Freedomland

• Full screen
• Color
• Dolby Digital

An African-American cop investigates a strange child-abduction case and must deal with the racial tension it brings in his neighborhood.
Genre: Suspense
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-MAY-2007
Media Type: DVDThe celebrated author of Clockers delivers his most compelling and accomplished novel to date.

A white woman, her hands gashed and bloody, stumbles into an inner-city emergency room and announces that she has just been carjacked by a black man. But then comes the horrifying twist: Her young son was asleep in the back seat, and he has now disappeared into the night.

So begins Richard Price's electrifying new novel, a tale set on the same turf--Dempsey, New Jersey--as Clockers. Assigned to investigate the case of Brenda Martin's missing child is detective Lorenzo Council, a local s! on of the very housing project targeted as the scene of the crime. Under a white-hot media glare, Lorenzo launches an all-out search for the abducted boy, even as he quietly explores a different possibility: Does Brenda Martin know a lot more about her son's disappearance than she's admitting?

Right behind Lorenzo is Jesse Haus, an ambitious young reporter from the city's evening paper. Almost immediately, Jesse suspects Brenda of hiding something. Relentlessly, she works her way into the distraught mother's fragile world, befriending her even as she looks for the chance to break the biggest story of her career.

As the search for the alleged carjacker intensifies, so does the simmering racial tension between Dempsey and its mostly white neighbor, Gannon. And when the Gannon police arrest a black man from Dempsey and declare him a suspect, the animosity between the two cities threatens to boil over into violence. With the media swarming and the mood turning inc! reasingly ugly, Lorenzo must take desperate measures to get to! the bot tom of Brenda Martin's story.

At once a suspenseful mystery and a brilliant portrait of two cities locked in a death-grip of explosive rage, Freedomland reveals the heart of the urban American experience--dislocated, furious, yearning--as never before. Richard Price has created a vibrant, gut-wrenching masterpiece whose images will remain long after the final, devastating pages.


From the Hardcover edition.Actor Joe Morton takes on all the roles of this audiocassette's multicultural cast of characters. His grasp of New Jersey accents, dialects, and inflections is flawless, imbuing all of Richard Price's carefully drawn characters with a gritty sense of authenticity. Morton's crisp, controlled narration propels the story forward with taut, edgy suspense. As he reads, he glides effortlessly from his role as narrator to those of the main characters. Single mother Brenda Martin speaks with a breathy, stammering, and truly fear-permeated voi! ce, while the introspective African American detective, Lorenzo Council, has a clipped, businesslike manner of speaking. Morton takes equal care in bringing to life Price's minor characters, whether portraying a no-nonsense, white New Jersey housewife whose voice has been made coarse by too many cigarettes, or an African American Muslim preacher whose commanding bass voice isn't quite powerful enough to spur his community to action. Morton's greatest achievement, however, is his characterization of Council's jaded, middle-aged white partner, Bump. When Morton slips into the role of Bump, his growling, Jersified Brooklynese is so startling, it almost seems that a life-long resident of Hoboken has stepped into the recording studio and appropriated Morton's microphone. The recording is slightly marred by occasional intrusions of synthesized music that are, for the most part, superfluous and distracting, but Morton's acting abilities and vocal agility are more tha! n sufficient to keep any listener riveted. (Running time: fou! r hours, four cassettes) --Elizabeth LaskeyThere are an abundance of outstanding performances in the uneven dramatic thriller Freedomland, with leads Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore leading the way for a string of strong actors. The disappointment comes in the telling of the tale and getting all those performances on the same page. The movie is based on a dense novel by the talented and highly acclaimed writer Richard Price (who adapted the screenplay); the setting is a fictional town in Northern New Jersey and the low-income housing complex at its heart. As a housing project cop who's respected for keeping the peace and being fair with the residents, Lorenzo Council (Jackson) stumbles onto the case of an apparent carjacking and child abduction one night that throws the projects into turmoil. But there's something fishy in the details Brenda Martin (Moore) slowly brings to light regarding her abductor and her missing child. Jackson and Moore deliver a series of s! uperbly nuanced monologues with varying degrees of passion, but the story can't always keep up with their talky exposition. Most of the burden lies with director Joe Roth, who sometimes finds it hard to make the intricacies of Price's screenplay lively enough. Even so, Freedomland is a serious commentary about racial tension and personal emotion. Supporting players Edie Falco (of The Sopranos fame) and the grandly aging character actor William Forsythe as Lorenzo's partner add greatly to this valiant attempt at a deep dramatic statement. --Ted FryBilled as New York's answer to Disneyland, Freedomland opened on June 19, 1960. Designed by Marco Engineering of Los Angeles for the International Recreation Corporation, Freedomland transformed a former landfill, lowlands, and farms into an exciting theme park in the shape of the United States. Through photographs, Freedomland recalls boat rides on the Great Lakes, putting out a fire in Chicago, dancing under ! the stars at the Moon Bowl, or taking a train ride all the way! to San Francisco. Entering Freedomland was like walking into a history book of America for both young and young at heart. Open for five seasons, Freedomland gave its guests and cast members memories that have lasted a lifetime.In 1998, Richard Price returned to the gritty urban landscape of his national bestseller Clockers to produce Freedomland, a searing and unforgettable novel about a hijacked car, a missing child, and an embattled neighborhood polarized by racism, distrust, and accusation.  Freedomland hit bestseller lists from coast to coast, including those of the Boston Globe, USA Today and Los Angeles Times; garnered universally rave reviews; and was selected as the Grand Prize Winner of the Imus American Book Award and as a New York Times Notable Book.  On May 11, this highly lauded bestseller is available in paperback for the first time.

A white woman, her hands gashed and bloody, stumbles into an inner-city! emergency room and announces that she has just been carjacked by a black man. But then comes the horrifying twist: Her young son was asleep in the back seat, and he has now disappeared into the night.

So begins Richard Price's electrifying new novel, a tale set on the same turf--Dempsey, New Jersey--as Clockers. Assigned to investigate the case of Brenda Martin's missing child is detective Lorenzo Council, a local son of the very housing project targeted as the scene of the crime. Under a white-hot media glare, Lorenzo launches an all-out search for the abducted boy, even as he quietly explores a different possibility: Does Brenda Martin know a lot more about her son's disappearance than she's admitting?

Right behind Lorenzo is Jesse Haus, an ambitious young reporter from the city's evening paper. Almost immediately, Jesse suspects Brenda of hiding something. Relentlessly, she works her way into the distraught mother's fragile world, befriendin! g her even as she looks for the chance to break the biggest st! ory of h er career.

As the search for the alleged carjacker intensifies, so does the simmering racial tension between Dempsey and its mostly white neighbor, Gannon. And when the Gannon police arrest a black man from Dempsey and declare him a suspect, the animosity between the two cities threatens to boil over into violence. With the media swarming and the mood turning increasingly ugly, Lorenzo must take desperate measures to get to the bottom of Brenda Martin's story.

At once a suspenseful mystery and a brilliant portrait of two cities locked in a death-grip of explosive rage, Freedomland reveals the heart of the urban American experience--dislocated, furious, yearning--as never before. Richard Price has created a vibrant, gut-wrenching masterpiece whose images will remain long after the final, devastating pages.


From the Paperback edition.In Freedomland, Richard Price returns to the gritty terrain he first explored in C! lockers. This time, the fictional (but all too convincing) urban eyesore of Dempsy, New Jersey, is convulsed by a high-profile carjacking. A single mom named Brenda Martin insists that a man stopped her car, yanked her from behind the wheel, and drove off with the vehicle--and her young son. Behind these horrific facts looms another: the victim is white and the perpetrator is black. Immediately the racial calculus of American life comes to bear on the crime, which becomes a focus for long-smoldering animosities. As a three-ring circus of media, cops, and gawkers converges on the crime scene, Dempsy and the adjoining white community of Gannon seem primed for an explosion. Price passes the narrative baton back and forth between Lorenzo Council, an ambitious black detective, and Jesse Haus, a no-less-ambitious reporter for the local paper. Lorenzo's street-smart, agitated voice is the more convincing of the two. Jesse, with her frantic compulsion t! o squeeze local color from the crisis, never quite attains thr! ee dim ensions--although her outsider's relationship to her material suggests some faint, fascinating echo of the author's. In any case, Price allows the story to proceed at an irresistible slow burn. His ear for dialogue is as sharp as ever, and nobody casts a colder or more accurate eye on our fin-de-siècle urban existence.In 1998, Richard Price returned to the gritty urban landscape of his national bestseller Clockers to produce Freedomland, a searing and unforgettable novel about a hijacked car, a missing child, and an embattled neighborhood polarized by racism, distrust, and accusation.  Freedomland hit bestseller lists from coast to coast, including those of the Boston Globe, USA Today and Los Angeles Times; garnered universally rave reviews; and was selected as the Grand Prize Winner of the Imus American Book Award and as a New York Times Notable Book.  On May 11, this highly lauded bestseller is available in paperb! ack for the first time.

A white woman, her hands gashed and bloody, stumbles into an inner-city emergency room and announces that she has just been carjacked by a black man. But then comes the horrifying twist: Her young son was asleep in the back seat, and he has now disappeared into the night.

So begins Richard Price's electrifying new novel, a tale set on the same turf--Dempsey, New Jersey--as Clockers. Assigned to investigate the case of Brenda Martin's missing child is detective Lorenzo Council, a local son of the very housing project targeted as the scene of the crime. Under a white-hot media glare, Lorenzo launches an all-out search for the abducted boy, even as he quietly explores a different possibility: Does Brenda Martin know a lot more about her son's disappearance than she's admitting?

Right behind Lorenzo is Jesse Haus, an ambitious young reporter from the city's evening paper. Almost immediately, Jesse suspects Brenda of hiding so! mething. Relentlessly, she works her way into the distraught m! other's fragile world, befriending her even as she looks for the chance to break the biggest story of her career.

As the search for the alleged carjacker intensifies, so does the simmering racial tension between Dempsey and its mostly white neighbor, Gannon. And when the Gannon police arrest a black man from Dempsey and declare him a suspect, the animosity between the two cities threatens to boil over into violence. With the media swarming and the mood turning increasingly ugly, Lorenzo must take desperate measures to get to the bottom of Brenda Martin's story.

At once a suspenseful mystery and a brilliant portrait of two cities locked in a death-grip of explosive rage, Freedomland reveals the heart of the urban American experience--dislocated, furious, yearning--as never before. Richard Price has created a vibrant, gut-wrenching masterpiece whose images will remain long after the final, devastating pages.


From the Paperback edition.FREEDOMLAND! - 3? Mini DVD for PHThere are an abundance of outstanding performances in the uneven dramatic thriller Freedomland, with leads Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore leading the way for a string of strong actors. The disappointment comes in the telling of the tale and getting all those performances on the same page. The movie is based on a dense novel by the talented and highly acclaimed writer Richard Price (who adapted the screenplay); the setting is a fictional town in Northern New Jersey and the low-income housing complex at its heart. As a housing project cop who's respected for keeping the peace and being fair with the residents, Lorenzo Council (Jackson) stumbles onto the case of an apparent carjacking and child abduction one night that throws the projects into turmoil. But there's something fishy in the details Brenda Martin (Moore) slowly brings to light regarding her abductor and her missing child. Jackson and Moore deliver a series of superbly nuanced monol! ogues with varying degrees of passion, but the story can't alw! ays keep up with their talky exposition. Most of the burden lies with director Joe Roth, who sometimes finds it hard to make the intricacies of Price's screenplay lively enough. Even so, Freedomland is a serious commentary about racial tension and personal emotion. Supporting players Edie Falco (of The Sopranos fame) and the grandly aging character actor William Forsythe as Lorenzo's partner add greatly to this valiant attempt at a deep dramatic statement. --Ted FryThe exciting and hauntingly beautiful score for Freedomland was composed by James Newton Howard (King Kong, Batman Begins, The Sixth Sense).

About the Movie:
Late one night in a working class New Jersey suburb, a bloodied woman staggers mute and dazed into the emergency room at the Dempsy Medical Center. After treatment for shock and hysteria, Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore) recounts to Dempsy police detective Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson) a horrific tale of being c! arjacked on the isolated strip of undeveloped land that divides Dempsy's urban housing projects from the blue collar town of Gannon, where she lives. She claims she was forced out of her car by a black man, but during the interrogation, Council senses he's not getting the whole story. Only after hours of questioning does Brenda finally break down and confess that her four-year-old son, Cody, was asleep in the back seat of the stolen car.

Led by activist Karen Collucci (Edie Falco), members of the communities of Dempsy and Gannon unite in a search for the missing child, but the criminal investigation into the alleged kidnapping by a suspect who is presumed to be a local from the projects soon ignites long-simmering racial tensions between the two towns. Based on the best-selling novel by Richard Price.In this soundtrack to the thriller starring Julianne Moore and Samuel L. Jackson, James Newton Howard takes a departure from his usual neo-traditional scores. Oh sure, th! ere are atmospheric pianos and lush orchestrations here ("Bren! da's Apa rtment," "Inside Freedomland"), but Howard also ventures out a bit closer to the edge (which still isn't that far-out, but should make his fans jerk to attention). "Main Title," for instance, deploys harsh guitar riffing against discreet synth whooshes reminiscent of the 1980s soundtracks of Giorgio Moroder (a feeling that also creeps up on "Burning"). "Unrest" features striking electronics ricocheting around and creating a percussive, bumping wall that can sound like a game of Pong on steroid. And sometimes, those electronics and the melancholy atmospherics meet on the same track, as in "Did They Arrest Anyone?" and "You're in the Wrong Park," and the result is intriguing enough to let one wish Howard would drop the big orchestras more often. --Elisabeth VincentelliBased on the best-selling novel by Richard Price, this explosive thriller stars Academy Award nominees Samuel L. Jackson (1994, Best Supporting Actor, Pulp Fiction) and Julianne Moore (2002, Best A! ctress, Far From Heaven) and Golden Globe winner Edie Falco ("The Sopranos").

When Brenda Martin (Moore) claims her car was stolen with her son in the backseat, the chilling accusation sparks an intense investigation led by Detective Lorenzo Council (Jackson). The frenzy to find her son escalates into an explosive nightmare of suspicion and accusation, and the search for the truth leads to riveting action, disturbing revelations, and a shocking ending.There are an abundance of outstanding performances in the uneven dramatic thriller Freedomland, with leads Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore leading the way for a string of strong actors. The disappointment comes in the telling of the tale and getting all those performances on the same page. The movie is based on a dense novel by the talented and highly acclaimed writer Richard Price (who adapted the screenplay); the setting is a fictional town in Northern New Jersey and the low-income housing complex at it! s heart. As a housing project cop who's respected for keeping ! the peac e and being fair with the residents, Lorenzo Council (Jackson) stumbles onto the case of an apparent carjacking and child abduction one night that throws the projects into turmoil. But there's something fishy in the details Brenda Martin (Moore) slowly brings to light regarding her abductor and her missing child. Jackson and Moore deliver a series of superbly nuanced monologues with varying degrees of passion, but the story can't always keep up with their talky exposition. Most of the burden lies with director Joe Roth, who sometimes finds it hard to make the intricacies of Price's screenplay lively enough. Even so, Freedomland is a serious commentary about racial tension and personal emotion. Supporting players Edie Falco (of The Sopranos fame) and the grandly aging character actor William Forsythe as Lorenzo's partner add greatly to this valiant attempt at a deep dramatic statement. --Ted Fry