God's Own Country

One of the reviewers writes that God's Own Country is no Brokeback Mountain. True it's not like the latter film, but it's just fine and powerful. There is great emotions and feeling to this film, about a man discovering his capacity to love, tenderly brought to the surface by a Romanian immigrant/worker to England. The character John Saxby is a lonely gay man who has few social skills, and when it comes to loving, he's almost totally ignorant. And he has a drinking problem. God smiles on him by sending to him a a Christ-like young man, who with his beard somewhat looks like Christ, and who happens to be a superb shepherd not only of sheep but of John (cf the lord is my shepherd"). John needs/craves tenderness and love, and he finally receives both and it transforms him. The angry young man transforms into a maturer man, one capable of sensitivity and love. He's basically a good man, but the burden of assuming the responsibility of his father's sheep/cattle farm is too much for him. He finds escape from his problems and his lack of love in booze and casual sex. The family has hired a Romanian to assist him. On their first trip alone together to repair a stone wall out on the moors, they young men become intimate. There's a D.H. Lawrence-like wrestling scene where the two fight each other until they both succumb to sex (Lawrence's men don't go all the way). This is the beginning of their relationship. The story occurs in Yorkshire. One thinks of the Brontes, especially Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I don't think it's farfetched to call this a gay Wutheriing Heights, the biggest difference being that God's Own Country not a tragic story. The two young men come together at the end of the film, after one of the most beautiful acting scenes I've ever encountered in a film when John finds his friend and reveals his love by finally saying, "I want to be with you." Very powerful scene, and the two actors should be very proud of this scene, as well as the director. Now about the two actors. One reviewer lamented that the two lead actors aren't very good looking. I beg to differ. Josh O'Connor has what has often been called "rugged good looks." He's the perfect actor for this role because John Saxby lives on a rugged terrain, stones and rock everywhere. O'Connor's face is one of angles and grooves and cheekbones like rocky cliffs. He has a sensual mouth and large expressive eyes. He's a handsome man. The other actor, Alec Secareau, is also a good looking man. I'm wondering if the director Lee Francis hired him because his face has a Christ-like quality. He has small, sensitive features, a kind mouth and eyes. As for their naked bodies, both actors have nothing to be embarrassed about. They are strapping young men, and it's all we need to know and to see. Now their acting. Josh O'Connor is an extraordinarily gifted actor. He has stripped off all his own personal masks to play this role. To make himself so vulnerable, well, it took him a lot of courage to play this part. He reminds me of the great actor, Spencer Tracy, another actor with rugged good looks. I think O'Connor will have a great acting career, and I hope he chooses his roles wisely. I hope he doesn't make the mistakes Nicholas Hoult is making, the latter a gifted actor who's staring in awful movies. Well, let him make the money while he can, and he can later take on better films. The other actor, Alec, is also gifted. He has the gentler role so he doesn't leap off the screen the way Josh does. But he has his moments when the screen is all his. Two talented actors. The actors who play the mother and father are also talented, and they play their roles perfectly, a minimalistic style worthy of the film. As a review already noted, they convey so much by their eyes. Excellent actors, surely pros and it shows, Gemma Jones and Ian Hart. This movie is now up there with my favorite gay film Tom Ford's A Single Man. I'm not sure if the director has deliberately employed religious symbolism, but to this viewer, there seems to be much to suggest Christianity. There's the gentleness of the Romanian worker who looks like Christ. We see him save sheep, feel them, show them affection. When John hurts his hand, G.. the Romanian, takes his hand and spits on it to clean it of infection. G. teaches John to love. Later, John's wound on his hand looks like the pierced palm of Christ, which G. licks. Of course, there is the appellation given to the apostle, John the Beloved of Christ. Don't know if I'm reaching in this, but there is a meal, prepared by G. for John and himself. There is the swimming scene. the sunrise scene. And on the bus, the iconic image of John with his head on G's shoulder. A lovely image, so like holy icons of Christ and the Beloved John. Wish I could speak to the director Francis Lee about this. My gut feeling is that Lee wants us to think of both John the apostle and Christ. Such a film as this Christianizes gay love. And of course there is the title with the word "God." Yes, the director must want us to think in spiritual terms. . . . Powerful scenes The wrestling scene Sharing of the salt Sharing of a cigarette Watching the sunset together (John's first time?) Teaching John to kiss (John's first time kissing?) The E.M. Forster-like swimming scene (baptism of love?) Teaching John the tenderness of a finger's touch John touching his ill father (first time?) John bathing his stroke-struck father The fight between the young men after John drinks too much and is unfaithful, and Geo. leaving John lonely for G, and his mother giving G's address to him, written on a piece of paper, she knows her son John finding G, the MOST POWERFUL SCENE, and his revelation of love The driving home together on the bus together, John sleeping on G's shoulder Taking away of the mobile van The young men entering the house together, for life?

This is an incredibly made movie for any who like a nice romantic movie. Yes, it’s primarily targeted to the gay community, but it’s still a well made movie that most people will enjoy. In some ways, it’s very similar to a European version of “Brokebake Mountian.” That’s been mentioned by several other reviewers, but this movie ends on a much happier note. Not to give to much away about this movie, there are some scenes that are sexual in nature, as there should be in any type of a romantic movie. Nothing X-rated by any means. It’s a great story with a great ending which is extremely hard to find in movies in this genre! The movie takes place in the U.K. and it has a lot of beautiful scenery and extremely realistic qualities that make you feel like your watching someone’s life story, not just a movie. It’s not like most films targeted toward the gay audience where it just ends and you ask yourself or your significant other, “What just happened?” It’s not one of those movies where you either feel like the production company ran out of money or somehow you missed the whole point of the entire movie. We have purchased far too many films in this genre where you devote a couple of hours or less of time only to be left without any idea as to how the story you just watched truly ends. They Just start rolling the credits and you are wondering, “Well, what happened?” It happens so often that it’s become a running joke in our home that when a movie just ends, one of us always says, “I guess they ran out of money!” This movie is great for those who want a great romantic movie that’s made well, has substance, great acting, and has an actual ending to the movie. It’s not that typical movie with just a bunch of naked guys running around with no real plot to the movie. We’ve watched this movie several times as it’s that good, unlike many others we’ve purchased and only watched once. This movie stars the actor Josh O’Connor who also stars in the well made and very interesting PBS series “The Durrell’s in Corfu” where he plays a young writer. He shacks up with an older woman whom he spends most of his days in bed with. It’s a very good series and the books this interesting show is based on are equally as good! I’m extremely impressed with O’Connor’s ability to play diverse roles that many other actors would never consider. It shows a great range of talent and the ability to play roles without feeling like they will get typecast by a part in one movie. More actors are not afraid to play a gay role and it just proves that gay people should be seen as equals just as heterosexuals are in the world. Love is love!

I cannot heap enough praise on this film. It is bleak but beautifully shot at the same time. The dialogue is sparse but the emotions of the characters are very apparent each time they open their mouths. This plays out a bit like a version of "Brokeback Mountain" where two guys discover one another while off on a trip to care for the sheep owned by the family of one of the men. It starts on a farm where the father, due to stroke, is unable to carry on with the day-to-day business of running the farm. This task falls on the shoulders of his son, who is very unhappy, believes his father sees him as unable (and possibly unworthy) of running the farm "properly". His escape is to drink to excess and have anonymous sexual encounters with men. He is unable to make more than physical contact with anyone. The father is critical of almost every move the son makes to the point that the son is about to explode in frustration, shame (that he cannot do things in a manner to get his father's praise and also shame over his homosexuality), and resentment of having been saddled with the farm out of a sense of duty. They hire a handsome young man to assist around the farm and that makes the son even more despondent and angry at the father and now at this interloper who is getting the praise from the father that HE is struggling to get. The two must drive some distance on the farm and stay for several days to care for the sheep. During this time, wordlessly, the son and stranger, who is a kind and gentle man, discover a mutual attraction and change and healing begin for everyone in the family. The son is less sullen, the father learns to trust the son and becomes more patient and gentle, the son quits drinking for the health of his new relationship. Then another tragedy befalls the farm, testing all who reside there. This was one of the best movies I've seen in a while. It is, as I said, a quiet movie with the dialogue not wasting time on frivolous discussions. Almost every word rings true, exposes more about the characters, and moves the story forward. This is one of those movies where the silence and facial expressions tell more than the dialogue ever could. We get the frustration of the father who is locked in a crippled body longing to be able to do what he could before his stroke. We get the son's psyche writhing inwardly as he tries and fails to please his father and reconcile within himself the feelings he has for other men. And we understand the kindness and passion in the helper as he understands what is going on and acts in ways that teach the son what he needs to do to be more efficient and to heal a broken and wounded soul. This film does not slap you in the face with the story and drama but nestles around you like a warm blanket on a cold day. It is uncomfortable to watch but comfortable at the same time. Once I realized what was motivating the outward emotions of the characters I could only feel sad for them and root for them to find a happier place emotionally. Beautiful film with two handsome lead actors.

Great love story , love always wins.

As a lot have mentioned, this movie is actually one of the better gay-themed films I've seen. (I'd recommend also checking out one of my personal favorites: Hawaii by Marco Berger) pretty solid. Basically a 4.5 star rating from me. The entire film (No spoilers from me) takes place in Yorkshire, and the heavy accents take a moment to adjust to, but the way the characters are portrayed are fairly complex and interesting. The two main characters build a relationship, and are eventually forced into an ultimatum, where there is either a chance for personal development or things between them won't work out. I thought the main character had plenty of interesting aspects/traits/flaws to work with. He essentially developed into a person who copes with his "desires" in spurts of spontaneity and force, he has trouble communicating, etc. Being a psych-buff, his character just makes sense. I felt like I had a good grasp of who he was/was dealing with. On the flip side, the co-lead was more or less the opposite. Worked at a slower pace, patient, more loving. I sort of wish his character had a bit more background fleshed out. I just never got the impression that I entirely "understood" where he was coming from. Perhaps the story was meant to be told that way? Who knows... The one weird part, in my opinion, that always seems to be a tough area for all love-story films, is the connection/turning point. I felt it was just really... really.... abrupt. On one hand, it does go along with the main character's personality, but on the other, I didn't feel like there was quite enough progress to reach that point. They were close, but not quite enough development. So it was weird to me. (Also, because its all taking place on farmland, I kinda expected them to stay dirty sometimes, not always magically clean :) haha) Overall, really beautiful visuals, great acting, and interesting story. Worth a watch, and not a bad purchase. (If you're looking for other "positive-ending" films that I thought were pretty good overall, I would say check out the film I first mentioned, as well as Boys/"Jongens" by Mischa Kamp. I have yet to find a really great American film, so these all require subtitles.)

God's Own Country is a remarkable, profoundly touching film, perhaps the best movie ever made about two men falling in love. That fact is important, but it is not the whole story, it is the real thing, a work of art that that attends to the world it inhabits acutely, every word heard or spoken in it concrete, deeply felt, penetrating, every gesture full of emotion and the wildly, complexly human. I would write about it more fully, but let me settle for just a few instances of what makes it so special. There is a scene in it when Georghe touches, holds, Johnny, so carefully, so slowly and gently, that he is, at heart, bringing him through his fingers and hands into a first experience of love, of what such tactility, such silent tenderness in a deep sense means. I have never seen anything remotely like it in a movie, rarely managed over all these years, despite much trying, to find it any writing: a man being allowed, being brought to feel love through another man by touch alone. How extraordinary the flesh is in this movie, like the wonder of the wool of a dead eviscerated lamb being turned into a coat for a lamb that has no mother, so it might suckle. Gemma Jones. Ian Hart. Step mother, harsh, stroke ridden, difficult father. There is more feeling expressed through their eyes than in the whole of Call Me by Your Name, of most any other recent movie. Simple things, a cup of food held out to be salted by another, a brief touch of a finger to a lover's hand, gesture which the latter than sees he might use with his father, for a finger to skim the skin of his arm as he lies in a hospital bed. And the two lead actors, especially Josh O'Connor as Johnny. There is one moment, among dozens and dozens of others as miraculous, when his father asks him, if the ways of the farm were changed, he would be happy. And Johnny looks up at at him where he sits in his wheel chair overlooking the valley below, stares at his father, as if for the first time seeing with the love he has discovered inside him, around him, from Georghe, carefully looking, his cheeks stretched tight by his jaw, and says, "I think I could.” This is film making of the highest order because it puts into the transient moments of human contact the whole of the best of human possibility, despite the world's being so punishingly harsh over and over. It is the lyricism of stone and mud, of still born calves, of the arduousness of expressing anything one actually feels and wants and can be, where the beauty of the world is bound to its suffering, not just humanity's but all of it, in the muck of it, in the almost ruined self of an almost ruined Johnny finding through another some reason for his being alive at all. And that is what might be called transcendence.

I bought this movie based solely on the high ratings, not knowing anything about it. I had no expectations. By the end of the movie, I was blown away - and this may be the best way to watch this film. But here am I asking you to watch this film and setting your expectations extremely high because you should expect to see the best gay love story on film. Unless it prompts you to watch it, there is no comparison with Brokeback Mountain. God's Own Country is much better. BrokeBack Mountain is a depressing story - more of the same old, same old with a big budget and A-list actors - two young men develop a passionate relationship, go their separate ways, get married, lead miserable lives, settle for an annual lust-filled fishing trip until one of them is bludgeoned to death and the other lives the rest of his life in remorseful regret and desolation. If this is a love story, God help us. God's Own Country has: • An extremely well written, unpretentious script in which we are given the privilege of watching two men fall in love - spot on story- telling • Characters that we really get to know and root for (It's impossible not to fall in love with Gheorghe) • Daniel Day Lewis level (i.e stellar/brilliant) acting • Gorgeous and haunting cinematography that actually helps tell the story • A hopeful, life-affirming ending - you may cry, but they will be tears of joy. God's Own Country does start out slow (maybe watch it a second time to appreciate the beginning) and some of the dialogue is difficult to understand. But the dialogue that moves the story is understandable and the acting (and directing) is so good that I think you could follow the story with the sound off. Unlike most films, I have watched this film over and over again and each time it just keeps getting better.

When I first bought this movie I purchased it because the storyline ad sounded promising, and when I watched it and the first 20 or 30 minutes seemed to drag along with rather dark and bleak scenery (much of the going-on happening during nighttime), but enjoyable, yet not really sure where it was going; but WOW! did it turn out to be one of the best gay themed movies I have ever seen (Brokeback Mountain, Call me by my name, & others included in the best movie categories); For sure one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES; and being the romantic that I am I did well up some serious tears near the end of the movie; I can definitely see myself watching this movie over and over during the coming years. Great storyline, well written, good acting, good directing and just a plain "feel good" movie; Just shows that gay people can have true life changing romances like any other group of people, since so many gay movies seem to focus on sex, sex, sex, but here we get the hot sex and a great movie to boot; but don't get too disappointed if the movie starts out slow and does not really seem to prick your interest for the first 20 minutes or so; Once the new farm hand joins the cast the storyline really picks up. All in all a good review for all actors involved; I will look for more movies by this same director in the future.

Tenia tiempo buscando esta pelicula y por fin la encontré y a un buen precio, llegó en el tiempo establecido y sin ningún defecto, no tengo ningun problema en que no venga con subtitulos o idioma en español

Entregue antes do prazo, tudo perfeito

This story unfolds slowly but deftly leading you into the world of a Yorkshire small holder and the bleakness of his world. It is only through his discovery of other possibilities that we see bright shining hope where none had been before.

This was an interesting and honest view of two men who initially developed a friendship and it gradually evolved to loving each other. I think it was a realist look at a homosexual relationship , devoid of all the guilt and incrimination and judgment that is usual in films that deal with this subject. It was shipped in the promised timeframe and arrived fully intact. Definitely worth owning in your collection of DVDs

Great settings, story development captivating and sincere performances by fresh new actors make this film worthy of praise and support that will encourage new directors to use similarthematic material