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Summary:
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Film plot en Francais: Will Bloom a toujours été bercé par les récits de son père, Edward Bloom, talentueux conteur d'histoire à l'imagination débordante... au point que son fils finisse par lui reprocher de trop enchevêtrer réalité et fantaisie, à propos de quoi éclate une dispute. Désormais adulte et marié, Will Bloom revient pourtant voir son père lorsqu'il apprend sa mort imminente. C'est l'occasion pour lui de partir en quête de vérité, de lever le voile sur la vie de son père ; c'est l'occasion pour lui d'enfin comprendre l'incompréhensible, non sans un brin de poésie, de sa relation filiale. Film plot in English: Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) has always been a teller of tall tales about his oversized life as a young man (Ewan McGregorr), when his wanderlust led him on an unlikely journey from small town in Alabama, around the world, and back again. His mythic exploits dart from the delightful to the delirious as he weaves epic tales about giants, blizzards, a witch and conjoined-twin lounge singers. With his larger-than-life stories, Bloom charms almost everyone he encounters except for his estranged son Will (Billy Crudup). When his mother Sandra (Jessica Lange) tries to reunite them, Will must learn how to separate fact from fiction as he comes to terms with his father’s great feats and great failings. |
Film-Production Details Summary:
Starring: Ewan McGregorr, Albert Finney
Director: Tim Burton
Studio: Columbia Tristar Home
DVD Specifications:
Movie-genre: Action Drama
Languages: French / English
DVD-Format and Region: PAL Zone-2
Front and Back DVD cover of the Film: BIG FISH Ewan McGregor
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Actors/Actresses Cast of the film: BIG FISH Ewan McGregor
- Ewan McGregor .... Ed Bloom (Young)
- Albert Finney .... Ed Bloom (Senior)
- Billy Crudup .... Will Bloom
- Jessica Lange .... Sandra Bloom (Senior)
- Helena Bonham Carter .... Jenny (Young & Senior) & The Witch
- Alison Lohman .... Sandra Bloom (Young)
- Robert Guillaume .... Dr. Bennett (Senior)
- Marion Cotillard .... Josephine
- Matthew McGrory .... Karl the Giant
- David Denman .... Don Price (Age 18-22)
- Missi Pyle .... Mildred
- Loudon Wainwright III .... Beamen (as Loudon Wainwright)
- Ada Tai .... Ping
- Arlene Tai .... Jing
- Steve Buscemi .... Norther Winslow
- Danny DeVito .... Amos Calloway
- Deep Roy .... Mr. Soggybottom
- Perry Walston .... Ed Bloom (Age 10)
- Hailey Anne Nelson .... Jenny (Age 8)
- Grayson Stone .... Will Bloom (Age 6-8)
- R. Keith Harris .... Ed's Father
- Karla Droege .... Ed's Mother
- Zachary Gardner .... Zacky Price (Age 10)
- John Lowell .... Don Price (Age 12)
- Darrell Vanterpool .... Wilbur (Age 10)
- Destiny Cyrus .... Ruthie (Age 8)
- Joseph Humphrey .... Little Brave
- Morgan Grace Jarrett .... Will's Date
- Sallie Hedrick .... Pretty Girl
- Charles McLawhorn .... Mayor
- Frank Hoyt Taylor .... Sharecropper
- Savanna James .... Little Girl
- Billy Redden .... Banjo Man
- James DeForest Parker .... Shotgun Toter
- Russell Hodgkinson .... Some Farmer
- Don Young .... Shephard
- Jayne Morgan .... Townsperson
- David Ramsey .... Townsperson
- Greg Hohn .... Townsperson
- Zach Hanner .... Cashier
- George McArthur .... Colossus
- Jeff Campbell .... Jump Leader
- Lawrence Sykkmon .... Chinese Emcee
- Bonnie Johnson .... Teller Woman
- Howard Houston Jr. .... Piano Student
- Joanne Pankow .... Heavy-Set Nurse
- Trevor Gagnon .... Will's Son
- Jacob Radford .... Kid
- Karlos Walkes .... Dr. Bennett (Young)
- Cathy Berry .... Lobster Woman
- John Fugate .... Side Show Barker
- Daniel Wallace .... Econ Professor
- Metz Duites .... Ventriloquist
- Vincent J. Ybiernas .... Asian Officer (as Vincent Ybiernas)
- Barry C. Harvard .... Chicken Plant Operator
- Edward Aldag .... Municipal Dump Owner
- Michael Garnet Stewart .... Auctioneer
- C. Alan Rawlins .... Pretty Man (as Alan Rawlins)
- Jake Brake .... Old Zacky
- Bevin Kaye .... River Woman
- Jack Terry Parker .... Texas Man in the 70's
- Sarah Elizabeth Parker .... 1950's Sorority Girl
- Brandon Carroll .... Spectre Citizen (uncredited)
- Jonathan Castile .... (uncredited)
- Collins Holt .... Spectre Citizen (uncredited)
- Mark McWhorter .... Army Officer (uncredited)
- Matthew D. Miller .... 1950's Farmer (uncredited)
- Gary Newton .... Circus Announcer, Contortionist, Korean Fighter (voice) (uncredited)
- Cade Saint .... Mourner at Funeral (uncredited)
- Bruce Snowedon .... Fat Man in Circus (uncredited)
Photo Gallery of the Movie: BIG FISH Ewan McGregor
Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size high quality photos, posters and wallpapers of Big Fish
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Photo Gallery of the Movie: BIG FISH Ewan McGregor
After a string of mediocre movies, director Tim Burton regains his footing as he shifts from macabre fairy tales to Southern tall tales. Big Fish twines in and out of the oversized stories of Edward Bloom, played as a young man by Ewan McGregor (
Moulin Rouge, Down with Love) and as a dying father by Albert Finney (Tom Jones). Edward's son Will (Billy Crudup, Almost Famous) sits by his father's bedside but has little patience with the old man's fables, because he feels these stories have kept him from knowing who his father really is. Burton dives into Bloom's imagination with zest, sending the determined young man into haunted woods, an idealized Southern town, a traveling circus, and much more. The result is sweet but--thanks to the director's dark and clever sensibility--never saccharine. Also featuring Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, and Steve Buscemi.
'Big Fish' is an extraordinary movie by director Tim Burton, a man who always makes movies that are visually interesting. With this movie we see that again. An old man named Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) always told fantastic stories to his son Will (Billy Crudup). Now Edward is dying and Will wants to know the true versions of the stories, although every other person around him seems to like the fantastic version including Edward's wife Sandra (Jessica Lange) and Will's wife Josephine (Marion Cotillard). Edward still stays with his own versions and that is what we get to see.
The young Edward, played by Ewan McGregor, is who we follow when he meets a giant named Karl (Matthew McGrory) and when he arrives in a town named Spectre that basically is a utopia, or something like heaven. That is where he meets the famous poet Norther Winslow (Steve Buscemi) and a girl named Jenny (as a grown up played by Helena Bonham Carter). We see how he catches a very big fish, how he meets witches and ends up in a circus where Amos Calloway (Danny DeVito) runs things. And we see how he falls in love with young Sandra (Alison Lohman) and how he tries to win her heart.
Everything looks beautiful. Everything new story is amazing, one with twins named Ping and Jing in particular. It is told with very funny and with moving moments as well. Especially the first half and the ending of the movie are great. A small part in the middle is a little too much of things we have already seen. Music by Danny Elfman makes this movie complete. A very entertaining and extraordinary tale through the eyes of director Tim Burton.
Big Fish
Based on a short novel by Daniel Wallace, Big Fish is a mythic story about a bigger-than-life man named Edward Bloom. Throughout his life, his easiest means of communication is through tall tales and jokes. Suffering from a consuming case of cancer, his death is approaching. Edward's son William desperately hopes that the fact that the end is near will enable his father to open up about deeper emotions, but in the end, the man remains the sum of his stories and a great mystery.
The Book
This semi-autobiographical tale is told in episodic fashion, and almost reads as a series of stories that might be passed down from generation to generation. Some of the accounts are as brief as a paragraph, while others stretch on for pages. Such is the life of a man as sensational as Edward Bloom (and don't think for a minute that his name, an allusion to James Joyce's Ulysses, is an accident). Everyone who knows Edward, including his immediate family, is familiar with his life via these stories, so much so that it's not especially easy to separate the fact from the fiction.
Though Wallace was clearly influenced by Greek mythology and Joyce's Ulysses, his decision to simplify the tales almost as if they were being told for a childlike audience benefits the book enormously. It's not overly complicated, but at the same time the numerous metaphorical references to classic tales from the past are there for the digging. Most notable of these allusions is Edward's crossing through the Underworld and meeting a Cerberus-type dog that guards the path. This particular portion of the book is particularly impacting - the people who have been unable to break through are mired in their failure. It speaks pretty strongly to the natural desire that all people have to succeed, though it also does an outstanding job of drawing on those who have an innate fear of finding true kismet.
The story is narrated by Edward's son, William, who is struggling with the fact that he is having difficulty reconciling the man of legend versus the father. There are moments that are extremely tender - his father saves his life twice simply through an intuitive knowledge that his son needs help - and there are times when it is quite clear that William has a tremendous amount of suppressed rage over the way things have turned out. The emotions William expresses always ring true. It's only natural that a young man whose father was frequently away from home would be ambivalent.
Possibly my personal favorite aspect of the book is its setting. Edward Bloom comes from small-town Alabama and eventually moves his family to Birmingham, but it's a Birmingham of a simpler time, when people knew their neighbors and stood up for each other even unto death. Having had grandparents of my own who lived their entire lives in that city, it was a deeply personal experience for me to read the book and relate it to each of their lives.
The Movie
Tim Burton turns Edward Bloom into an even more mythic and enormous character than the book even allows for - so big, in fact, that he is played by two different actors. The film plays with chronology somewhat and drifts back and forth from present day to the past (much like the novel does), meaning that we get a snapshot of Edward as a young man in his 20s and 30s and also as the dying man in his 60s. Ewan McGregor plays the younger version, and he is simply fantastic in the role. As someone whose family comes from Alabama, I was surprised to hear his accent be fairly authentic - an impressive task indeed for a Scotsman.
Taking the role of the elder Edward is Albert Finney, who is distinguished and believable as a man who has a lived a remarkable life. Billy Crudup plays the role of William, and he uses his range to great advantage as a young man alternately angry and adoring of his father. There are a host of other fine actors in supporting roles as well. The most significant of these is Alison Lohman as young Sandra Bloom, Edward's wife and William's mother (Jessica Lange plays the older version). Helena Bonham Carter also has a role that is crucial to the story's development. Danny DeVito, Robert Guillaume and Steve Buscemi all have small but important parts as well.
Big Fish is a quintessential Burton film in that it celebrates people who inhabit the fringe of society. Much of the story dwells in Specter, a strange town with quirky inhabitants, but time is also spent at the circus, as Edward works his way up through the ranks under the big top. His boss (DeVito) turns out to be a weird beast in his own right. Edward also encounters a giant and a two-headed dancer in his travels.
Even as the film explores the people who humanity normally shuns, it also departs from the typical tone that Burton employs by being particularly bright, upbeat and sentimental. Not since Pee-Wee's Big Adventure has Burton employed so much color and positivity. Even the darker moments surrounding Edward's illness and William's conflicting feelings about his father are connected gently and seamlessly through the joyous journeys into the past.
John August's screenplay does take great liberties with the story detailed in the novel. Much is added or embellished, which is almost necessary given the brevity of the book. None of the expansion feels forced or off, though. It's perfectly in keeping with the story of a man whose life was truly monumental.
The Verdict
A strength of the movie versus the book is that the film creates a character who is so fascinating and intriguing that it's easy to get very caught up emotionally in the events that unfold before one's eyes. The novel, on the other hand, maintains an aloof distance from Edward, which works for the purposes of the story (William doesn't really know his father that well, after all), but simply couldn't do for the development of the character in the film. Though some people will certainly object to the sentimentality, it worked completely for me. Read the book to get the backbone of the tale and to understand Wallace's allusions and personal motivations, but for a complete and satisfying experience, you can't do much better than this wonderful film.
