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Cradle Will Rock (1999)

Director: Tim Robbins

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From Time Out Film Guide

Writer/director Robbins' lightly fictionalised re-creation of the events leading up to Welles and Houseman's historic staging of Marc Blitzstein's Federal Theater Project musical is perhaps a little too long and (inevitably) theatrical for its own good, but it makes a very decent stab at evoking the social, political and artistic fervour of mid-'30s New York. The script cleverly integrates the numerous plot strands - Rockefeller becoming an unlikely bedfellow of Diego Rivera, an Italian diplomat selling Da Vincis to rich Manhattanites to gain funds for Mussolini, Blitzstein haunted by his dead wife and the spirit of Brecht - while never losing sight of the central themes of idealism and prostitution, loyalty and betrayal; moreover, Robbins elicits some very affecting performances from his expertly cast ensemble, so that the final, short-lived triumph is authentically stirring.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Tim Robbins

Producer: Jon Kilik, Lydia Dean Pilcher

Cast: Emily Watson, John Turturro, Hank Azaria, Susan Sarandon, John Cusack, Angus MacFadyen, Cary Elwes, Vanessa Redgrave, Bill Murray, Joan Cusack full cast

Duration: 133 mins


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