In the midst of a civil war, a pair of former violinists in a tempestuous marriage oversee a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.
Ingmar Bergman stretches a classic Bergman couple on the tightening rack of war.
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Roger Ebert
RTChicago Sun-TimesOct 18, 2008
It is a question without an answer in Shame, which does not deliver a message in any formal way, but simply offers people and their lives and leaves us to conclude what we choose.
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Keith Uhlich
RTHouse Next DoorApr 19, 2008
"What a wonder is a gun," opined one-time Bergman adapter Stephen Sondheim.
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Dustin Chang
RTFloating WorldJan 14, 2025
Shame is a complex anti-war film. The setting, its fuzzy time frame are almost expressionistic against realistic performances of the actors. It denounces war, any war and shows how it sucks humanity out of normal people. And what an ending!