The Lottery (1996) (TV)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Daniel Sackheim

Writers (WGA):

Shirley Jackson (short story)
Anthony Spinner (television story)

Release Date:

29 September 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

On his deathbed in the hospital, Jason's father asks that he be buried in the town from which he came...

Plot Keywords:

Americana | Dream | Small Town | Based On Short Story

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Dan Cortese	...	Jason Smith
Keri Russell	...	Felice Dunbar
Veronica Cartwright	...	Maggie Dunbar
Stephen Root	...	Graham Dunbar
William Daniels	...	Reverend Hutchinson
William Morgan Sheppard	...	Mayor Warner (as W. Morgan Sheppard)
Joe Chrest	...	Deputy Jeff Simmons
Salome Jens	...	Faith Lloyd
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Chief Davis
Sean Murray	...	Henry Watkins
Jon Huffman	...	Dr. Wasserman
Jeff Corey	...	Albert Smith
Amy Parrish	...	Kelly Malone
Alex Van	...	Craig Lloyd
David Lenthall	...	Postmaster

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | Argentina:13 | UK:12 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Landsburg Company

Movie Connections:

Version of The Lottery (1969)

Would make a better short.

I first read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" in my high school freshman English class and was really shocked that they would let us read THIS kind of story in a learning institute. Needless to say, that tale has always stuck with me. When I heard that NBC was going to be showing a made-for-TV movie based off of the story, my hopes were not high. When I saw the finished product, my fears were confirmed. Let's face it, folks, there are some short stories that just aren't meant to be feature-length films and this is one of them. I think it would have made a much better short subject or been done as an episode of a horror anthology series in the mold of "The Twilight Zone" or "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".

The story's theme of blindly following archaic traditions still rings within the film, just having it being padded out into a conventional thriller didn't work for me though. To see how to handle a short story REALLY well, try to find the adaptation of William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily" that starred a young Angelica Huston. In a similar vein as "The Lottery", "Rose" runs approximately fifteen minutes and is very effective and evocative.