is," You've got him, Catherine!"
Giving it the look and feel of an episode of "Masterpiece Theatre", David Mamet has skillfully directed a variegated love story--a love of justice, a love of right, a love of a father for his son, a love of honor, and the potential love story between a man and a woman.
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