5/5 Best movie ever!!!
  by A. R. Bryant
I ordered this movie along with the remade version. This is one of my favorite movies of all times!! I was excited to find it available at Amazon because I knew that I would get good service with Amazon and I was not disappointed! The order came really fast and just as advertised "NEW". Awesome!!!

5/5 Great for a real cry!!!
  by Pamela Lozon (Groveland, MA)
This is a true story and have watched about a dozen times and cry my heart out each time. Unbelievable....great if you need a great cry....wonderful oldie!!!

5/5 Best Made for TV movie ever.
  by Lonnie J. Russell
I ordered the video late on a Saturday night and it was here Monday by 3:00pm. I wasn't expecting it that fast. I had bought the newer version of Brian's song but it just didn't have the same feel that the James Caan, Billy Dee Williams version does. When I watch this one, I feel like I really am watching Gayle Sayers and Brian Piccolo. I was really surprised that it was in my hands within 24 hours. WOW

4/5 Thank You For Being A Friend
  by Gregor von Kallahann
I recently screened the original BRIAN'S SONG for a film series on "Friendship In Film." It's not easy to find American films that explore that theme on a deeper level than the typical buddy-buddy flick. There are any number of films out there about deep and lasting friendships between women, but male friendship has been significantly less attention paid to it--understandable given the still strong cultural taboos against men expressing emotions and the implicit fear that too strong an emotional bond between men might imply at least latent homosexuality.

This 1971 made-for-TV movie can be seen as something of a cultural watershed, in a way. I actually missed the original broadcast back in the day (I was away at college and had other concerns), but I do recall that it was something of a media event. And understandably so. When the cinematic Gale Sayers, receiving an award for "Most Courageous Athlete," announces that his gallant teammate and friend, the mortally ill Brian Piccolo is infinitely more deserving of that award and that he (Sayers) will present it to him personally the next day, well, there's not a dry eye in the auditorium--or, for that matter, in any of the millions of living rooms where the film is being viewed. And when he expresses his love for his dying friend, well, no one's going to misinterpret that statement.

Is it easier to express such sentiments about someone who's dead or dying? Probably. BRIAN'S SONG actually is kind of predictably buddy-buddy for the first hour or so. Like many male friends, these guys express their affection for each other by bantering back and forth and playing silly practical jokes. Viewers understand from the get go, of course, that a deeper bond is being forged, one that transcends race, or the fact of their sports rivalry, or of their decidedly different personalities.

But it does take personal tragedy for that affection to be articulated. Some might find that something of a shame. Others will just say that's just the way things are (or WERE back in those storied days of those yore). BRIAN'S SONG, like most bio-flicks--and ESPECIALLY like most bioflicks on TV--is often frustratingly sketchy. But it does make plain an implicit truth found in many close friendships between men. The bonds are not just superficial--even when the banter mainly is.

I recently did a solo performance of the old Louis Armstrong song "Wonderful World" in my church, and was struck anew by the lyrics, "I see friends shaking hands, saying, 'How do you do?'/They're really saying, 'I love you.'" In the case of Brian Piccolo, when he learns that his good friend has donated a pint of blood to him, what comes out of his mouth is, "Well, no wonder I woke up with a craving for chitlins." But we know he's really sayin' "I love you."

And "THANK YOU!"


5/5 It let's you see what you're made of
  by W. C. Saunders (Mooresville NC)
I remember it was shortly after my divorce and I was laying on the sofa fliping through the channels and happened on Brian's Song. I'm 61 years old and to this day I have never been so moved by any film. I remember many films over the years where I teared up and had trouble talking but I've never had a movie hit me as Brian's Song did when I was laying on that sofa. I was glad I didn't have anyone else around because I cried like a baby and couldn't stop for some time. The story is about true friendship not something that's manufactured it's real and honest and something we all wish we had which is a friend that you can count on no matter what. It touches me just as much today as it did many years ago.