Overrated and overhyped

Just perfect...

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Since the mid 1950s, Hollywood stood at the forefront of changing the public opinion and controversy that his movies brought were meant to appeal to the average viewer and make him/her think and/or question the deeply rooted conservative attitudes. Elia Kazan's mastered the subject of forbidden love, social prejudices and tragic romance in his movies, while simultaneously managing to create some of the most famous male and female couplings in the history of western cinema. "Splendor in the grass" has turned the public's eye to a young and handsome Warren Beatty and also enthroned Natalie Wood as the tragic heroine of love stories in that era. The two actors perfectly clicked both on and off the screen and managed to guide the viewers all the way through one love story that started as a beautiful thing but resulted in one of the most heartbreaking ending scenes of all times. "Splendor in the grass" is a true, real life, tough, beautiful and tragic love story for all times.

Good movie to visit with your youth and high school days even though this takes place in the early 1900's it still helps to bring back the memories for the viewer. Quality acting and realistic story of life for teens in a simple town some where in the USA. The story has a sensuous undertone and feel as we watch hormones go to work but never really finding closure. The emphasis at that time in that place was being a good boy and girl and if you were not you were known for that too. The movie brings in the crash of 29 and how it changed lives as well as having all that life can offer and not being happy. Wholesome down to earth scenes of family dinners, dances, gatherings and some high school thrown in. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may for time old time is still a flyin for this same flower that lives today tomorrow will be dying applies here...

SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS is a romantic drama about a teenage love, passion, temptation, suffering and acceptance. A beautiful and modest teenage girl, who lives with her parents in Kansas, follows her mother's advice to resist her desire for sex with her boyfriend. He is the son of one of the most prosperous families in their town. They are very nervous and impatient. A young man, reluctantly, follows the advice of his father, who suggests that he find another kind of girl with whom to satisfy his desires. His older sister, who loves a hedonistic lifestyle, is sexually promiscuous. His parents are ashamed of her. A love couple is exposed to constant emotional pressure. He has accepted his father's advice. She, slowly, starts to lose her mind...An economic depression, a parental domination and a conflict between traditional and modern ways of life are thematic segments analyzed in this story. It is interesting that love and passion very quickly turn into an obsession. The love affair between two young people is full of temptations and mutual suffering. A harsh social drama, which is quite explicit, is „dovetailed" between the material and spiritual crisis. That is a time, in which emotions are unpleasant but very sincere. Sexual frustrations, or sexual riots are, in this case, are a reflection of the isolation of a society. These teenage lives are quite sensitive to any sudden change. Characterization is very good.Natalie Wood as Wilma Dean "Deanie" Loomis has shown strong form of an emotional stress, which is caused by violent passions, sexual desire, traditional environment and personal depression. The innocence in her eyes and a little embarrassed smile on her face have further enhance that effect. Ms. Wood is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful actress of all time. Warren Beatty as Bud Stamper has offered a very decent performance. A little bit rebellious son, who has tried to escape from his father's lap. His character is somewhat pathetic. His emotional exhaustion and impatience have closed a door of his happiness.However, he has, in the end, stayed in the traditional environment, while Deanie has made an uncertain, but a decisive step into the world.Their support are Pat Hingle (Ace Stamper) as an unreasonable father, who inexorably separates his son from his happiness and Audrey Christie as Mrs. Loomis as a soft-spoken mother, who has built a „prison cell" around her daughter.Mr. Kazan has very well described this social disorder, in which, missed opportunities and youthful fears have eliminated every crumb of optimism.

While a modest hit and the bringer of a career Oscar for Inge, "Splendor In The Gas" in fifties social relevance drama running on fumes; a picture that labors mightily to be a little moving. Beatty is fine in his first film, it was probably enough to make him a star. Natalie Wood is caught straining, too little is given her wild mood swings in the way motivation. Pat Hingle is method hammy in the most one dimensional of the film's characters. The films last quarter, where the cliche's are given some balance (though we learn the two worst have predictably perished by their own folly) and the pain is reconciled, is probably it's best. The poetic coda is too trite but does not offend. Kazan would never find his way into the sixties, and while some misbegotten projects would follow, he was finished as a creative force. His capitulation with HUAC left him something of a pariah in Hollywood, but he never found a real handle on the medium beyond brilliantly executing the written word, and the medium was going beyond that.