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Control (The Miriam Collection) | 
 enlarge | Director: Anton Corbijn
Actors: Samantha Morton, Sam Riley (ii), Alexandra Maria Lara, Joe Anderson (vi), Toby Kebbell
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Category: DVD
List Price: $28.95
Buy New: $11.49
You Save: $17.46 (60%)
New (52) Used (12) from $10.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 2927
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 122
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.7
MPN: WEID81025D
UPC: 796019810258
EAN: 0796019810258
ASIN: B00104AYGU
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
In his elegiac debut, Anton Corbijn combines the music film with the social drama to stunning success. Based on Deborah Curtis's clear-eyed biography, Touching from a Distance, Control recounts the wrenching tale of a working-class lad about to hit the highest highs only to be waylaid by the lowest lows. Born and raised in Macclesfield, a suburban community outside Manchester, Ian Curtis (newcomer Sam Riley in a remarkable performance) dreams of fronting a band. Just out of high school in the mid-1970s, he finds three like minds with whom he forms post-punk quartet Warsaw--better known as Joy Division (Riley and castmates ably recreate their somber sound). All the while, he falls in love, marries, and fathers a child with Deborah (Samantha Morton, turning a thankless role into a triumph). While Curtis should be enjoying parenthood and newfound fame, he's plagued by seizures. A diagnosis of epilepsy leads to powerful medications with unpredictable side effects. Then, while on tour, he falls in love with another woman. His solution to these problems is a matter of public record, but Corbijn concentrates on Curtis's life rather than his death. Just as Control establishes a link between such disparate black and white works as fellow photographer Bruce Weber's Let's Get Lost and kitchen-sink classics like The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, the Dutch-born, UK-based director presents his subject not as some iconic T-shirt image, but as a deeply flawed--if massively talented--human being. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Description
Control tells the remarkable story of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the influential band Joy Division and one of the most enigmatic figures in all of rock music. Based on his wife's memoir, Control follows Curtis' humble Manchester origins and his rapid rise to fame, tormented battle with epilepsy, and struggles with love that led to his death at the age of 23.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 One More Life of (Not So) Quiet Desperation November 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Control has some things going for it -- two very strong performances from San Riley as Ian Curtis and Samantha Morton as his wife, Debbie. It's also filmed in crisp, unforgiving black and white, calling to mind smoke-filled art house cinemas and the works they showed twenty years before Joy Division's short-lived moment. So I wanted to like it more than I did. But it's too long (doomed rock star biopics should never run more than 90 minutes) and it was hard for me at least to work up much sympathy for Curtis, who, as depicted here and aside from the medical issue of his epilepsy, created his own situation (he wanted to impulsively get married, he wanted to have a child) and then does not have the guts or the energy to either extricate himself from it or live with the consequences of his own actions and end his extramarital affair. Instead he spends a lot of time crying and feeling sorry, mostly for himself. I imagine there are lots of plumbers, stockbrokers, and farmers with exactly the same bad-decision trap as Curtis. How they deal with it might have made for a better movie, but we have Control instead because Curtis happened also to be a goofy, awkward lead singer with a frequent good lyrical bent.
Black and White suits the subject November 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
We really enjoyed this movie. I've never seen Sam Riley act in anything before, but his portrayal of Ian Curtis in this movie was amazing. The black and white style of the film made the period of the late 70's and early 80's in England's music scene seem more effective. Samantha Morton did a good job of portraying Ian's wife as well. Highly recommended for Joy Division fans, or fans of that era in England's music scene.
 Kick @rse Rockumentry October 24, 2008
1 Thing I got 2 Say About Control was "Kick @rse!" Because Sam Riley PLayed Ian Curtis,Lead Singer Of Joy Division Bloody good and he looked Like him and Even Samantha Morton Played His Wife,Debbie.I 1st Saw that Movie @ the Landmark Theatres Last year and I was Hooked!!!
Excellent September 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good movie not only for the hard-core JD/NO fan, but for those who've heard the story and want the details.
From what has been published about the JD story, this movie seems dead-on accurate. And you get an eerie look at the breakdown and fall of Ian Curtis.
The Joy Division documentary fills in a couple of the gaps, and shows you what those around Ian felt about it all afterwards, so it's a good followup. But "Control" did a great job showing the story.
CONTROL DVD September 22, 2008
Great movie, expressing beautifully the bleak urban landscape of Ian Curtis's life, and his vulnerability as a person. Bummer that the dialogue isn't quite synched to the video.
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