Going All the Way [1997] [DVD]

This 1997 humorous dark drama focuses on two discharged soldiers who return home to Indiana in 1954 both changed by their experiences away. ‘Sonny’ Burns [Jeremy Davies] is the introvert who returns to the well meaning but overpowering parents he joined the army to escape from, and the ex-high school sweetheart ‘Buddy’ [Amy Locane] with whom he has a sex based relationship. ‘Gunner’ [Ben Aflick] on the other hand is the archetypical high school ‘jock’ who’s got it all, a Yale education, confident, outgoing, popular, a ladies man and is everything Sonny is not. But how will the mens friendship fare when they are seemingly worlds apart and new women come into their lives?This badly titled movie, suggests a frivolous teen movie, but this is actually a deep characterisation. Opening to a typically ‘50s soundtrack and period illustrative title sequence it sets a strong period feel, which is captured in the photography, music and sets, featuring some great acting from the all star cast. Gradually we see Sonny become more reckless before crashing into depression as ‘black sheep’ Gunner actually takes on a more mature outlook.This single disc is a bare bones offering only play and scene selection. Rated as 15 it has some strong swearing, bigoted opinions, topless nudity, a masturbation scene, and some low key non-explicit sex scenes. It’s a ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Thelma and Louise’ collides with ‘Pearl Harbour’ but inexplicably never reaches any of their heights, remaining a late evening social drama with some really funny scenes to balance the dark ones. I feel I should mark it down, but honestly can’t find a solid reason to do so.

We've seen it before: boy returns to stifling mid-west town and tries to escape, but this has real heart and Ben Affleck plays an unusual character: a reformed jock who befriends the nerdy Davies. The direction is intimate, with some great use of sound to portray emotion. A little gem.The Anchor Bay DVD is barebones: the transfer is OK but there are no extras. The aspect ratio is incorrectly stated as 4:3 letterbox on the case - it is actually 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.

i was bored & it will send u too sleep ben afflack is a brilliant actor but i was not impressed with him in this film