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Reviews Counted:17
Fresh:12
Rotten:5
Average Rating:6/10
Theatrical Release:09-02-2007
Synopsis: A sizzling screen version of Bizet's Carmen updated for an all-black cast, including an especially sizzling Dandridge. Soldier Belafonte falls for Dandridge, a seductive factory worker. The lovers... [More]
Starring: Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Roy Glenn
Director: Otto Preminger
Every frame, you feel, is freighted with the tension imposed by the never-appearing white folks. It was, however, laudable in its desire to showcase the talents of African-American performers who were denied opportunities in Hollywood.
Top CriticThe best reason to revisit Carmen Jones lies in Dorothy Dandridge's electrifying performance, which saw her become the first African-American to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.
Top CriticWoefully miscast in places and extremely dubious in its portrayal of African-Americans but does boast an on-form Dorothy Dandridge.
Top CriticThe somewhat heavy-handed direction and the ultimately two-dimensional characters leave you admiring the workmanship without plucking at the necessary emotional/romantic heart-strings.
Top CriticA truly dreadful film. Preminger can't be faulted for ambition, but for once, his execution is sorely lacking.
Top CriticA film in which talented, attractive people sing ugly lyrics to beautiful music in other people's beautiful voices amid ugly shot framing and ill-timed cutting.
Electric performance by Dorothy Dandridge as the sultry whorish Carmen Jones.
Preminger's heavy-handed adaptation of a Broadway triumph combines gorgeous music with risible lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; the project is saved by a terrific cast.
Top CriticOtto Preminger has transferred it to the screen with taste and imagination in an opulent production.
Top CriticImpeccably liberal in its time, the film has not aged gracefully, although Dorothy Dandridge's performance in the lead remains a testimony to a black cinema that might have been.
Slinking through director Preminger's CinemaScope widescreen in slit skirts and tight blouses, Dandridge is naturally carnal the way summer is naturally warm.
The results are certainly flawed, but rarely less than fascinating.
A crazy mixed-up film.
Top CriticInteresting Preminger experiment. Modernizing with an all-black cast highlighted by Dandridge and Belafonte is first-rate.
While the embarrassment of talent onscreen is a joy to watch, I can’t help be overwhelmed and a little saddened thinking how much of that talent went ignored by Hollywood most of the time.
No review available.
October 25, 2007:
How Many Movies Have You Seen In Your Entire Life?
Newsweek critic David Ansen has courageously revealed the more quietly kept secret of every cinephile: his lifelong, bordering-on-eccentric, meticulous obsession with movies.... More...
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