Big Eden

What a WONDERFUL wonderful little film....This is how real movies are made. It is a quiet film. No shouting or in your face action. No thumping soundtrack. No megastars. This is peaceful feeling film about real characters who feel like real people. Much has been made about the fantasiness regarding a small town being that accepting of gay folks...But....Look at the gay folks....They look just like you and me. If you didn't know...you wouldn't know. They're real. Store owners, ranchers, cowboys, teachers, etc. I live in a VERY small rural town in Okla. I am a 46 yr old gay rancher. Yes...it has been hard living in this type of world. But..when I finally quit worrying about what folks thought of me I quickly noticed that to them I was JUST like them. Just a simple working man trying to make a living. They really didn't notice or care that I was gay. The people in Big Eden are this way. They care about each other. They help when they can. People sometimes will really surprise you if YOU just let them.The story is outstanding. The script is tight and very funny. Lots a quiet little remarks that you pick up on after many viewings..."A woman did not make this"..."I have to hear about it from the Mayor"...The acting is BEYOND outstanding. Gross and Schweig's character delivery are some of the finest on film (Ledger's in BBM is in the same league). They feel real. They act real. They have flaws and weakness. They cry, laugh, get their feelings hurt, fly above the ground with hope and crash without warning. Coe as Sampaw (the grandfather) is excellent!!!. O'Neal Compton as Jim and Nan Martin as the Widow are both as well. DeKay as Dean is not to be slighted either. This movie should have carted home a truck load of Oscars....But did not. Very Very sad.It is a classic piece of film making at it's finest. Big Eden is sort of like the softer funnier side of Brokeback Mountain. Life is not always a fun thing to endure...But it is a beautiful ride.The character of Pike is one of the finest I have ever seen put of film. If your heart doesn't break watching this man and his emotions and facial expressions....You are beyond help! Eric Schweig should have the Oscar sitting proudly on his home mantle...but...so should Heath Ledger. Both these actors can say more with just their eyes than 99% of the so-called "actors" working today.Gross is wonderful as Henry. This part should have made him a major star. Actors would (or should) die to be able to submit a performance of this calibar. Henry is sweet, strong, frail, honest, flawed and ..yes...real. Both Henry and Pike have the feel of being so real you swear you can feel their breathe and heartbeats. Pretty cool I must say.The director's direction is very well paced and feels like a day in life. Scenes don't feel fake or rushed. The Montana views are BREATHTAKING. The soundtrack selections are sort of odd and left field..but....work without fail. I was so impressed by the end song "Wishes" by Lari White that I had to find the cd. Also quite good.If you love really good movie making...TRY this film. Put aside the gay theme...It really is a film about people and the worldly search for that elusive thing "love". Bruises and all. We all got 'em. We all want and need it.This film never gets in your face. But..It does work it's way into your heart and soul. That my Friend is a RARITY for a movie!

Big Eden arises from a startling concept by its creator: a universe in which there are no homophobes, in which the straights are not even slightly antagonistic to the gays in their midst. In this movie, every single pea-pickin' one of the heteros are encouragers and enablers to their gay neighbors. The only homophobia in Big Eden is that internalized by the town's two gay men (and one bi) and even that is partly just commitment phobia.The result is an hilarious send-up of small town America, a paradise in which the good old boys who loiter at the general store all day squabble over whose turn it is to make the cappuchino and their different readings of the moves the gays are putting on each other. Every time you think the homophobic sh-t is going to hit the fan, it doesn't. If you're like me, this topsy-turvy state of affairs will have you rolling on the floor laughing your head off at times and bawling your eyes out at others. If the real world were like this, I'd go thru my days giggling non-stop.The supporting cast is excellent, particularly George Coe as Sam, the dying grandfather, Louise Fletcher as Grace, an aptly named character, and O'Neal Compton as Jim Soams, the solicitous if not too perceptive leader of the bucolic gang down to the general store, perfectly cast against type (you'd expect to see him as a bigoted Southern sheriff). The scene in which Soams tries to find a way to ask Pike if he is 'one of them' is hilarious.The principals are unfortunately somewhat less interesting than the supporting cast. Arye Gross as Henry Hart is such a distant character throughout most of the film, it's difficult to care much whether he finds love. Eric Schweig as Pike Dexter is also cast against type, though less successfully than Compton; he has an imposing physical presence and is good at glowering, staring at the floor and running from the room, but the character is too much of a caricature; we get to know him more from what others say of him than what he shares of himself. Tim DeKay as Dean is perhaps the least likeable character in a film in which it's hard to find someone not to like. Henry's high school crush, Dean has held on to his school-boy good looks and is newly divorced. Throughout the film he waffles over whether to get a new set of his-n-hers towels, or his-n-his. He provides a little tension in a love story which nevertheless remains not very interesting. Henry is clearly too hurt by what happened in the past to renew the love.But the real core of the film is not the love story, which is not only not very captivating but also wrapped up a bit to easily at the end, but the themes of 'coming home to who you are' and 'being known.' Just days before he dies, Sam calls Henry to sit beside him on the sofa and complains 'you won't tell me who you are,' and 'I can't help thinking your grandma and I didn't do right by you some how' because of Henry's resistance to being known and accepting the love of the townsfolk. Henry doesn't get it, though, until it's too late.These are the real discoveries Henry makes by returning home to Big Eden.The soundtrack is excellent: simple, classic country songs, only a couple of which I could identify without watching the credits closely, which perfectly speak to the complexities which bedevil most lives. The setting of the film is, of course, magnificent.I give Big Eden 5 Stars in the ratings system, though I would prefer to give it 4.5, downgrading it only for the lack of a more interesting, better told love story. Still, it is an excellent and very entertaining film and I highly recommend it.

Years ago I fell in love with a little-known film on VHS tape titled "Big Eden." I treasured the film, but never dreamed it remained available in DVD format. Unless viewers are homophobic, they will be like me: they will fall in love with this movie about an improbably open and accepting Montana small town community. What is not to like? The sound track features great Western popular song classics. The Montana scenery is breathtaking. Virtually the entire movie was filmed in Glacier National Park with the complete cooperation of the Department of the Interior. Happily (in real life) neither the park officials or local residents objected to the gay romance. In reality, the film is not as much about the love of two men as it is about finding one's self and discovering a feeling of belonging which is universal. All the cast members are superb. Academy Award-Winning Best Actress Louise Fletcher is one of many strong supporting players. The two stars, Arye Gross & Eric Schweig, are superb. This is first of all a wonderful love story. Secondly, the film champions diversity represented by the GLBT community. Thirdly, it is equally a story about love and diversity within that community. This film deserves a far wider audience. It is most definitely a "feel good" film to be watched often. The film views how lovingly Big Eden celebrates special holidays and the sweetness of life itself. The copy that I received from Amazon is actually a two-disc package: the feature film beautifully transferred to DVD plus a second disc with documentary features about the actors, the film, and other commentary.

Really!! I may not have watched every big queer movie that exists (I don't think it's human possible to watch EVERY queer movie 😔 sadly...) but I think it's still safe to say that this is my favorite and will remain it for a long time. The positivity of the movie and its characters, the love that one feels for them.... How every character is fleshed out, even the ones that only appear for a few minutes... How the whole town supports this wonderful, shy man (Pike Dexter) and loves him - its wonderful.And especially for the time it was made (2000) this is an incredible movie (just think about the fact that Brokeback Mountain was made 5 years later and well...was a lot sadder (tho probably 😁, sadly, more realistic for its time...). I think its kinda sad that you for sure have to search long for a movie made today (!) that is as positive as this one (and with a leading, gay, native American characters)... So I wanna thank everyone involved in the making for this wonderful, wonderful movie!!! And...I'd like to include a quote by Eric Schweig (Pike Dexter):““I just thought, ‘Oh well, you know, it will probably be the first and only ever gay role I’ll ever get to do, so I’m just gonna go, you know, rock it at the audition, cuz I really wanna do it’ […] I think at the time, I just liked the material because it didn’t have any sort of… racist dialogue that I was so used to, and when you’re a Native American actor, you’re pigeonholed into doing certain types of roles. You sort of get used to doing period piece after period piece, and it’s no fun. And they don’t write gay characters for Native American people. It was great, because my character Pike, is like the diametric opposite of characters I was used to playing, who are like, swinging axes and shooting people, and Pike Dexter was the opposite of that, he was just a shy, introverted guy who was in love with… um, I mean the other character [Dean] that Tim DeKay plays, wasn’t sure whether he was gay or not, but Pike Dexter was damn sure he was gay and damn sure that he loved [Henry], Arye Gross’s character.”"Again, such a wonderful movie❤️

un autre film a voire absolument

Terrific movie. The world should be this wonderful

海外で、追跡が出来ないこともあり心配しておりましたが、ちゃんと無事に到着しました。ありがとうございました！

This is another gay-themed movie that I've watched over and over again. The overall tone is one of warmth, love, acceptance of differences. It's well named big Eden for, according to the biblical record, when our planet was first created human relationships were based on love. This is what is showcased so clearly in this picture. I'd love to live with these characters in real life.