Big Fish (Special Edition, with Collectible Book)

Good movie, gets ya right in the heart.

Love this, live this daily....it just means a ton to me and symbol and metaphor to my own journey. It is hard to explain to those who live sheltered, or safe lives....but this is representative of the style, system of the way I have lived since well before seeing it, and a review just brings it all to focus that epic lives are lives lived epically, and the town you live in may be too small for you, time to live bigger....

Perfectly-casted! I can't help but fall in love with the characters and the cinematography - the story line is incredible too. I always feel so good after watching this movie and I love Tim Burton!!!

This was a fun story to watch. Sometimes it seemed a little bit exaggerated but that was what the story was about. If you have not watched this take a chance on it, I feel like you will enjoy it

If you miss your late father like I do, this movie will be special. Not because your late Dad was like the Dad in Big Fish, but because you realize the world lost a good man.I think the proper word for The Dad in Big Fish is a Fabulist? A guy that tells amazing stories? Well that's what this Dad does. And all his stories are about his life and feature him. This Dad's stories are fantastic and colorful, but you can sense his stories are grounded in facts that really happened in this man's life.The trouble in Big Fish was that this Dad wasn't really there for his son, as his son grew up. And when he was around, the son would have to suffer through his Dad owning the room with his long, colorful stories. His Dad had time for others apparently, and the Dad had plenty of time to hear himself talk, but the Dad really never was a Dad to his son. The son grew to resent his Dad and quit speaking to him. But now Dad's dying, and it's time for the Final Visit.And that's where director Tim Burton works his magic. The Big Fish assembles an all-star cast that brings the Dad's stories to life. And the stories are colorful, flamboyant, and fun. You enjoy seeing them as the Dad recalls them for the final time.But Burton also starts working the true backgrounds for the stories into the movie, and starts working the son's reconciliation with his father - in the father's final days - into the movie. And in the ending, Tim Burton shows the viewer what the son learned in the end, about his Dad.... his Dad Was What He Was. He Couldn't Help It. His Dad really did some interesting things and helped a lot of people. And people loved him. Dad was The Big Fish. So the son finally accepted his Dad.Tim Burton really does a good job with this movie. It will be special to any son who has lost his Dad. A Dad that the son didn't fully know, that could be annoying, but who was a good man at heart and who was loved by many. Four Stars for Big Fish, arguably Five.

Edward Bloom (Albert Finney in a terrific performance) is a story-teller. His estranged son Will believed these stories much long than he should have and now, in his late 20's, deeply resents his father for having misled him and for (as he supposes) using the stories to avoid a deeper connection with his family and to cheat on his wife. With Edward on his death bed, Will returns to Alabama, along with his pregnant wife, and tries to reconnect with his father. The film is the story of Edward’s life as told through Edward’s own stories. There is a fair amount of exaggeration, invention, and magic. It is not giving away too much to say that Will discovers that he had misjudged his father. As he rehears and, now, investigates these stories, Will comes to see some of the truth behind them but also, more importantly, that the stories are the way that Edward chose to be with his family and to leave them something of himself. It is a mistake to judge them and his father by their literal truth. I found this film incredibly moving. Every child coms into consciousness when their parent’s life is about half over; and even when much time remains, it is impossible to appreciate a parent’s life as the parent lived it. So, a parent’s life is mostly remembered and appreciated through story and not so much the content of the story but the meaning of the story is what a parent passes on. It’s good to know, too, that other people should not be judged on the literal truth of their stories so much as on what those stories convey. The same might be said about certain politicians.

This movie might hit you in the feels if you are a genuinely decent person. If you are a tired and jaded McGregor hater, you will not change your opinion based upon his bewildered, slack jawed, wide eyed, and cringeworthy impersonation of Forrest Gump’s voice.

Although I have yet to read the book on which the movie was made I loved the movie because of the imaginative storyline and the marvelous acting by the lead players. I like to share this movie with my graduate students to demonstrate life's possible varied journey, and to encourage their imagination to face life's problems and opportunities. Giving freely to others and being kind to others less fortunate than ourselves even under difficult circumstances was a theme throughout the movie. Albert Finney was a marvelous actor whose career covered a huge variety of characters. We are the poorer for his passing

I bought this film after watching a renovation programme on Discovery plus where the town of Wetumpka in Alabama was given a whole town makeover with some featured properties such as the Big Fish House being completely renovated. The house featured in the film is in this town and many references were made to the film and how good it is. I bought the film but was disappointed. It starts well and intends to show the adventures of Albert Finney's character through his life but it sort of gets lost. It ends up part reality, part fantasy and loses power because of that. There are some good moments but overall I don't think I will watch it again despite being a real Albert Finney fan. I was also disappointed that the house doesn't feature particularly heavily in the film so that I don't think I would have recognised it if it hadn't been pointed out in the Discovery plus programme.I have to say that the Discovery plus programme 'Home Town Takeover' where well known renovators Ben and Erin Napier from the programme 'Home Town' along with regular visits from other renovators , transformed the town was great!!

Enter Review forBig Fish (2003)Congratulations! Your review is ready for submission. Click Submit below to finish entering your review.SubmitReview preferences: (edit)Name: Dr Jacques COULARDEAULocation: Olliergues, FrancePreview:Summary: We are all the mythical fish of some one else*** This review may contain spoilers ***The film is well done and we can see here and there some images that are recalling elements of other films by Tim Burton, like an image resembling the basic image of The Nightmare Before Christmas. There are many more, well, at least a few. That's the sign of a man who wants to build a complete set of films, that is able to connect his films with some bonds and strings to make them a whole and not just isolated tit bits. But more than that the film also uses allusions to works that are not Tim Burton's. We definitely cannot miss the allusion to Twilight Zone in that village lost in the forest and we automatically think it must be a village beyond life, hence the hero must have died along the way, maybe with the jumping spiders. We will only know it is not the case at the very end of the film.The first problem touched by Tim Burton is the absence of relation between a son and a father because the father always told stories and after the happy age of six or seven children know what a story is and that it is not true. But the father was always telling his own story of what had happened to him though it was wrapped up in such a bazaar of useless things, useless because unreal but essential because the father lived in them, such a bazaar of strange things that the son came to the point of being embarrassed by the stories because he could not believe in them and was ashamed by his father telling what he considered lies. They were lies for him and in fact they were stories for everyone else and the father was a story teller, a man who was able to provide others with dreams. It took the son quite a few days visiting his father after several years of complete non-communication, when the father was in the process of dying, for the son to understand that in fact the father was happy and made people around him happy, including himself and his son, by telling these "false stories" that were true to ,his heart, to his mind, to his being himself even if it is in a field of daffodils, thousands and thousands of daffodils, which is the purest lie you can imagine, especially on the quadrangle of a college campus.The lesson for the son is that he was embarrassed because HE was seeing these stories as lies, because he considered he could not know his father, reach out to him.But the lesson about the father is a lot more interesting. It is a lesson for everyone. It is what Tim Burton is doing all the time to us. The stories are absolutely true, including in the impossible elements because they reveal the man who is telling them. Tim Burton is his films and we have the right to consider that his films are transparent loincloths of various colors that reveal all that should be hidden, at least in public. The stories a man, a film maker is telling are the blood and flesh and some other fluids of the man and the film maker.This is a crazy idea but a beautiful consideration. One cannot tell one's private activities in bed, in the bedroom or wherever. But One can always tell some stories about some events that happened to him that are a metaphor of his most intimate and perverse and masochistic and sadistic impulses he cannot satisfy in any way. Here the Circus master is a werewolf. How silly, but how true about a man who is an exploiter of people right down and through till he gets to their life itself and who can set up the death of a small circus person so that it becomes a reason for the circus to be famous or infamous. What about putting your head in a lion's mouth? Courage? For sure. But the master is going to save some money if the lion bites because he has insurance and the circus will be more than famous. So a werewolf or not?The son will understand that so well in the last minutes of his father's life that he will tell his father what will happen after his death but just five minutes before, as a story of his escape and rejuvenation, renascence, salvation: in the story he will become the legendary big fish he has never been able to catch. A man is the stories he tells. A woman maybe too, but Tim Burton hardly deals with women, hardly knows women, hardly dares to say anything about women, or so little, so far at least.That's what makes this film touching and sensitive but is that a philosophy, a catharsis, a sublimation of one's evil or is it a lie, a pure lie, an illusion thrown to the masses to be their new opium?I will not choose and be sure I consider opium as a respectable means to meditate on one's alienation by hooking up on this addictive habit. It is a real choice and so many people get into alcoholism or drug addiction just not to have to choose between sublimation and meditation, catharsis and lying.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

If you can accept a certain proportion of twee content, Big Fish provides a certain charm from the Forrest Gump school, plus a sobering reminder of the emotions we all go through when our fathers pass away.The imaginative tall stories are told magnificently, with great credit to both Albert Finney and Ewen McGregor for weaving the spell to such good effect. On the negative side, some of the lumbering scriptwork for Billy Crudup as the son checking out his father's past detracts from the pace, though used as a device to rediscover the town of Spectre and the father's unspoken role in rebuilding it. It seems an intrusion to impose a note of unwelcome reality on the stories to prove or disprove them. Proving the stories to be largely true seems irrelevant to the impact, much like uncovering the mechanics behind a magician's tricks.The casting is eccentric but works remarkably well, particularly the use of British actors in American roles. McGregor performs with zest and vigour, and Finney is entirely believable as the older storyteller. Helena Bonham Carter comes over well in two roles, especially in heavy make-up as the old witch (no more typecasting in period roles!) Look out for other strange cameos too: Danny DeVito as a circus ringmaster and the folk singer Loudon Wainwright III as the mayor of Spectre.Like the curate's egg, Big Fish is very good in parts. It rambles, but ultimately draws together the threads in a finale. In that respect, it reminded me of Lindsay Anderson's epic Oh Lucky Man - not quite satisfying in the final analysis, but a spectacular journey to get there.

Saw the tail end of this on the TV, liked it and wanted to watch it all. Scoured the internet and found best price and delivery option from Amazon. Delivered next day, thanks to Amazon Prime. Watched it and found it to be a warm-hearted story with a partially unexpected ending. In a nutshell, Albert Finney plays the part of a Father, the younger version of which is played by Ewan McGregor, he recalls stories of his life to his son, most of which seem believable. But as the son grows older he decides he is unable to believe his dad's 'fairytales'. Nearing the end of his life the father meets the son after a long period of absence and the son is about to become a father himself. What happens next I will not reveal as it gives away a good part of the story. Buy it and see. Suitable for all the family.

One of my all time favourite films,it wwill play with your emotions all through the film especially the ending,brilliant acting and a great storyline,you won't have watched another film like this,many great actors in this film including danny de vito as the circus owner,the story is mainly aimed at a father and his son who really is fed up with his fathers long winded stories of brave daring exploits during the war and his life,I cannot recommend this film highly enough,I have seen it many times and I'm sure you will to,please buy it.