Liberty Heights [Region 2] | ![Liberty Heights [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5183JGK08SL._SL500_.jpg)
| Director: Barry Levinson
Actors: Adrien Brody, Bebe Neuwirth, Joe Mantegna, Ben Foster, Orlando Jones
Category: DVD
This item is no longer available
Rating:  33 reviews
Format: Anamorphic, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), German (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Original Language), English (Original Language), German (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 127 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 7321950180196
ASIN: B00005APWS
Theatrical Release Date: November 17, 1999
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Amazon.com
When he's not crafting lavish Hollywood features like Rain Man, Bugsy, or the misbegotten Sphere, Barry Levinson occasionally makes highly personal films (the so-called "Baltimore series" of Diner, Tin Men, Avalon, and Liberty Heights). The latter, a 1999 release that disappeared all too soon from theaters, finds the aging Levinson working in a vein of pure memory: lyrical, mystical, forgiving. Ben Foster and Adrien Brody star as the middle-class Jewish sons of a shrewd burlesque operator (Joe Mantegna) running a petty numbers racket on the side. Set in the mid-'50s, the story finds the boys restless within the confines of their tight-knit community and unwilling to be restrained or rejected by anti-Semitic barriers or other racial and class prejudices. Before the film is over, the young men's pursuit of the unattainable will include a troubled WASP princess (Carolyn Murphy) to a remarkable African American girl (Rebekah Johnson) kept on her family's short tether. Levinson provides generous glimpses of a nation undergoing re-invention, from white discovery of rock & roll to racial integration in classrooms. There's lots of broad satire (Jewish shock at being fed something called "luncheon meat" by a Gentile friend), some delicate comedy of manners (a touchingly chaste relationship between two key characters), suspense (a kidnapping), and shattering passages of pure yearning. Levinson is in top form with Liberty Heights, his instincts acute, his skills at the service of beauty, his purpose clear. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
 SUPERFANTASTIC MOVIE! May 5, 2009
Joe Ann Cole
I love Adrien Brody as an actor - Regarless this is a great movie - I caught this on satellite movie channel & decided I wanted to see it whenever I wanted to - SO I BOUGHT IT!
Part 4 of the Baltimore Trilogy November 3, 2008
James Carragher (New York)
It's hard to watch Liberty Heights without finding it a pastiche of Barry Levinson's previous three films about Baltimore and its engaging residents and neighborhoods. Liberty Heights has goofy young males, seemingly unattainable American princesses, flawed but loving families, a businessman (albeit a crooked one) caught on the cusp of societal change, an abiding love of big cars, and esoteric late night diner conversations. All those elements are found in one or more of Diner, Tin Men, and Avalon (and that perfect scene of fireworks bursting over the new immigrant's head, one of my favorite movie scenes ever.) Still, I was happy to watch these new riffs on some old themes because new elements keep getting added, in this case a more direct depiction of the barriers and prejudices of the era. Unappealing though some of them may be, you find yourself rooting for almost all of Levinson's characters, hoping they'll make it safely through to the other side of the enormous gap between the fifties and the late sixties. Liberty Heights also brings a fine performance from Adrian Brody and an even better one from the always quiet, but always pitch perfect Joe Mantegna.
An excellent film that is often overlooked July 24, 2006
Jacob Cloud
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A Barry Livingstone production, which is semi-autobiographical. The story centers on a Jewish family living in Baltimore at the height of anti-Semitism. Other racial issues emerge, such as the introduction of African American students into White schools. Despite the `weighty' content, this movie is actually a comedy, and there are several moments that are truly funny. Benefits from a great cast, including Adrian Brody - before his `mainstream' emergence.
Awesome! June 10, 2006
M. Bell (Sacramento, CA USA)
A movie about a Jewish family in Baltimore, Maryland in the mid-1950s. One of my favorite movies.
Excellent film, valuable history lesson... April 10, 2005
Eduardo Nietzsche (Houston)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
A lot of Americans---especially the younger generations---are breathtakingly ignorant of their own very recent history, and films like "Liberty Heights" are invaluable for reminding us that no, this country has never been a utopian paradise of freedom as current day simpletons (read: George W. Bush and all his right wing partisan prostitutes like Rush Limbaugh, etc.) would have us believe.
The idea is not to fixate on the past but to use it as a guidepost towards the future---the kind of racist and anti-semitic world that "Liberty Heights" portrays has abated on many fronts but is far from vanquished, and all this progress did not magically arise but was the fruit of the blood sweat and tears of many principled and brave individuals over the course of the last several decades. Many battles have been won but the war is not over by a long shot.
Aside from social history, Levinson's film is also stirring entertainment: he has assembled a very strong cast, with an excellent script and masterful camera direction. "Liberty Heights" does not have the grand epic sweep of "Avalon" but is deals more directly with racial and ethnic tensions in 1950s Baltimore without falling into the usual cliches and sensationalistic traps that such socially conscious films (see "Grand Canyon" or recent Spike Lee movies) often stoop to. This is no cheap Hollywood tear-jerker but an honest, balanced and very mature work---probably explains why it tanked at the box office.
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