697 Ratings

The Dead

Trailer

Directed by John Huston

United Kingdom, United States, 1987

Drama

Synopsis

A ballad sung at a Twelfth Night party in Ireland reminds one of the guests of the young boy she loved years before.

The Dead Directed by John Huston

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Awards & Festivals

Venice Film Festival

1987

Academy Awards

1988 | 2 nominations including: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Independent Spirit Awards

1988 | 2 wins including: Best Director

1988 | 3 nominations including: Best Cinematography

International Film Festival Rotterdam

1988

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Rooted in the concerns and passions of domesticity, the film feels small in scale. In some ways, it serves as a natural chaser to the more grandiose and romantic domestic dramas of classic Hollywood. As a double feature with Vincente Minnelli’s Meet Me in St. Louis or John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley, it would illuminate the beautiful naivety of those visions, reflecting darkly on the souls of the people who might inhabit those period settings.

Justine Smith

August 05, 2016

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‘’The Dead’’ is so fine, in unexpected ways, that it almost demands a re-evaluation of Huston’s entire body of work. . . . That Huston should have dared search for the story’s cinema life is astonishing. That he should have found it with such seeming ease is the mark of a master.

Vincent Canby

December 17, 1987

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The results are leagues ahead of Joseph Strick’s unfortunate Joyce adaptations, but inevitably leagues behind the original story. That said, the film’s concentrated simplicity and purity achieve a kind of perfection… the lilting Irish flavor is virtually decanted, and Fred Murphy’s gliding camera movements are delicately executed. There’s also a rather awesome and unpretentious directness as well as calmness about the way that Huston contemplates his own rapidly approaching death.

Jonathan Rosenbaum

October 26, 1987

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What are people saying?

Poena Damni's rating of the film The Dead
Poena Damni

I've first known Huston's work through his amazing documentary on Malcolm Lowry. Here we are again served another meticulous and highly emotional transposition of James Joyce's story. John Huston once more demonstrates how keen and sensile he was to literature. Beautiful!
August 05, 2019 23:22
- 4
- 0
pancake lizard's rating of the film The Dead
pancake lizard

I've always thought The Dead was unfilmable and when I first saw Huston's movie I was reassured of that. But the more I've looked back at it, the more I've analyzed and the more times I've talked about it with others, the more I realized how amazing this adaptation truly is. The story probably is unfilmable, but Huston gave it remarkably good shot.
September 22, 2019 08:29
- 3
- 0
AKFilmFan's rating of the film The Dead
AKFilmFan

Such an elegant final film for Huston but the majority of the film has a certain undercurrent of uneasiness. Throughout the dinner party you meet these living, breathing characters that are disappointed in one small way or another. We anticipate Gabriel's speech, who speaks eloquently but whose communication w/ his wife is almost nonexistent. The final soliloquy is a knockout of emotion, realization, and sadness.
September 03, 2019 23:58
- 3
- 0
Elayla's rating of the film The Dead
Elayla

Up until the last part, I couldn't see what was so... good or special about this story. And then I understood.
July 30, 2019 06:36
- 3
- 0
MovieDude1893's rating of the film The Dead
MovieDude1893

A perfect gem that is currently flying to low under the radar given the Huston prestige and its status as his swan song. And what a song it is, delicately scaled just as the source material was before it. The film's many pleasures are encapsulated by an image featuring Anjelica Huston framed beautifully on a staircase. Huston was many things throughout his career, but for those few moments he is a true painter.
July 30, 2019 06:36
- 1
- 0
House 0f Leaves's rating of the film The Dead
House 0f Leaves

How to Make Sure You Don't Screw Up Joyce: Use his words. Hire great actors.
July 30, 2019 06:36
- 1
- 0
Zachary George Najarian-Najafi's rating of the film The Dead
Zachary George Najarian-Najafi

John Huston's final film is a beautiful, elagic mood piece about a Christmas dinner in Dublin circa 1907, The Dead is short on plot but heavy on rich characterization and stellar performances. The camera intimately tracks its way through the small apartment and Huston's painterly visuals add to the overall atmosphere. It's a masterpiece, but I only wish the phone hadn't kept ringing while I was trying to watch it.
September 03, 2019 23:59
- 3
- 0
Black Irish's rating of the film The Dead
Black Irish

In his final film, Huston reminds us yet again that we are always trapped by our inner selves, the past and hidden longings and desires that determine the course of our being. It is in our coming together as a whole which alleviates these sufferings, if only for a short while.
July 30, 2019 06:36
- 2
- 0