The Dead 1987

Vincent Canby, New York Times: That Huston should have dared search for the story's cinema life is astonishing. That he should have found it with such seeming ease is the mark of a master. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: There's also a rather awesome and unpretentious directness as well as calmness about the way that Huston contemplates his own rapidly approaching death. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Huston was an old man when he died, but he had not withered dismally with age because he still had the courage and the imagination to attempt to make an impossible film of the greatest story that he had ever read. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: A beguiling chamber piece. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: A well-crafted miniature, this dramatization of the Joyce story directly addresses the theme of how the 'shades' from 'that other world' can still live in those who still walk the earth. Read more

Hal Hinson, Washington Post: The movie was Huston's last and it's a great culminating work. As such, it couldn't be more perfect. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: There's a certain disarming sweetness to the film. The scenes are lit in amber warmth and Joyce's Dublin fable of lost hopes and living memories is treated with respect. But the acting pool is only adequate. Read more