Release Date: November 25, 2014
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 97 minutes
The story of The Giver centers on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community’s memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community’s secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes that the stakes are higher than imagined – a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them all – a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before.
The Giver is without a doubt, one of the best book adaptations of the year and ever. And I must say, it’s quite lovely to have started out the year reading The Giver for the first time (review here) and now writing about the movie and the contents on the Blu-ray. Not to mention, meeting Lois Lowry at BEA. Lowry has said in interviews before that good things come to those who wait and boy, was the wait for this adaptation well worth it.
The world building was absolutely fantastic! The director and everyone involved did a superb job translating this world to the big screen. Talk about visually stunning. It’s not quite what I imagined but I love what’s here better than what was in my head actually. Not only the world but the screenwriter did a wonderful job with the script. I wouldn’t change a thing and that’s saying a lot for a book to movie adaptation. The cast, oh man, the cast. This cast was perfect. Yes, Jonas is older than what we read in the book but I don’t mind this Jonas at all.
As for the story, I love how incredibly simple and quiet this story is yet how largely complex it is at the same time and I think the movie did a great job with this balance. Of course, the book is better than the movie but my goodness, this movie came mighty close to capturing much of what I felt while reading and I can only encourage you all to both read the book and watch the film because both will move you.
Highlights from the Original Script Reading Featuring Lloyd Brdiges (40 minutes) – This is incredible and such a gem not only for fans of The Giver but for fans of the Bridges family. This is original footage from the script reading of The Giver about twenty years ago with the original script. This took place at Jeff Brdiges’ home. The reading includes Bud Cort as the Narrater, Dorothy Bridges as Chief Elder, Lloyd Bridges as The Giver, Dylan Bridges as Jonas, and the image of Lucinda Bridges as Rosemary. I am flabbergasted by how much the original script made it into the final script and final film over two decades later. That’s a true testament to not only the work that was being adapted but the adaptation itself. Absolutely brilliant and what a fascinating piece of Hollywood history here for all of us viewers to have at home.
Making The Giver: From Page to Screen (22 minutes) – This was great full of interviews with the cast and crew about how this film came together, not just on set and among each other and within their characters but also how it came together twenty years ago… which includes how Jeff Bridges continued to fight for the movie to get made all of these years. It was great to hear how much this film means to not only Jeff but those involved in bringing this story to life. It’s not necessarily a must see feature, especially if you’ve followed the interviews the cast and crew did on their press tours but if you missed most of that, this is the perfect feature to catch!
Appearing in this Feature:
Screenwriters, Robert B. Weide, Michael Mitnick
Author, Lois Lowry
Producer, Nikki Silver
Director, Phillip Noyce
Cast Members, Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites, Katie Holmes, Jeff Bridges, Alexander Skarsgård, Odeya Rush
Jonas’ Harrowing Journey: Extended Scene (9 minutes) – This is an extended scene of Jonas elsewhere, in the desert and mountains with Gabriel after running away and crossing the threshold, releasing all of the memories. Watching this harrowing experience with even more footage makes for an emotionally and maybe even physically draining experience but I’d recommend watching it at least one. I mean, I loved how it all led up to the sled and him realizing he was passing the threshold. But still, it was an awfully unnecessarily long scene so it’s no surprise this was condensed.
Press Conference with Filmmakers & Cast (35 minutes) – This is footage of the August 12, 2014 NYC press conference. Again, it’s nothing viewers haven’t heard before if they’ve followed the press tours but it is pretty special to have on the blu-ray as a bit of a comprehensive FAQ of this whole experience.
Appearing in this Feature:
Author, Lois Lowry
Screenwriters, Robert B. Weide, Michael Mitnick
Director, Phillip Noyce
Producer, Nikki Silver
Cast Members, Jeff Bridges, Taylor Swift, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush, Brenton Thwaites, Emma Tremblay, Cameron Monaghan
“Ordinary Human” Featurette with One Republic’s Ryan Tedder (2:43 minutes) – Some would think this feature isn’t necessary but Ryan Tedder is one of the most well respected songwriters of our time so this was really cool to see, him talk about the movie and the music that he made for it.
Author Lois Lowry on The Giver (3:35 minutes) – I loved watching Lois Lowry talk about what she thinks of the adaptation. It was very thoughtful which I appreciated as answers like these can be very simple and not really dive into genuine, unfiltered opinion.
Study Guide (minutes) – There are four sections to the study guide: Jonas Receives His Assignment at the Community Ceremony, Jonas Receives the Memory of Color from The Giver, Jonas Struggles with Memories of Pain & Cruelty, and Jonas Asks His Parents About Love. The guide contains a clip of the scene it’s aligned with as well as teaching suggestions (appropriate for students in middle school) which includes a synopsis, activity, themes, a correspondence to the novel, and tasks for the classroom. What a great tool for not just the classroom but book clubs as well!
Own The Giver on Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD November 25, 2014.