TxMike We don't really get to understand the meaning of the title until the very last scene or two. It is a reference to doing something different, perhaps spontaneous, perhaps even 'naughty' instead of always doing the safe thing. As in when someone might say 'don't get carried away'. He did get 'carried away.'This is a love story between two people who are 30 years apart in age, in the 1960s. But it is also a love story about two same-aged teachers who have been friends for life, and have come to take each other for granted.Dennis Hopper, who was closer to 60, is 47-year-old teacher Joseph Svenden, living on a spread with his house and a barn and a small amount of land. He is 'dating' Amy Irving as Rosealee Henson, a fellow teacher and widow in this small rural community. They have a very safe relationship, they never 'get carried away.'Things get more interesting and more complicated when Amy Locane, who was probably 23 during filming, as 17-year-old Catherine Wheeler moves into the area to attend school and also ends up boarding her horse with Svenden. She is smart and experimental and quickly sizes up Svenden as an easy mark. One day soon after her horse arrives, he finds Catherine in the hay loft of the barn. They chat a bit, then she takes off her top to reveal a really nicely sculpted physique without a bra. What is a man, a schoolteacher, to do, since she is 17 and she is a student of his?The movie never delves into the deep moral or legal aspects of the situation. Instead it is a study of a man who is living out life with no excitement whatever and wondering how it would be to get 'carried away' before he dies.Gary Busey is good as Major Nathan Wheeler, Catherine's dad. Also good is veteran Hal Holbrook as the local physician, Doctor Evans, who sees just about everything that goes on in the community but does not judge too harshly. He understands what human nature is all about.SPOILERS: That first day when she takes off her top, Svenden is at first very surprised, then leaves the barn, but outside sees his elderly mother through the screen, weak and frail, then turns around and goes back to the, saying "I believe we should make love." Later we hear him tell that is was because he wanted to get 'carried away' for once. There is another scene, where he gets undressed in Rosealee's house, and encourages her to do so also, in spite of her reluctance. They had made love many times, in the dark, but this time he wanted them to 'get carried away' and do something daring. In the end everyone learned about the ongoing affair he was having with the student, even her dad understood, and in the very end Svenden and Rosealee appear to be headed for a life together, getting 'carried away' by romping into the sea surf in their street clothes.

mysticalfemme I've been turned off by the braggadocio of Dennis Hopper's acting style before, so I was tremendously surprised by how much I enjoyed his performance in this movie. Bruno Baretto's direction was superb. He has a gift for conveying the feel of the time and place his story was set in. The overall themes were honest and the acting was earnest all around. It was a pleasant surprise to find Hopper's character choosing the authenticity of Amy Irving's time-worn beauty over Amy Locane's evanescent nubile hotness. Aside from the incongruities of Hopper playing 47 at age 60 and Amy Locane playing 17 at age 25, it was a beautifully done film.And yes, it is possible for the implausible dynamic of this film to find similar parallels in 'real life.' I met my longtime boyfriend when I was 26 and he was 57, and yes, I am a babe, and no, he has no money.

ilovelucy77 Oh my God! I finished watching "Carried Away." How disturbing! I can't see how someone as young and sexy as Amy Locane would find someone who looks like Dennis Hopper sexually arousing. Hot babes like that do not go for old men unless they are wealthy.***spoilers ahead*** Those sex scenes in "Carried Away" between Dennis Hopper and Amy Locane as well as the one sex scene between Amy Irving and Dennis Hopper looked so real it made "Wild Things" look like a kids' movie. This should be considered a porn film.I could have been spared the full frontal nudity of Dennis Hopper before his character had sex with Amy Irving's character. And it was odd that she did frontal nudity in this film when she swore against doing it in "Carrie." Then again, Amy Irving was a lot younger when she did "Carrie."

Zen Bones This is a beautiful and rare look at rural America in the 1960s. Dennis Hopper plays a schoolteacher with a gimpy leg who is quite unexceptional. He's middle-aged but still only engaged (to Amy Irving who is fantastic in this!)and still lives with his aged mother (the wonderful Julie Harris). Suddenly, a young, fresh, beautiful and vibrant teenager arrives at his school and he finds his heart - and other vital organs - stirred beyond endurance. She's technically not innocent (she's not a virgin) but she's no Lolita either. She's the epitome of the young women of Andrew Wyeth's paintings. In fact, the whole film looks and feels like a Wyeth painting: organic and idyllic with an emptiness that's filed with loneliness. The script is intelligent and original, allowing each character to be fully developed, and Dennis Hopper gives the performance of his career.I've read a few reviews here and elsewhere that complain about Hopper's age and the frontal nudity. I belong to the school of thought that nothing natural is ugly, and that art should not ALWAYS be pure and youthful and beatific (which BTW, was what Hitler's vision was. Art that wasn't beautiful was classified as "degenerate" and banned). If there's room for artists like Michelangeo and Egon Schiele in this world, and there's surely room for Brad Pitt AND Dennis Hopper! If the nude body is something that you just can't look at then a film like this may not be for you (there's only one very brief scene). But keep in mind that you can't broaden your vision of humanity if you don't have an open mind and are willing to look below the superficial surface that at least in Hollywood, poses as reality.