Shadows

Name: Shadows
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: November 11, 1959
Duration: 81 min
Rating: 86
Cast: Anthony Ray, Ben Carruthers, David Jones, David Pokitillow, Dennis Sallas

1959

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 11 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

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6.8

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6.8	Your Score
6.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Lion International Films | Release Date: November 11, 1959 | PG

Starring: Anthony Ray, Ben Carruthers, David Jones, David Pokitillow, Dennis Sallas, Hugh Hurd, Lelia Goldoni, Pir Marini, Rupert Crosse, Tom Reese

Summary: Cassavetes' jazz-scored improvisational film explores interracial friendships and relationships in Beat-Era (1950s) New York City.

Director: John Cassavetes

Genre(s): Drama, Romance

Rating: PG

Runtime: 81 min

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Critic Reviews

100

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

The film perfectly captured a specific time and place, illuminating simple truths regarding the human condition, while unveiling an important, powerful, and visionary new force in the American cinema. Read full review

Keith Phipps

Even though its rough edges (the wildly mismatched acting, the scenes that never take shape) look rougher today than they must have at the time, watching Shadows still feels like witnessing a mold breaking. Read full review

J. Hoberman

Arguably the founding work of the American independent cinema, John Cassavetes’s 1959 Shadows is the prototype for Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise, Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, and all their progeny. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Caught in the ecstasy of collective creation, a handful of earnest amateurs have almost accidentally produced a flawed but significant piece of folk art. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

The low-key, natural performances are dramatically offset by the mercurial and incandescent Lelia Goldoni, the emotional heart of the film. Read full review

Bosley Crowther

Shadows is an unfinished picture in every sense of the word. Yet it is fitfully dynamic, endowed with a raw but vibrant strength, conveying an illusion of being a record of real people, and it is incontestably sincere. Read full review

Jeremiah Kipp

At 80 minutes, its cinematic flash fiction, and a suitable entry point into the lively body of work Cassavetes made. Read full review

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User Reviews

Deanomite

Jun 21, 2020

John Cassavettes gets more interesting to me as time goes. This story of a mixed race couple where the man finds out after dating that his girlfriend is half black. At the time this was shocking, but to me the shocking thing is how she flaunts gender expectations. She makes out with aJohn Cassavettes gets more interesting to me as time goes. This story of a mixed race couple where the man finds out after dating that his girlfriend is half black. At the time this was shocking, but to me the shocking thing is how she flaunts gender expectations. She makes out with a stranger in front of her boyfriend to show that she belongs to no one. She cannot escape being property, whether with a boyfriend, or in her own mind.… Expand

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