Mario [DVD]

I held off buying this movie because I knew from the reviews that I would not like the ending - and I didn't. However, this movie is excellent - the production quality, the superb acting, and, yes, even the well-written story. This movie leaves you feeling deeply and sorrowfully for Mario and Leon who go through so much anguish and rightfully should be together. While I did not like the ending, it fits the story. I do not see this story as simply a matter of Mario and Leon making different choices (love vs. career). I was left wondering and second-guessing. Given that Mario and Leon seem to be deeply in love with each other, why didn't they spend more time trying to work out a solution that would have allowed them to stay together? Why did Leon lose his temper in the locker room knowing how Mario would be forced to react caught off guard and on the spur of the moment? Why did Leon leave Mario so abruptly without talking to him? Why didn't Leon answer Mario's phone calls? Why does Mario feel that he needs to apologize to Leon when Leon has just as much to apologize for? Why does Leon move on so quickly to a new boyfriend? But then, I did not write this story. Maybe Leon just doesn't see a way to make the relationship work and has decided to "cut his losses". Seeing that Leon is on at least his third boyfriend, maybe he just leaves when things get tough. Leon is Mario's first love and maybe Mario is just having a more difficult time figuring out what to do. Whatever. I still highly recommend buying and viewing this movie.

How many out gay professional athletes can you name? The few that existed quit playing after a few years. Pressure from teammates, the fans, the sponsors. It becomes too much. Looking at the movie through this lens there is almost no other way it could have turned out. The movie spends the first 45 minutes showing the developing deep love between the two, how they push each other, challenge and inspire each other to be better. While Mario is new to this it is refreshing that unlike most cliche films he accepts his sexuality and his love for Leon. The two actors have incredible chemistry and Max Hubacher's performance is Oscar worthy. What most other reviewers are missing is that Leon makes a huge sacrifice, and the sacrifice isn't Mario. He explains that he too had the same dreams of athletic stardom and fan adulation, but he could not live his dream if it meant being dishonest about who he was. At the end Leon has moved on, but even if he had been alone he would not have gone back to Mario under the circumstances. Conversely, if Mario were willing to risk everything to live his truth nothing would have kept Leon away from him, even his new boyfriend. So the film is not really about sad gay endings, but the fact that even in this day and age, in this context, gay men must make unfair choices (if it were a male and female soccer player they'd be a celebrity power couple). The ending is tragic and upset me for days, but it made its point. Brilliant movie.

I'm not a spectator sports fan (too many d*** people), so I usually don't even take the time to preview such a film - but I'm so glad I did. Excellent acting, cinematography, plot, setting, dialogue, etc., it's all there. A bittersweet movie... Matthew 26:73–75: (After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, "Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away." Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, "I don't know the man!" Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.) Trust me, worth watching………….......

This film is an honest and unflinching look at the psychology of the closet in professional sports, and the toll it takes on both individuals and relationships. The story focuses on the title character Mario, his dream of being a professional soccer star, family expectations, and his fear, all juxtaposed with his growing love for Leon. The characters are all well-done and compelling, and you feel for both young men even as their responses to the locker-room homophobia diverge so sharply. Well-written, well-acted, and moving. Plus the lead actors are easy on the eyes. The ending is totally realistic, a mixed bag emotionally, but satisfying, and Mario gets exactly what he asked for.

Mario is so much better than I expected. A sad comment on the culture of professional sports and how it has forced people to give up on their hearts to be able to be accepted in that world. Max Hubacher and Aaron Altaras are BRILLIANT in their roles. Their acting is so honest and heartfelt that it makes the film even more painful. Engrossing from start to finish, it is a story for anyone and an incredibly well made film.

We thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Excellent acting and filming quality. The story and characters are very compelling and touching and left us thinking about youth, love, sports and homosexuality -- and the struggles when the 4 intersect. It's so nice to see this well-done movie portraying such realism and emotional rawness growing up gay. Thank goodness filming-making and society have come to this point in time. Excellent movie by all accounts!

Beautiful and superb cinematography excellently showing the raw emotions of love, lived and lost. The actors were incredibly talented. It is so unusual for actors to properly convey the terrible pain that Mario feels over the loss of Leon. In 2021, this is so resonate of the American footballer Carl Nassib. I hope that future progress in gay acceptance will pave the way for a happier ending for future gay athlete couples. This is such a top notch film. One minor thing though is that the English subtitles need to be redone as the text is in white, many times on a light background.

Movie and acting were great but the ending was just WTF. My 3 stars should have been and so easily could have been a 5. It is so hard to come across a well written LGBT drama . Most are sub-par D movies with horrible acting and no driving plot, but this one great in so many aspects. As a member of the LGBT community it really chaps my hide when a movie so well written with great acting only to end in such a crappy way. We face enough heartbreak and discrimination in our lives that we do not need it to be reaffirmed on screen. We want to be taken out of our cruel world for and hour or two not reminded that many times we can not live our lives and succeed professionally due to prejudice. Is it really to much to ask to give us a little hope now and then. I personally would have never watched this movie if I had had in inclination that the ending was going to reaffirm that prejudice will always win and still forces many to choose love or career just because of bigoted prejudice.

Zoals nagenoeg alle films in het homo genre zit ook in deze film een duidelijke boodschap. Bij mij kwam deze aan in deze film !! Het verhaal is meeslepend en gaat dwars door je heen, maar het is kei en kei goed. De film heeft (helaas) geen happy end. Ik zelf heb het daar soms nog steeds moeilijk mee, maar ik had de film voor geen goud willen missen. De 2 hoofrolspelers laten acteerwerk zien op een buitengewoon hoog niveau. Van de neer gezette personages zal iedere homo seksuele man na 2 uur houden en na het zien van deze film heb je wel stof tot nadenken... Een echte aanrader deze film, voor zowel de homo als hetero gemeenschap !!

In my opinion, the best gay films of all time are, in order: 'Brokeback Mountain', 'Juste une question d'amour', 'MARIO', and 'Another Country' (based on my collection of over 200 titles in this genre). I dismiss the criticism by one customer, that this story lacks originality (that person who seems to think that most gay films follow a boring set itinerary). In my experience this film is very true to life, and is certainly the work of someone with insider knowledge of the Football profession. Most gay coming-out experiences share a similarity because of the very nature of one's coming out in a society in which some people are unwilling to accept that homosexuals are perfectly normal people in all other ways, because most people happen to be heterosexual. Quite why the Football profession does not seem to respect current laws and guidelines regarding homosexuality, bullying, and employment rules is beyond me, especially when one considers that the British armed forces have succeeded in bringing themselves fully up to date (a miracle in itself). Yes, Football is a macho profession, but not nearly so much as the army. I can safely say this with experience of both. The idea that gay players in a team may affect ticket sales is absolute nonsense of course, since most people nowadays either respect gay people, or have a family member, relative or friend who is gay, and also because they are bound to a large extent by political correctness, particularly at work. I put it down to the unwillingness of certain club owners and management to change. In this particular case, any story line which didn't follow stereotypical experiences would not work simply because there would be no need to make a film about gay footballers if their lives were as banal as those of their heterosexual peers. We could instead make do with another film about football or footballers. As for the film's ending - I can understand that some might find this one unimaginative, but to me, it reminded me realistically of how I felt when I had to face the future without the person I loved, and contemplating whether it was worth living or not. Such dread was clearly written all over Mario's face, with all the fear and pain that I had to endure. So, full marks to the actor who played the part. The clever thing about this concluding scene is, that it effectively provides the author with the opportunity to write a sequel. Superb acting, well-written, and beautifully shot. The work which went into making this film is very commendable indeed, and the actors had to train with professional footballers to blend in convincingly.

Ein absoluter Topfilm - nur empfehlenswert, da das Storyboard weit über dem Durchschnitt des schwulen Filmgenre liegt. Ich mag diese Filme sehr, da sie sowohl Erinnerungen wecken als auch tagesaktuelle Probleme thematisieren können. Letzteres wird im FIlm Mario sehr direkt und wahrscheinlich sehr real dargestellt. Ich möchte nicht in dieser Rolle stecken. Ich denke, dass kein Sport so ablehnend der Homosexualität gegenübersteht als der Fussball. Aber möglicherweise liege ich hier falsch und es gibt auch noch andere Sportarten, die auf Profi oder Semi-Profi Basis keinen Platz für gleichgeschlechtliche Liebe parallel zum Sportgeschehen akzeptieren. EIn sehr wertvoller Film - tolle Darsteller und Dialoge. Zum mitfühlen...

Je suis tres satisfait de la communication avec le vendeur prix abordable et dvd neuf. Sous titre en anglais. Le film est region européenne mais ils se lis avec un dvd multi-region sans problème.

Wonderful movie best movie for a while simply terrific............