August: Osage County (2013) (Movie)

format_quote Barbara Weston: Marriage is hard.
Karen Weston: That's one thing about mom and dad. You gotta tip your hat to anybody who can stay married that long.
Ivy Weston: Karen, he killed himself.

stars  "Life is very long" --the opening line spoken by Sam Shepard's character Beverly Weston--is from T.S. Eliot's infamous "Hollow Men" poem, but it's a line borrowed from Joseph Conrad's novel "An Outcast of the Islands". The hollow emptiness of modern, Western life is a grand theme of this movie and its original stage play. Also, the name of the major female character, "Vi" for Violet, is very similar to the name of Eliot's wife, Vivienne. In addition, Sam Shepard--whose father was also a teacher and drinker like the Bev Weston he portrays--has long been a playwright documenting the demise of the American dream in works such as "True West".

stars  The song in the 2nd Trailer is "Stubborn Love" by the The Lumineers.

stars  Tracy Letts unsuccessfully objected against Harvey Weinstein's decision in the casting of British actors for the film (Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Andrea Riseborough who was nearly cast as Karen) as the characters are written to be all-American, but admitted he had a change of view after seeing the film.

stars  Tracy Letts wanted the original stage cast to reprise their roles in the film version. Ultimately, none of the original actors appear in the movie.

stars  Beverly Weston, the Weston family patriarch, was played by Dennis Letts, playwright Tracy Letts' father in the Steppenwolf premiere of the play.