The winter draws on.....done most of my Christmas shopping already ! Just hoping it doesn't snow too...
The winter draws on.....done most of my Christmas shopping already ! Just hoping it doesn't snow too soon.
Member since:04.03.2003
Reviews:123
Members who trust:42
I have heard people talking about this film and haven't wanted to watch it because they said how great it was and I HAD to see it and so on, and being stubborn, I had to watch it when I wanted to watch it...I know it's sad, but that's how I am.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I bought the film last Saturday morning when shopping in Tesco. I was looking for a feelgood film and after browzing through some other films came upon this one. Not only was it was on offer for £5.97, but it jumped off the shelf into my basket.
WHAT MADE ME BUY IT? Well the price helped, but the cover has a picture of 6 women, all smiling and attractive, and the title "Steel Magnolias" also had something else underneath..."The funniest movie ever to make you cry" which statement got me thinking about what sort of film this could be. I usually hate fil reviews that say "hilarious" "side-splitting" and so on, but there was somethign about this that grabbed me. The actresses in the film must have liked it enough to be in it ( I usually think this must be a good indicator of whether the film is a good one becasue actresses/actors don't want to ruin their careers) . They are good actresses as well...
SALLY FIELD ( M'Lynn) who plays a mother of a large family of colourful children and a bumbling, likeable husband JULIA ROBERTS (Shelby) plays her beautiful but stubborn and strong willed daughter
DOLLY PARTON ( Truvy) plays a good friend to the above who is a beauty salon owner (and has a no-good husband to support) DARYL HANNAH ( Annelle) plays a timid young woman newly moved into the town who develops into a strong but likeable churchgoer and who is befriended by Dolly. SHIRLEY MACLAINE (Ouiser) plays a grouchy but likeable older lady who is teased by the others but loved dearly OLYMPIA DUKAKIS (Clairee)plays a very rich older lady who is friends to all of the above but especially Shirley.
There are some men in the film who are there but not outstanding...M'Lynn's husband (Tom Skerritt) and Shelby's husband (Dylan McDermott) ) and Truvy's husband (Sam Sheperd) and even in the end Annelle's husband,( Kevin J O'Connor, I think, but I'm not sure) (and not forgetting Oiuser's dog) but they are left in the shadow and it is hard to work out who plays who at the end of the day.
The main characters are all strong female roles and are all acted superbly. We found ourselves drawn into first the preparations for the wedding of Shelby ( Julia Roberts) to Jackson (who we suspected had a violent temper until we realised the cause of the bruising that Shelby exhibited) and the scene setting and introduction of the main characters. Shirley MacLaine was wonderfully non-conformist and not at all feminine in appearence and gave us the most laughs throughout the film with her one-liners.
We chuckled when, after trying to shoot the crows out of the trees so that they would not make a mess at the reception, the father of the bride-to-be had to rush into the house and took the newspaper with him on the way. When asked where their father was , the sons said " the coffee got working!"
Julia Roberts was good as a wilful individual who had apparently always got her own way, and when told that she should not have children because of a medical condition she decided that she wanted one anyway. You thought that she was being stupid, but then this turned to sadness as she admitted (in other words) that her marriage was rocky and a child might help. Her mother M'Lynn (Sally Field) played the part of protective mother perfectly but she realised that her daughter would go ahead with having the baby anyway. Julia Robert's begging for some sort of congratulations from her mother gave me a lump in my throat because you could see how this was affecting her mother..she may lose her own daughter becasue of this desire to have a child.
There were so many good bits but one part that had us in tears and then laughing our heads off ( and the cover of the DVD was therefore SO right) was at a funeral (and I won't say which becasue it will spoil the story) where there were tears of sorrow and then anger attaking the person who had died..and a feeling that the person most affected wanted to hit someone., (which emotion you could really feel , giving the tears and lump in throat again) ....so Clairee pushes Ouiser forward and says "hit her"!!!!. Given that they are both older ladies and Ouiser is a bit sharp tongued and this gets her in to trouble , it breaks the ice and you have to laugh whil wiping the tears away. So Oiuser stomps off and sits on a gravestone and Clairee goes to apologise and explain that she did it to lighten the mood. They end up pushing each other off the gravestone and falling about laughing- which is just what we did at that point! Well we didn't push each other off a gravestone but we did fall about laughing!
The film is full of little gentle jokes and you have to pay attention so you can hear them.
We loved the fact that you could tell what season it was by what was outside the beauty salon, on the porch. This varied from pumpkins to Sant Claus...
My partner is hopeless at accents and she has a hard time tuning in to us up north, having come from Dorset originally. She struggled at first with the strong Deep- South American accents but you do get used to them quickly and although the dialogue is quick-fire , it is interesting and easy on the ear.
We loved this film and would recommend it to anyone wanting a good film to get the tissues out to but have a good laugh as well.
We worked out that although the men in these womens' families thought that they were the hard "steel" of the families, the women, although encouraged to be decorative and feminine were in fact the Steel ...steel magnolias. They bore the hardships of the families with more strength and were their backbone. So, so true.
DETAILS It was first made in 1989, so it was before Julia Roberts was such a big star..her potential is obvious from this film. Set in Louisiana in the 1980s Made by Tri-Star pictures Written by Robert HArling Directed by Herbert Ross Running time 1 hour 53 minutes (and it flew by!) Rating PG Subtitle Languages English, French, German, Italian, Spanish but also Greek, and Bulgarian not mentioned on the DVD box... There are extra features: Deleted scenes Directors Commentary "remembering the steel magnolias" Menu music Filmographies Isolated score
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Production Year: 2003 - Drama - Director: Michael Winterbottom - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton, Om Puri, Jeanne Balibar
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Best line from this film was Shelly Mclaine observing a woman who was squeezed into a floral dress, observing her moving behind, she stated; " ..... looks like 2 pigs fighting under a blanket " Oh I have to go and watch it again now :) xx E.
jo68 29.04.2004 14:06
I love this film ! After reading your review, I feel like watching it again ! Jo x
Based on Robert Harling's play and directed by Herbert Ross,Steel Magnoliasis a ... more
comedy-drama that follows several years in the lives of women who regularly see one another at a beauty shop in their small Louisiana hometown. The story deepens as Julia R...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Based on Robert Harling's play and directed by Herbert Ross,Steel Magnoliasis a ... more
comedy-drama that follows several years in the lives of women who regularly see one another at a beauty shop in their small Louisiana hometown. The story deepens as Julia R...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
A beautiful bittersweet comedy set in deep south Louisiana 'Steel Magnolias' unites ... more
talents of America's finest actresses as six very special friends bonded together by mutual triumphs and tragedies. Despite their differences beautiful Shelby (Juli...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
![Steel Magnolias [DVD] [1990]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78536741.jpg "Steel Magnolias [DVD] [1990]")
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