Search - Julia on DVD

Sharon F. (Shar) from AVON PARK, FL
Reviewed on 7/21/2023...

Very interesting period piece.

Amy P. from LINCOLNTON, GA
Reviewed on 12/1/2011...

I really enjoy this movie . The setting , costumes and dialogue are very good . The story is great . Years ago I read a book that attempted uncover what happened to baby Julia . The author determined that the story is fiction . But I believe that The Resistance is still protecting Julia .

3 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.

MESMERIZING

R. Penola | NYC, NY United States | 12/21/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Fact or fiction, or a combination of both, taken on its own terms as a movie, Julia is astonishing and effective. The attention to detail in costumes, set decorations, props, locations dazzle you and place you squarely in another time and place. The performances, particularly the intimate friendship between Fonda as Hellman and Redgrave as Julia, blow you away. Redgrave embodies this brilliant character with knowing subtlety; you get the feeling she is Julia to some degree, and probably is. The exploration of adult friendship in a time of peril finds its center in a well-crafted suspense story that only ever hints at real danger, yet it is the slow and deliberate revelations regarding Julia's fate that provide tension and heartbreak. This is a purposely artful film, with its share of indulgence, but each one works as a part of a lovely whole. And the world Helman created in her story -- with its rich characters, both real and imagined -- is created here with an evocative freshness. Like a memory you love to call upon, this movie works best in total silence, except perhaps rain falling outside. Let it take you away."

Jane Fonda Comes of Age

C. MacNeil | Fort Wayne, IN USA | 11/20/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Too bad this one's out of stock, but worse was that the poltical backlash Vanessa Redgrave's Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech detracted from the film's importance. Despite that, "Julia" may well be the best work in Redgrave's and Jane Fonda's impressive bodies of work. For the latter, the film launched the socially-themed works that followed, and Fonda may well have come of age in this one. She plays writer Lillian Hellman to Redgrave's title character, an upper-class rich kid who grows into social activist and lays her life on the line to smuggle condemned Jews from the death camps of Hitler's Third Reich. Redgrave is superlative, and Fonda is rivting as Julia's childhood friend who gradually comes to recognize the evil unleashed by man on man at the time. As Julia's long-time lover, Dashell Hammitt, the late Jason Robards nailed down one of his back-to-back Supporting Actor Oscars ("All the President's Men" was the other), and the raw talent of the Fonda-Redgrave-Robards package helps make "Julia" one of Fonda's best works. The importance of the film's subject matter is so overwhelming that it easily displaces the Vietnam-related controvery that dogged (and may still) Fonda through the '70s and the unpopular words Redgrave used in her Oscar acceptance speech (she was literally booed off the stage). Far from a "chick flic," "Julia" is an important film that delves into but one relam in the darkest of human history, and it's earned a lofty spot among films of its genre."

Julia

John Farr | 09/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A wistful, compelling story about the power of female bonds and friendship. Fonda has never been better, Redgrave is luminous as the idealistic Julia, and Jason Robards conveys a worn assuredness as Hellman's husband, writer Dashiell Hammett. Zinnemann's handling of period detail in 1930s New York and Berlin is exquisite, and the film rightfully earned 11 Oscar nominations. A personal favorite."