In spite of what others have said, I enjoyed this movie. I had never heard of it before and I have just seen it on the Canadian Movie Channel. I was puzzled to see how young Brad Pitt was - even younger than in "Thelma and Louise" - until I read the explanation about it being filmed in Yugoslavia in 1988 and then being lost for 9 years until finally issued in 1997. As I am a male senior citizen, I don't get palpitations at the sight of Brad Pitt, but I do like and respect him, and have enjoyed most of his movies. Some of the acting and parts of the script leave a great deal to be desired. However, this movie has a very Film Festival European feel to it, and in my view is a bit too deep for most North American film fans (insult intended). The scene of him frolicking in the ocean with the dolphins, and his description of the most wonderful day that he had ever spent, moved me tremendously. Life is made up of choices, and the choice for the hero was one day of great happiness and joy, or a lifetime of imprisonment.

This was so sad, he's so alone and feels he is so different and his life is not real because he lives behind a mask, so he sacrifices himself in order to have 3 normal days, as he feels the only way he can really live is without the mask and without the mask he will die.But the bike people and the girl actually make friends with him, love him after he has made the sacrifice, but at times he still has the mask on, how soul destroying that would be.It seems really sad that the girl could ignore something good right in front of her, but be so caught up by the mystery, by something unreal.I thought it was fantastically shot, lucky Brad Pitt getting to play with the dolphin, he's not my type of guy look wise but I think he sometimes does some really good acting.

Brad Pitt fans please note that this Yugoslavian film was first made in 1988 and edited for re-release in 1997 due to Brad Pitt's popularity.This film, I feel would fall into that so-bad-it's-good category. The acting from Guy Boyd as the father is nothing less than terrible, and Cheryl Pollak, although an attractive presence could have done slightly better too. There are also strange surreal scenes which really do not fit it and distract from the poignancy of one boy's story, eg a scene with an old man stamping on condoms (don't ask) and a long scene of Pollak singing to Pitt's dad! Apart from these faults it is actually a very enjoyable piece of tosh.Brad Pitt's performance can not be faulted as a young man who has been forced to live his entire life inside a leather shell with only two tiny holes for his eyes and one for his mouth. (No mention was made about how he goes to toilet, or bathes come to that!). Pitt put across well to the viewer the internal emotional torture that his character felt by not being able to go out in the world and do normal young man things, and showed that although he was wearing the suit to stop the external torture of the sun blistering his body, his inner feelings which are actually more important in a lot of ways were constantly hurting. On doing some research after the film I found that the skin disease isn't actually medically right, but it seemed real and I am sure there must be similar conditions.Pitt's character falls in love with Pollak's character in the story, so decided to take off the suit and live a few days of happiness with her out in the sun, despite it meaning the end of his life. He then gets hurt even more when he tries to kiss her and she turns away, realizing that she only fancies him back when he is in the suit. So it is more the air of mystery and the fascination on her part which makes her like him, not him as a person. She actually asks him where his masked "friend" is.When Pitt comes along in the mask she decides to allow him to make love to her, but of course this has to be done in the dark. She doesn't realize who he is until he leaves a locket behind for her to see. The ending is then extremely poignant but I will say no more in case you do ever get to see it.In summary I would definitely recommend that all Pitt fans and even males who are just interested in rare movies lol give this a go!

It was nice to see a really old movie (okay not old, but from the 1980s) starring a really young Brad Pitt in a movie that could have actually had some potential. (and I stress "could have")"The Dark Side of the Sun" had some potential to be a great movie. The storyline was definately there: a young man, whom throughout his whole life has had to live in darkness because of a skin disease, longs for the intimacy that he could never have. So because of his skin disease, the only way that he could live life was if a) the windows in his home were all shut tight and b) if he traveled around on a motorcycle with a leather suit that showed no skin. Not that the movie's heart was in the wrong place: I mean, it shows that whole angsty-longing we have as we grow from teens to adults. We all want something that we probably can never have. And it kills us to know that. And it also brought up a very interesting skin disease that most people (or myself) didn't know about. So it educated the viewer as well.The main problem with the movie? Just the acting. It was horrible. Not that *I* could do a better job, but my goodness. Brad Pitt was definitely good (can't really deny that sparkly smile and bright baby blues), but as for some of the other co-stars that I won't mention, it just made some of the dialogue a little, hokey. Particularly one scene, which was just awful. I laughed instead of, I guess, cried (it was a weepy moment). But for some reason...I stuck it through. I watched this movie, even though it was difficult. To sum it up: storyline good, some of the acting bad, lame dialogue, Brad Pitt rules all. Amen.