To me, this movie is perfection.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

I first saw this movie on Netflix and watched it non-stop until they took it off. Then I bought this movie and put it on my Macbook. I have no clue how many times I have watched it. I know it is over 50 times. You can ask me any question about any scene and I can tell you every word spoken and answer any question about any scene. If I play the movie and walk away , I don't even need to see what scene is playing. I can see it in my head very vividly and i know exactly what that scene looks like. I say I love this movie is a gross understatement. But if you ask my why I love it this much, I do not know how to answer. I often wonder why I love this movie as much as I do. There is something inside of me that this movie triggers beyond belief. I wish I knew what it was.

holds up very well. The cast is excellent. Look for a young Robert Blake as one of Alva's admirers, of which there are many. Mary Badham shows how natural and good a child actress she truly was and that her performance in Mockingbird was not just a flash in the pan. I wish she had done more. Charles Bronson is fine as Hazel's boyfriend who is in lust with Wood's character. I think the plot is fine, not sure why so much criticism. It develops the characters and moves along just fine. Robert Redford is solid in his role. He struggles with his job and morality. That is never easy. But Natalie Wood is outstanding. Not only her screen presence is mesmerizing, but her interpretation of her role is a revelation. She is no innocent, yet she is innocent and she portrays that very well. She has never been more beautiful and to me she rivaled Elizabeth Taylor in looks. She was not nominated for an Academy Award that year, but I believe she she deserved it.

Drama takes place during the Depression. Owen Legate (Robert Redford) goes to a small town in Mississippi to lay off railroad workers (the towns only source of income). There he meets wild Alva Starr (Natalie Wood) and her overbearing mother Hazel (Kate Reid). Alva wants to get out of the town and see Owen as her ticket...but her mother has other ideas. It's all ends tragically.This was based on one of Tennessee Williams' one act plays. It was adapted by THREE writers (one being the unknown Francis Coppola). When Williams saw the final result he was (understandably) horrified. It's easy to see why--this just comes across as a very bad Williams play. It moves slowly, has characters making speeches instead of talking and has sexual situations that were probably shocking in their day but are merely tame (and silly) today. Abrupt ending too. Worst of all is Redford who gives a TERRIBLE performance. Totally stone-faced throughout showing no reaction or feelings at all. This film gets a 5 because it IS well-done. It looks good and captures the feel of its era pretty convincingly. Also Reid and Wood are excellent in their roles giving this better performances than it deserves. Those two alone make this worth watching at least once. I'm giving this a marginal recommendation because of those two. Look for a very young Robert Blake and Charles Bronsan in small roles.

Tennessee Williams' one-act play about a loose-living belle down Mississippi way during the Depression who cottons to the new renter in her mama's boarding-house becomes an overblown star-vehicle for Natalie Wood and Robert Redford. Though well-produced, and with some very sensitive passages, the picture never quite gets going...and fails to wrap itself up satisfactorily. Redford is the railroad employee from New Orleans who pulls into a whistle-stop town to lay-off many of the workers; Wood teases and taunts him before deciding she loves him, though it may be too late. The characters act so rashly--biting and clawing at one another blindly, without thinking--that the two leads never manage to create a moving or sympathetic rapport. By the final third, the narrative has stopped making logical sense; director Sydney Pollack seems to hope that by coasting through solely on emotion, he'll be able to get us to the finish-line on good will alone. Unfortunately, the screenplay just isn't persuasive enough, nor are the performances strong enough, to negate the movie's weaknesses. ** from ****