Raggedy Man

Description

Sissy Spacek stars in this bittersweet drama about a young mother, her two sons and the mysterious benefactor who touches them all. Frustrated by her dead-end job as a telephone operator and divorced from her drunken second husband (Sam Shepard), Nita finds comfort and understanding in the arms of a passing sailor (Eric Roberts). When he leaves, Nita resolves to pick up her boys and start a new life. But first she must confront backstabbing townspeople and the violent Triplett brothers (William Sanderson and Tracey Walker) in this suspense-tinged story of being scared, being alone, being in love and being strong enough to face the truth.

Customer Reviews:

Great 80s movie in made-for-tv version. Universal screws up again........2007-07-05

I got to see the second half of this movie on one of those free weekends when HBO tried to get people to subscribe by giving regular cable people access. I thought it was quite a moving tale of a mother raising 2 children in Texas. I kept looking for it to reappear somewhere, but never did. So I was excited to see that it came to DVD, but unfortunately it's being released by Universal (probably the worst in terms of quality of the disc, extras & quality of transfer) of the majors for DVD releases. No surprise then that this one misses the boat too. This dvd presents the edited (PG) for HBO (full screen), not an anamorphic (1.85) presentation of the original (rated R) theatrical release, which is a shame for a film that won 2 golden globes.

a lovely gem with fine acting.......2007-05-09

A nice little film from the early 80s, with a very young Henry Thomas as one of Sissy Spacek's two sons. A divorced woman struggles to survive loneliness and menacing men in rural Texas during WW2. Great work by Spacek and the director, her husband, Jack Fisk. Also watch for Eric Roberts as the man she falls for but cannot have, and for William Sanderson, the great character actor, as one of the two menacing men from town who come to terrorize her.

Major underrated treasure .......2006-03-15

This movie is superb in every imaginable way: the photography, the fidelity to the WWII era in small-town America (I know: I grew up in the 40s in a Texas town just like this one with a telephone/telegraph office-in-a-home), flawless casting, fine writing, inspired directing, mesmerizing story and gratifying resolution. (Sissy and Eric will meet again, I have no doubt.)

This is one of the very few movies I've thought worth buying to watch again & again.

Really Good Forgotten Movie.......2006-01-28

I just watched Raggedy Man for the first time in probably 20 years. The movie still holds up as the people I watched it with, who have verying tastes all thought it was a really good movie. The consensus was also that nobody had ever heard of it. This movie stars a very young Sissy Spacek and Eric Roberts and they do a great job. It also has some very recognizable character actors filling out the cast and Sam Shepard in a pivotal role. This movie takes place during World War II on the home front. Most of the men are old or older men and men who couldn't make it into the military for one reason or another. Sissy Spacek is a divorced mother of two wonderful little boys, one played by Henry Thomas of E.T. and Gangs of New York fame. She works as the town switchboard and is stuck in a dead end job trying to raise her two boys on her own. She is seen as a "dee-vor-say" which back in that time meant that she was probably "loose". The towns folk are mostly good people but judgemental and a bunch of nosey gossips. There are also a couple of ex-convict brothers who are redneck jerks who have their eyes set on Sissy's character. Eric Roberts is a young sailor on leave for 4 days before he ships out who meets Spacek and her two boys and hits it off with them much to the scorn of the prudes and gossips in the town.

This movie is a sweet and tender movie but it does have some violent content that is not for everybody but nothing graphic such as is todays standard. The movie is a forgotten and until recently out of print gem. Check it out.

Excellent story and cinematography..........2005-12-31

I remember seeing this film for the first time when it played on HBO back in the early 80's. I was just getting into photography at the time, and I was immediately struck by the masterful use of light and composition that this film exhibited. It was almost as if the great story and interesting characters were a bonus to the photography! Especially appealing to me is the opening sequence, where the car's headlights are shown through the sheer curtains of the house at night, then the camera follows them as they move across the walls of Sissy Spacek's bedroom, stopping on a family photo, with a small porcelain flower's shadow showing on the face of the family photo. If you appreciate great photography, this is it!

Other noticeably great photographic sequences include the thunderstorm, where the power goes out while Nita and her new sailor friend, Teddy Roebuck, are talking to each other across the kitchen table. The room goes completely dark, and we see both characters illuminated only by the flashing of the lightning bolts through the window, and by a cigarette lighter. Another occurs when Teddy brings Nita a pair of stockings, and she holds them up to inspect them, pushing her hand into them while the backlight of a candle on the kitchen table gives a very soft iridescence and glow to her silhouetted arm, while she and Teddy hold hands. Then, too, there is the masterful use of light coming from a hidden part of the room where Nita is taking a bath, which illuminates her from the side with a warm glow, while the troublemaker Triplet brothers window peep outside her house.

This is one of those great sleeper movies that are seldom known or seen, but are quiet gifts when found. From an industry which I generally tend to loathe in this day and age, I recognize and classify "Raggedy Man" as a movie made by masters of their craft. It is both a feast for eyes and ears.

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