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Product Details
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2004, The Sea Inside is a life-affirming film about a man who wishes to die. That may seem like a massive contradiction, but in the hands of director Alejandro Amenábar (Open Your Eyes, The Others) and actor Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls), this fact-based Spanish drama concerns the final days of Ramón Sampedro, the quadriplegic poet who waged a controversial campaign for his right to die. He was denied this right for 30 years, and ultimately arranged for his own assisted suicide, but this remarkable film--and Bardem's keenly intelligent performance--examines the hotly-debated issue of assisted suicide with admirable depth and humanity, just as Sampedro did until his death in 1998. For Sampedro, death was preferable to severe paralysis (he even refused to use a wheelchair), but the film does not suggest a "disposable" attitude toward disability. Instead, it's a thoughtful meditation on life and love as gifts to be cherished, and a challenging drama that begs each viewer to examine their own personal beliefs about what makes life worth living. You may not agree with Sampedro and his ultimate denial of life, but The Sea Inside will urge you to ponder how you would react under similar circumstances, and that makes it a profoundly meaningful film. --Jeff Shannon
Product Reviews
 (5 stars) - Life Examined
I watched "The Sea Inside" last night with a minimum of expectations. My interest was based on knowing that it was about a quadriplegic since I am happily married to a quadriplegic woman. By the time the movie was over, I had been thoroughly immersed in an emotionally absorbing drama of a man and his struggles with his physical limitations. In the course of the movie, I became very impressed with the level of character development and the quality of the relationships that emerged in the film. The dialogue was first rate, the acting was superb and the director, well, Alejandro Amenabar was involved in virtually all aspects of the film. I even noticed that he had the lone credit as the Musical Director. This film is a masterpiece.
Unfortunately, "The Sea Inside" leads, for me, to an unwanted conclusion. That does not take anything away from the quality of the film. It's just that I was like Rosa; wanting to explain everything I could to change Ramon's mind (not respecting the fact that he had spent 28 years making this decision). In reality, the quality of the charater and relationship development was the source of the reasons to persevere. Why back out when love is all around you. All viewers will be challenged to judge Ramon's decision but none can honestly deny that "The Sea Inside" gives a pretty comprehensive examination of his wishes.
I thought about "The Sea Inside" and how it compares to Eastwood's "Millian Dollar Baby". I thought "Million Dollar Baby" was a 5 Star film in it's brilliant depiction of Eastwood's character sacrificing everything he believed in to honor his friend's wishes. "The Sea Inside" has that very same scenario but it also has so much more.
(5 stars) - The Sea Inside
I purchased this as a request from one of our Instructor for their Modern Languages course. An excellent video which I received in good condition.
 (3 stars) - The poetry ain't in the pity
This film had all the tediousness and uncomfortability of living with an invalid and doing nothing about it. For a movie about a quadriplegic, it was far too mobile. I have no more idea what being completely physically incapacitated is like after watching it than I did before. While quite biting issues such as keeping someone alive to make others feel better are brought up, we're given little view of how the mooning of others affects the ebb and flow of the tempest inside--which the title promises to deliver upon. Instead, we're left more with the same smile that Ramon has learned to give his caregivers while crying. Which brings me to the most important problem with this film: to create a work of art about dignity, above all, dignity must be sacrificed. If this is a film not about dignity, but about Ramon, it would seem he either underestimated what a luxury dignity is, or coveted his to the point of contemptible selfishness. Or he was shortchanged here.
The time wasted on the legal garbage and such holds the film back, and what it does begin to do well, such as the interesting juxtaposition between loss of mind and loss of body in his romantic relationship, or the occasional dream-sequencey moment, it doesn't do enough of. I don't know the history of any of these people or events, but I do know that external reality can be an enemy of a film in which the internal should be paramount. Forget being neat, clean and factual: the poetry's in the peat, not the pity.
(5 stars) - Quite Moving, Indeed.
I watched this movie for the second time. It's been in my collection for over a year now and I finally got a buddy to watch it with me. He was apprehensive to watch this movie because of the sensitive subject matter. I sort of tricked him into watching it tonight and he loved it. I'm so glad to have rediscovered this film already in my collection.
I could relate to some degree with what it's like to live with someone who is disabled as my father suffered from Muscular Dystrophy. MD is a degenerative disease which tragically people succumb to after a arduously long degenerative battle. This story will hit a nerve for the loved ones who have or have had family members affected with a degenerative disease.
I thought the movie was exceptionally well done. A story well told which managed to extract a few tears here and there from me. This is a story poetically directed and expressed about the elegiac life changing misfortune that Sampedro endured.
(5 stars) - The Sea Inside AWESOME MOVIE for upper level SPANISH CLASSES
I teach Spanish 3 & 4 and use this movie every year. Although it's a controversial topic, the students really enjoy discussing the theme and seeing the movie. Some students have said this is one of the best films they have ever seen. It really gets kids talking and thinking of what "quality of life" really means and who has the right to decide.
Although it's all in Spanish, I keep on the English subtitles to help students understand the Castillian accent, which they're not used to hearing that often. The subtitles don't diminish the power of this film. Buy it today!
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