The Ice Storm: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack [Soundtrack]

the ice storm: music from the motion picture soundtrack [soundtrack]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential video
Asian American director Ang Lee sums up America in the early 1970s by focusing on the arrival of the sexual revolution in the 'burbs. Isolationism within a family, consumerism, and selfishness are personified by a cast that captures the self-obsession within two New England families. As the children struggle awkwardly with adolescence, their parents stumble through sexual experimentation. In the days of Watergate and Vietnam, society is breaking boundaries and ignoring convention. Following suit, these families are eschewing polite barriers and social taboos, with disastrous results. The "ice storm" of the title refers not only to a natural phenomenon but is a (rather heavy-handed) metaphor for a pervasive emotional temperament. The entire cast delivers textured, finely nuanced performances. This movie lingers in the psyche not only for the scope of the tragedy at its conclusion, but for Lee's often humorous and stingingly accurate assessment of pop culture. Based on Rick Moody's novel, this won the best-screenplay award at Cannes in 1997. --Rochelle O'Gorman

The Ice Storm: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack,Various Artists,Velvel Records,AM Pop,Pop,Pop/Rock,Soft Rock,Soundtrack,Soundtracks,Soundtracks & Film Scores

The Ice Storm: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack [Soundtrack]

Average customer rating:

A good movie but depressing
A Great Movie
crackling humor and sad ending makes a great film
"OH MY GOD! THEY KILLED KENNY!!"
This is one of the best films I have ever seen.

The Ice Storm: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Velvel Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Pop | Styles | Music

Soft Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

1990s | By Decade | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Wonder Boys
Ride with the Devil
The Wedding Banquet
Paris, Texas
The Virgin Suicides

ASIN: B0000049YF
Release Date: 1997-10-21

Tracks:

Shoplift - M. Danna
Finale - M. Danna
I Can't Read - David Bowie
Light Up Or Leave Me Alone - Traffic
Dirty Love - Frank Zappa
I've Got A Name - Jim Croce
Montego Bay - Bobby Bloom
O Gande Amor - Antonio Carlos Jobim
Too Late To Turn Back Now - Cornelius Brothers& Sister Rose
Help Me Make It Through The Night - Sammi Smith
Coconut - Harry Nilsson
Mr. Big - Free

Customer Reviews:

A good movie but depressing.......2006-08-01

All the people in it are upper middle class white people. They seem to me to be bored. Their kids seem to want to either lash out (like Christina Ricci character Wendy) or withdrawal like Mikey (Elijah Wood). The adults seemed bored with life and was looking for excitement like "key parties" (throwing car keys into a fish bowl where women pick them out. A form of "Swinging").

It stuck me as terribly sad. Perhaps our way of life in Western civilization brings about evil. Too comfortable for our own good. Even in the poor parts of our country, we have it good compared to just a couple of hundred years ago. Yet human nature has this inbred part of us that says "more". Maybe it's our curse as well as our gift. To keep striving for more even if we have enough.

A Great Movie.......2006-07-22

Before I add my own comments to this review, I first want to quote a review I read in some book for this film:

"This film is based on Rick Moody's novel about Thanksgiving 1973 in a middle-class New England family, with adolescent children fumbling with puberty while their parents flounder in the backwash of the sexual revolution. Though expertly made and well acted, the film's characters are uptight and repellent, and the story is bleak and oversymbolic. More to be admired than enjoyed."

I read this "review" before seeing the movie and after watching it I can't help but think to myself...What was that guy smoking? "The Ice Storm" is directed by Oscar winning director Ang Lee (Best Director, 'Brokeback Mountain') and is just as good, if not better, than the movie he took home his Oscar for. This movie is no less than a masterpiece; It's got amazing performances, it has a very "American Beauty" feel to it. To say this film is more to be admired than enjoyed is idiotic. The movie stars Kevin Kline as Ben Hood, the father of a family all dealing with their own set of problems.
Son Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) has fallen in love with a beautiful girl named Libbets Casey (Katie Holmes), whom his friend (David Krumholtz, TV's "Numbers") has already started to move in on. Daughter Wendy (Christina Ricci) is a girl smack dab in the middle of that pubescent age where nothing is really off limits. His wife Elena (Joan Allen) is quiet and reserved longing for something more than she's getting in her marriage, which is mostly because Ben himself is having an affair with his neighbor Janey (Sigourney Weaver) who has also grown bored with Ben. In the course of one night, during a freak ice storm, all their lives will change forever. For some reason, two movies came to mind while watching this. American Beauty and Me & You & Everyone We Know. All three films have a strange quirkiness to them, but also manage to have the same dramatic impact. If you liked those two films, you should like this. This is a very entertaining film, very well made film that is one of Ang Lee's finest hours.
GRADE: A

crackling humor and sad ending makes a great film.......2006-06-09

after seeing brokeback mountain, i decided to see more of ang lee's films and came upon this gem that perfectly shows the same type of sad melencholy used in brokeback. the film takes place in the 1970's and centers around two family's the hoods (consisting of kline, allen, ricci, and mcguire) and the carvers (consisting of weaver, wood, and that one kid) who go through many events that boil together one night during an ice storm. the husband of the hoods is having an affair with weavers character, the kids are exploring sex and drugs, and allens character goes from shop-lifting to cheating on her husband too. the film plays out in two parts, the first hour or so is mainly a comedy while the last hour plays like a drama that leads to a very sad ending. truly a great ang lee film, must check it out if you loved brokeback.

"OH MY GOD! THEY KILLED KENNY!!".......2006-04-18

The Ice Storm might make a good sentimental date flick, a tear jerker that could put the average guy in good standing with his lady, as it creates a nice facade of sensitivity with the added bonus of placing the manly-man in great position to comfort his weeping woman, but as a work of cinematic art, which is what it pretentiously tries to be, it has some very major flaws.
The number one thing that a film maker has to avoid in dramatic cinema is causing a laugh riot at an inappropriate time, and most especially if that moment just happens to be the most critical scene in the whole movie, unfortunately, Ang Lee placed an image on the screen that would of worked far better in a South Park episode then as the peak moment of sadness in a tragic drama.
To explain; As the film neared this critical zenith of sadness, the adults in the story were all involved in a key party, a swingers game in which all the men place their car keys in a punch bowl as the wemen line up and one by one fish out a set of keys without looking, they then have to go home with the random owner of the keys they drew from the bowl. Meanwhile, Elijah Wood, who is playing the dejected teenage son of one of the sinful parents, is outside in the dark night playing in an ice storm. First he stupidly risks his neck by jumping up and down on a super slick ice incrusted diving board over the deep end of an empty swiming pool. Like many dumbed down highly manimpulated moralistic tales, Elijah Wood's tempting of fate and surviving is mearly the forshadowing, and prolonging of the unavoidable, his immanent death is around the corner, it is being milked all too odviously to increase the dramatic tension, and impose further sadness apon the audience.
Next he is seen sliding on his rump down the black ice of a curvy road, an image that already threatens to give a dark soul like mine an uncontrollable case of the giggles. He then stops to stare in awe at a crackling storm damaged electricle wire, while sitting on the metal guard rail of this frozen empty curve, only to watch as the wire snaps, and angrily slithers across the icy street to zap the metal guard rail with the necessary voltage to end his bodily functions.
It is bad enough to try to subject a particular emotion on an audience with such blatant plot devices, and absurdly ridiculous turn of events, but to top it off with an image of a face down body cloaked in a little red hoody, as it inces its way down an icy road is simply too much to take.
When I saw this movie in the theatre back in 1997, this image in conjunction with the overtly manipulated, force fed tone of pathos, caused me to double over in my seat with explosive laughter, so much so, that till this day, I am extremely greatful that I was'nt drinking anything, or holding any sharp objects in my hands at the time. When the film ended I became acutely aware of the fellow exiting movie patrons mean mugging me on the way out. The person I shared this cinematic experience with took full advantage of my captivated audience by loudly asking me what I had learned from the Ice Storm.
"Well what I've learned," I loudly replied." is that I better not get any wild ideas about sexing up my neighbors wife, because God will become angry and kill my first born male child, and since I don't have any children, he will be forced to kill my poor dog and send him sliding down the road in his little red parka."
In conclusion, I gave this movie 3 stars because it is very visually appealing, and has the best "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours." scene ever put on film between Christina Ricci and a chubby boy, but outside of that I can only recommend renting this film, as it is too flawed in its story telling, and far too moralistic to warrant ownership.

This is one of the best films I have ever seen........2006-04-03

Really, it is. It may be too dark and too slow for some. It is not a happy film, and it may depress you terribly. It did depress me.

This is a film about alienation, and it is devastatingly accurate. If you dare watch it, take note of all the conversations. In nearly every scene one character tries to reach out to another character, to try to tell them something intimate or important. In every scene except one they are brushed aside or ignored. The only scene where two characters connect and actually communicate, they talk in code, not directly.

Yes it is beautifully shot and acted. It may well accurately evoke America of the 70s, I wouldn't know I wasn't there. A lot of people are doing squalid, illegal or kinky things in the movie. But to focus on these things alone seems to me to miss the real point of the film. I think it is alienation that drives the aberrant behaviour of these people, not the place or the period.

I don't think the film is meant to depict the failings of any period. I don't think there is any judgement or solution offered. It is simply a stark portrayal of alienation.

I haven't read the book, I would like to. Perhaps others who suggest the setting is more important than I do have their perceptions coloured by having read it. Before reading it I will go out on a limb and suggest the storyline and the setting are just a vehicle for this depiction of alienation.

This film is a disturbing masterpiece which may make you reconsider your own life relationships.

Music:

Music

music