A biography of Vincent Van Gogh.

Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn, how can you go wrong? that's what my film discussion group thought. Well, for one thing, Quinn (the best thing about this movie) is only onscreen for about 15 minutes, playing Paul Gauguin (excellently, by the way. A wonderful cameo, and historically accurate, according to Mr. Otter, who should know.).

Kirk? He's a WHINEYBOY. Yes, Van Gogh had SOMETHING wrong with him, the list goes on forever about people's speculations, everything from syphilis to bipolar disorder to schizophrenia. He was seriously messed up in his head, that's for sure. But all Douglas does is WHINE WHINE WHINE, and it got pretty tiresome.*

On the other hand, Quinn is worth seeing the whole movie for, and all the supporting actors were excellent. The period details were great, and the filmmakers even took care to make the backgrounds look like paintings of the period, either Van Gogh's or other impressionists'. That was wonderful to see too.

This one is worth seeing, but don't buy it, borrow it from your local library or get it from Netflix. Once is enough.

*Railroad David told me a story that was confirmed by one of my regulars at the film discussion: John Wayne castigated Douglas for playing such a whiner. Douglas' reply? "You're not really John Wayne, you know"...loved it!