The Giver

It was so good! Oh wow, it might have been even better than the book and I do not say this about many movies. It ACTUALLY might have been better than the book!

it make me feel,thats why i love cinema

Let me start by saying, I have never read the book.... but I believe I will now.
What a powerful movie! Very simple and yet the message is so wonderfully clear. I wish all of those trying to rewrite history or change the structure of today's society, would take the time to sit down, with an open mind, and view this.

Great movie, I had to watch a dystopian movie for school and chose this over the others, I think I made the right choice - Well at first I almost watched it in Russian so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

8/10 Great story! Would recommend

I find it interesting how most dystopian books and movies/series's have sacrifice - In this movie they showed sacrifice in the way that Jonas had the courage and bravery to go for it, to try and bring back all memories to the world. He risked his life so that they could know emotion, pain, love, and more.

I thoroughly enjoyed.

I had to either watch Hunger Games, Divergent or The giver - I chose this over the others, but I still have to watch the others but will do so at a later date (Might watch Divergent next week maybe)

I read the book in high school so I don’t recall much of it to compare here, but I remember liking it. Perhaps I’ll reread it, because I enjoyed this movie. The message was excellent and still relevant and we did we the effects of late stage capitalism.

Here are some random thoughts.

The message of how the past and emotions are needed to not repeat mistakes. Their Utopia would have worked if they didn’t try to remove emotion all together. Not only was this an impossible task as we saw it bleed through in the small things. Like Asher helping or the father trying with Gabe. And while I did not care for the romance in this movie their relationship felt weird, the touches and looks were there before she missed her injection. And the chef elder was definitely giving anger. Idk if they don’t take injections either but she was getting increasingly upset and even evil in how she wanted to deal with Jonas. The idea was flawed and possibly just a way to make citizen okay with killing each other because you’d have to do a lot of population trimming to get to their numbers and not over populate again.

Considering everything in our culture right now is so anti-capitalism, and anti-freedom, I’m surprised they made this movie in the first place. Anyways this movie is a great modern day story about the utopia that so many people desperately strive for, but will never work. It’s also kind of scary because you can definitely see a future in our near future that’s close to the society that this movie takes place in.

I'm actually surprised this doesn't have a higher rating. It was quite good. Maybe I just has low expectations going into it.

Jeff Bridges is amazing. I am loving his roles now that he is older. He had great roles when he was young, then for a while most of his roles seemed like he was wasted, and now he has an air of perspective and wisdom. He isn't the diverse actor that Meryl Streep is, but he can play this type of role as well, if not better, than anyone else I can think of. His expressions of the memory of joy or sorrow is staggeringly powerful. It is the expression of having known the feeling with great intensity, but to also have detachment from those feelings. What he conveys as he talks is a wonderful dichotomy with Meryl Streep. With Meryl Streep it is what she doesn't convey that is so wonderful.

I was little disappointed in Meryl Streep, or at least the director and writers. While she is very good in this, it was one of her less satisfying performances. I think she needed a bit more screen time to flesh out the character. The director should have added some screen time for that. This is a fairly short movie, so adding 5 to 10 minutes would be fine. There were unexplored dimensions to her character that were hinted at in her expressions, but we're left out. As mentioned above, we learn a lot from her character by what is hidden and not said, yet pieced together from expressions throughout the film. This is part of what makes her performance so good and also why her character was so frustrating to watch. You can tell there is more there. More to be explored. More to learn about what her character knows and doesn't know and why she is the way she is. But we don't get to see any of it.

Plot wise, this is somewhat similar to other utopian/dystopian stories. In a way, I am greatly reminded of Aeon Flux. However, the story is fresh and has it's own nuances without rehashing stories that came before. My biggest gripe is [spoiler]that The Giver never tells the Chief Elder she is sanctioning murder and just using a different term. She says things are better off this way, but he never corrects her reasoning. The Giver has a sort of a circular ramble, that while moving, isn't as powerful as it should have been.[/spoiler]

It also would have been nice to have a bit of a conclusion. There is more to the story that should have been told. A little more of a wrap up. The abrupt ending does not fit with the rest of the telling of the story.

Please write in persistence of language :)

A welcome antidote to the flux of YA dystopian tales, this is a good film marred only by a sudden ending. The novel on which the film is based, was written before the likes of Divergent and Hunger Games and so the film can be forgiven of its similarities. This is concerned less with sci-fi action, however. Its focus is hope and a future after society has been neutralised thanks to decades of war and inhumanity.

Worth watching and its message is worth considering.

I just read the book so I decided to rewatch this. I like the movie better than the book. It has an outstanding cast and it was more hopeful.