Very best movie i ever watch

Fantastic!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

I used to laugh many times when people (around me) ask me : why do you watch this film too much! And the answer i guess was very simple: because it is a spectacular movie! For Example i still remember that i went to the cinema three times to watch Gravity back in 2013, because it was one of those films that really make you feel something. The first time when i watch a film i took a general look at the whole film ( Story line, Characters, music, etc..) and as for the second and third time, i just watch the actors performance( focusing on their faces expression, how they moved, did they delivered what we need to see, to know and hear, etc...) Running On Empty was one of those films that i had to watch three times, because it's a superb one.the story is about a family who are running away from justice after the explosion they made in a laboratory which made a guy blinded and paralyzed, and since then the family go from city to city in order to live.The movie deliver to us a superb performance by all the actors of the film, especially River Phonenix who was nominated for best supporting actor for this brilliant role. and Christine Lahti ( who was nominated for golden globe ). The character Danny which played by Mr, Phonexi is probably one of my all time favorite male characters on the screen, it gave me the same reaction when i first watched James Dean Character in rebel without a cause 1955, and no wonder why so many people considered Phoenix as the next Jame Dean, it is so sad that both of them died too young, almost at the same Age! (Dean at 24 and Phonexi at 23). But both of them gave us a real great performances in a few films.What is amazing about this film is the relation between the family members they really love each other and despite the problem they are living in, they are happy.And you can feel that they are like a one union. Now the most amazing part (or item) of this film was the music which was done by Tony Mottola (which worked also with James Dean in Giant 1956). he really did an amazing job the music is just superb and very touching and i don't know why he didn't get an Oscar nomination for his brilliant work in this film! Lumet also gave us one of his best films especially the way of telling the story of how Danny became a great pianist, we didn't know at the beginning of the film how he learned music, who taught him or from where he got his talent and at the end you knew that it was by his mother when she plays with him ( it really was a cleaver way to show it for the audience) .At the end if you are a big fan of drama and musical films, or even a piano lover, i would highly recommend this for you, because the story is great, the directing is fabulous and the acting is at the top. not to mention the great music, so what can you ask more.

Mom and Dad -- Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti -- were members of an anti-war group that blew up a napalm factory many years ago and are now on the run with the FBI in pursuit. Their elder son, River Phoenix, is now about to graduate from high school.The family is thoroughly paranoid by now, perhaps with good reason, and they move around a lot, switching identities, leaving no traces, which is not helpful to Phoenix. He's a talented pianist and in their newest home, in small-town New Jersey, he meets a music teacher who mentors him and arranges for an audition at Julliard. Kids, Julliard is a famous school for the performing arts in New York. Lots of celebrated people went there -- Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Bernard Herrmann, Leonard Slatkin, Itzhak Perlman, and -- well, forget it. Monsters, all. You have to be really good to get in.There is a slight problem in that Hirsch considers the family a unit, kind of like Bonny and Clyde, only morally upright. It's time for Phoenix to start his own life, but how can he? Hirsch excoriates him for every involvement outside the home; not just his music but his affair with the nubile young Martha Plimpton.The first time we become aware of the fact that Phoenix is not just another confused kid is when he takes a music class in his new high school, the teacher plays some rock music that the kids love, and then plays a string quartet without identifying any of the music. "What's the difference between the two?", asks the teacher. The kids come up with dumb answers like, "One's good and one's bad." When the teacher finally gets around to Phoenix, he replies shyly, "You can't dance to Beethoven." WELL! I mean, how did this ordinary, somewhat neurotic kid ever get any exposure to Beethoven's late quartets? If I may be editorial for a moment, I personally can't manage ten fingers or even one. I don't believe anyone can. Forget eighty-eight keys. Piano playing is a huge hoax perpetrated on a gullible public. Those pianos you see in movies like this are actually computer-generated images. I suppose we've all seen live recitals. You ask how those can be faked, and I ask, "Have you ever heard of PLAYER pianos?" Q. E. D. It's all part of a gigantic conspiracy by the Amalgamated "Pianists" of America, sprung from the loins of the Illuminati. Conspiracy theories abound these days and I think it's catching.Thanks for your indulgence. The award for best performer goes to -- envelope, please -- Christine Lahti! She's really quite good. She's attractive without being pretty, and demonstrates a considerable range, not all of it coming from the role. Judd Hirsch may be hobbled by his character. Even when he's trying to be nice and accommodating, he seems abrasive in speech and demeanor. And for someone who's into liberation, he's given to flinging orders around like a Marine Corps drill sergeant. I understand that River Phoenix gets a good deal of applause but my impression was that he was okay without being exceptional in any way. He does have the role captured -- the reticent, winsome adolescent but it's not a very challenging role.I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I don't usually find stories of family heartbreak appealing unless they're real bulldozers like "Streetcar Named Desire." And rural New Jersey is not Sidney Lumet territory. But this film was well conceived and executed. I wonder what would have happened if Phoenix had been just an ordinary ignorant high schooler and not a genius. And I wonder if the FBI is really so intent on capturing two college kids who blew up a lab twenty years ago.

Twenty years after Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti were involved in the bombing of a factory that produced napalm they are still on the run. It's a way of life to them now, they are paying big time now for their misdeeds that went way beyond protesting the war in Vietnam. They've raised two sons, one they had while fugitives. Now however their way of life is going to have an impact on their older son particularly if he continues with them.Running On Empty is a film that will be particularly poignant for those who came of age in the Sixties. Hirsch and Lahti took action that probably many were tempted, but fortunately did not succumb. There might very well be an interesting back story as to just how the characters that Hirsch and Lahti play came to do what they did. I'm surprised a prequel was never made.But here we're concerned with older son River Phoenix who is a mostly self taught musical prodigy and who gets a chance to get a scholarship to Julliard. But he's going to have problems from Judd Hirsch who does not want to see the family unit broken up. That's important to him because it's all he has because of the life he has to lead. Not to mention having to document Phoenix's educational background which has been spotty and under various aliases. Whenever he abruptly leaves and moves to another school the records are always conveniently lost in a convenient fire. Could never use that excuse now with data now all on computers.In addition to which River's found himself a girlfriend in Martha Plimpton the daughter of the music teacher at his latest high school. Some critical decisions will have to be made by him and by his fugitive family.Running On Empty got two Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and for Best Supporting Actor for River Phoenix. This was a breakout film for him, it was the first really serious part he ever essayed in his short life. His roles were as juveniles in teen oriented films before were nice and showed his potential. This one was the first that took advantage of said potential.I always thought that River drew from a vagabond background of his own which made Running On Empty so special for him and for us. His parents were children of the Sixties themselves, the tune-in, turn-on, drop out kind of hippies with a Christian flavoring. They were commune dwellers living in various places off the grid. I'm sure that background also prepared for the radically different part he played in My Own Private Idaho.Still for all the acclaim River got my favorite scene in the film and its climax involves Christine Lahti and her father Steven Hill when they reunite surreptitiously in a restaurant where all the pent up feelings on both sides get to hang out. She's come to ask her father to take Phoenix in and pull some strings to get him into Julliard. We're told he has the juice to do it. Hill is also playing with a lot of conflicting emotions, he remembers how his rebellious teen daughter was holding him and his entire generation personally responsible for the Vietnam War.Director Sidney Lumet put together an impressive cast with an array of impressive performances, each player stamping an individual seal on them. Running On Empty is a real classic for the decade it came out and the decade it hearkened back to.

Outstanding drama with incredible performances. The story it tells of radicals in hiding and on the run while trying to raise a family but actually living the half life of the hunted is compelling enough but contributions of cast, director and script make it something extraordinary. Lumet was an erratic director but when he was on his A game his films are some of the best around, this one ranks up with his masterworks Dog Day Afternoon and Murder on the Orient Express. Taut yet accessible you really care for this family, warts and all.Beautifully acted by all but there are several standouts. Christine Lahti, a great unsung actress, is achingly real in her conflicted duty to her family and sense of frustration at their rootlessness. The scene between she and her father in a restaurant is one of the most moving you'll ever see in any film. Her work her really deserved an Oscar nomination, in my opinion she should have won but an acknowledgment was at least her due. River Phoenix did receive a nomination and along with Martha Plimpton they offer the other really fine performances. His desires to remain loyal to his family and their situation versus his yearning for roots, the exploration of his talents and a chance to find his own way in the world make compelling viewing. The movie doesn't move at breakneck speed but for those viewers willing to invest in it's deliberate pace this is a great film.