Anyone else here a fan of "The Sweet Hereafter"?

I'm referring to the 1997 Atom Egoyan movie starring Ian Holm. I'm not a fan of Egoyan's other work, but this movie has haunted me since the day I saw it. I've seen it a bunch of times since then, and with every viewing I pick up on some detail I had missed before. Usually I don't go for the type of movie that requires multiple viewings to be fully appreciated, but this is a rare exception.

 

YES!!
I had seen siskel/ebert review it, kept it in mind and rented it a few years later. What a great, low key, melancholy film.

 

Yes, it's one of my favorite films. I still have the laser disc (and watch) the laser disc I bought long ago.

 

I saw it when it came out and quite enjoyed it. Which was a pleasant surprise, as I hadn't been a particular fan of Atom Egoyan before that. This was perhaps the first Egoyan film I saw that I wouldn't describe as "alienating" or "sterile".

 

The DVD, released in 1998, might be the best-looking early DVD I've seen. Even now in my Blu-ray player, it looks great.

 

I'm not just a huge fan of Egoyan (though I have been lax keeping up with his recent work, but wow, his first five or six films are just amazing). The Sweet Hereafter is one of the most moving films I know. Egoyan is great at analysing his own films, so it's worth checking out his commentaries. I just re-watched TSH for the first time in maybe ten years or more and it's just as deep, and I see more each time, too. The original US New Line DVD was great for extras, and the Canadian Alliance Blu-Ray is not only excellent, having the same extras, but it also has an updated commentary by Egoyan on the Blu-Ray (it's a DVD/Blu-Ray combo), in which he provides some fascinating insight about the incest side to the story and how it connects to something in his life, which I don't believe he revealed earlier. The original commentary with author Russell Banks (the novel superb, with a different structure) was excellent, too. Now, to the soundtrack: I just re-listened in full and it really has some great tracks and incidental music. I think Sarah Polley's singing is heavenly and Danna's compositions as ever are top-notch. Only on CD, I believe. For me, it's a close call between TSH and the superb The Adjuster, the former being slightly more polished.

 

It was an interesting film. It's based off of a disaster that happened in my area.

http://alton-tx.gov/about-alton/memorials/1989-mcisd-bus-accident/
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...ars-scars-from-Valley-bus-tragedy-1720128.php

 

Thanks. I only realised recently it had a connection to an actual bus crash. I have checked these links but I would guess you saw the film with a different eye to a lot of people?

 

Oh yeah. At first I think the consensus around here was why did they do a book and then a movie about it? Then the second question was well, why didn't they set the movie in the actual place where it happened. Big news story that year. a lot of deaths unfortunately. These kids would be in their late 30's and early 40's now. Such a tragedy but at least this peace of beautiful art came out of this ugly tragedy.

1989 was such a weird year around here. What with this tragedy happening and everybody being on edge due to the Matamoros Satanic Cult Murders, the Rio Grande Valley was certainly not a happy place to be at the time.

http://www.hollywoodunmasked.com/thematamorosmurders.html

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20120164,00.html

 

I don't know for sure if the novel was inspired (if that's the right word) by the tragedy but Egoyan definitely made a reference to it on one of the extras. I think sometimes it's much better to take something like this and transpose it to a different locale. Artistically, you then have great freedom and you have less chance of offending people and of making a direct profit out of it. I don't know for sure but I don't remember the actual accident being used in any way to promote the film. So this looks like the best outcome all around. I remember vaguely something happening in Hungary when I lived there in the 90s with kids dying in a bus at a level crossing. I just assumed this kind of thing either happened or could have happened or of course could happen any time, but now that I know about this specific event, it gives me one more thing to take into consideration.

I was about to write that Barry Shears' superb TV movie The Todd Killings (1971) did a superb job of recasting the Manson Murders, but now I read that it's based on a a similar case that took place in Tucson!

 

I loved this movie. The acting was fantastic, especially Sarah Polley. I think its Atom Egoyan's best work.

 

I'm not an expert on Atom Egoyan's films.... (I've only seen 4 of them: Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter, Where the Truth Lies, and Chloe)... but I liked this one quite a bit.
I don't think I had even heard of it until maybe a year or two ago when Roger Ebert mentioned it in another review, but he gave it such high praise that I decided to check it out.

 

Yes, it's really a thoughtful, unshirking and yet somehow gracefully optimistic exploration of a tragedy and its aftermath. Egoyan's style is more oblique and distanced than other directors, but the film seems much more authentic for that. No one seemed to be trying to emote their way into an academy award nomination.

 

Yes, that coolness and complete absence of sentimentality is one of the things I admire about him. I'm just watching his later The Devil's Knot - also about a tragedy/muder(?) involving young kids based on a true story, and it's good ... so far. Like his excellent Where The Truth Lies, it has Colin Firth.

 

The movie is fantastic and was what originally prompted me to look into Egoyan's other films which I found to be interesting but not as good. The casting was great. The cinematography quite beautiful. The movie has such an incredible blend of storytelling and mood. Egoyan unveils the story at an interesting pace which is slow and somewhat relaxing but builds an urgency that is dark on many levels. The soundtrack is one of my all time favorites. It is great to listen to in the cold depths of winter. I always thought Sarah Polley's singing was a great fit with the other ethereal instrumentals.

 

The shot of the baby girl and the hand with the knife remains one of the most devastating I have ever seen.

 

I don't know that I want to see this movie again. Devastating is indeed the word. I had a friend at the time who was facing a serious health crisis and the pent up emotion from that hit me as the credits rolled at the end of The Sweet Hereafter and I fell apart. Fortunately I was home watching it on DVD.

The songs by Sarah Polley are luminous, especially the cover of "Courage," and I still listen to them occasionally, but they have a deep dark undertow I associate with this film.

I've experienced plenty of death and loss and real life. This movie hits too close to home, which is a testament to how well made it is.