Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781404962750
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1404962751
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: April 12, 2005
Running Time: 106 minutes
Sales Rank: 11103
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Writer/director Pedro Almod贸var's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic 脕ngel (Gael Garc铆a Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, 脕ngel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almod贸var the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. --Steve Wiecking
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Transvestite junkies and pedophile priests
Childhood friends Ignacio and Enrique haven't seen each other in decades, until one day when, out of the blue, Ignacio shows up at Enrique's house with a story that he has written based on their childhood experiences. Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal), now an actor, wants Enrique (Fele Martinez), now a director, to turn his story into a movie and cast him in the lead role.
Pedro Almodovar has always set out to provoke audiences with confronting images and themes that are often described as perverted by his detractors, and nothing has changed with "Bad Education". In fact, "Bad Education" is probably one of the more offensive of Almodovar's movies. If you don't think you can handle a film containing pedophile priests, a very unplatonic relationship between two young boys, transvestite junkies and assorted gay sex scenes, then give up now and try "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" instead (probably the least offensive entry in Almodovar's filmography). However, if you feel that you can handle it, then I strongly recommend this film as it, like Almodovar's other more recent movies, is really amazing.
I started watching Almodovar films after hearing his earlier works compared with the films of John Waters. It is true that Almodovar's earlier films (such as "What Have I Done to Deserve This?") are dark comedies in the same vein as those of Waters, but unlike Waters, who never really developed as a filmmaker, Almodovar has transitioned from making films simply for shock value ... Read More
Rating: - Smokin' in the Boy's Room
Frequently compared to American director, Douglas Sirk, Spain's Pedro Almodovar switches into Hitchcock mode with his twisty, sexually provocative thriller, "Bad Education". Maintaining the bright, primary colors that dominate and help define his films, Almodovar ditches his usual comic archness, and amps up the melodrama in a tale piling layer upon layer of desire, deception, betrayal, and lies, with inevitably murderous results.
Star Gael Garcia Bernal shines in the multiple roles of drag queen, Zahara, bad boy Juan, and the ambitious actor, Angel. A lush-lipped, sensuous film actor, Bernal provides "Bad Education" with a throbbing energy that sets the complicated plot(s) in motion. In 1980's Spain, the boyishly seductive Ignacio arrives at the office of his old, childhood friend, a film director named Enrique. Ignacio has a script based on their alleged boyhood experiences in a Catholic boarding school, most disturbing of which is Ignacio's continued molestation at the hands of pedophile priest, Manolo. In the script, Ignacio grows up to become exotic performer, Zahara, who finally returns to the church to confront Manolo, and the demons of the past. The more Enrique reads of the script, the further the lines between fantasy and reality are blurred. As Enrique is driven to determine the circumstances surrounding an unexplained death, deceptions are revealed; while some characters are not who they seem to be, others resurface in completely different guises. The mysteries deepen, ... Read More
Rating:  - a touching, complex story with great performances from the entire cast
A poignant, cinematically-breathtaking film with a plot so convoluted, I'm going to have to rewatch the movie just to see where all the storylines intersect and converge. Gael Garc铆a Bernal is sexy, charming, and lethal in his layered performance of 脕ngel, Juan, and Zahara. This is my introduction to Pedro Almodovar and I am pleased to report that I'm intrigued enough to watch the rest of his filmography.
Rating: - Bravo!
That was perhaps one of the most well written, well directed foreign films I've seen in the past few years! There were a lot of graphic sex scenes but they were very tastefully directed. The writing and the plot were original and intriguing. Bravo, Pedro Almod贸var!
Rating:  - Visually Striking and Audaciously Acted But Ultimately Hollow Inside
Pedro Almod贸var's individualistic filmmaking style is on full display in this florid 2004 melodrama, but oddly, the heart that propelled the wonderful Talk to Her (Hable con Ella) seems to be missing. What results is a rather disappointing addition to the otherwise humanistic Almod贸var canon, a classic case of style over substance. The convoluted plot begins in the present with an apparent flashback about an episode in the past, then presents that story as a film within the film, and finally the two parallel stories become a hybrid that seems to pay tribute to forties Hollywood film noir.
The focal character is Enrique, a young and successful director who is searching for inspiration for his next production. He receives a visit from an old school friend, Ignacio, who provides it with a short story he brings with him called "The Visit". Based on their childhood, it involves Ignacio being sexually abused by a priest at the school they attended together. Indeed, he permitted the abuse in order to get Enrique out of some trouble. Lurid melodrama, as only Almod贸var can serve up, ensues, and an imagined reunion occurs between the abusive priest and the two childhood friends and first-loves. Spinning off Enrique's film-set, the director deftly switches narrative voices to make the abuser the victim, and the moral ambiguity of the central characters becomes heightened. Despite the audacious creativity behind the change in perspective and some strong acting, the problem with this approach is that ... Read More
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