Touches You

The Age of Commercialism

Absolutely the worst movie.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The 1970s brought a number of things: disco, disaster movies, and the rise of televangelists. But the Me Decade also brought about a revolution in prime time. Not only did series like "All in the Family" and "Sanford and Son" debut, but movies started getting made for TV. One of these was "Sweet Hostage", based on Nathaniel Benchley's "Welcome to Xanadu". Martin Sheen plays an escaped mental patient who kidnaps a farm girl (Linda Blair), and the two of them develop a relationship. Their roles are reversed from what you might expect: he's a worldly guy while she can barely read and has no prospects in life. To be certain, he often corrects her grammar.It was interesting seeing Linda Blair in a role very different from the one with which she's most associated. At a Wizard World convention last year I got her autograph. She's a really nice person. Martin Sheen had just played a delinquent in Terrence Malick's "Badlands", so this wasn't a totally new role for him. Both do a great job with the characters. I really liked the scene where Sheen's character and the Indian do the Vulcan salute; that scene now feels like a tribute to Leonard Nimoy.Nathaniel Benchley was the father of "Jaws" author Peter Benchley, and it turns out that Nathaniel Benchley's father was also a noted author. The director, Lee Philips, had directed a completely different kind of TV movie the previous year: "The Stranger Within", starring Barbara Eden as a woman who inexplicably becomes pregnant and then starts behaving very strangely (it had to be the only movie in which Barbara Eden looks terrifying).All in all, I thought that this was a good movie. I wish that more movies got filmed in New Mexico. I really liked it when I spent spring break there in 2002. And above all, please remember to use correct grammar ("if I had done X yesterday", NOT "if I did X yesterday" or "if I would have done X yesterday").

Back when i first saw this movie I was in the Navy on the USS Enterprise. It was 1978 and I was 18. Very young and impressionable. I had been going thru the usual stuff most people that age go thru. A search for self and something I could believe in. So when they showed this movie on the ships TV I was on watch and sat their mesmerized as the movie progressed. The more i saw it the more i felt completely captivated by the main character martin Sheen played. He represented everything i was feeling and going thru. I felt like and outsider and that no one understood my true self. I found my self in tears and could hardly believe that there was someone who felt the same, even if it was a fictional movie character. I was deeply moved for days and found myself wanting to do everything from go AWOL and run away to commit suicide because there was just no way I could live in the world as I saw it and Martin Sheen saw it in that movie. I have never seen it again and hardly feel it would have any impact on me other than nostalgic but on that night far away on the Pacific Ocean, this TV movie Sweet Hostage was a godsend that I felt was meant to be shown while most the ship slept, I had a deeply spiritual experience. all from a movie! I chuckle now but it was one of my favorites for years until I finally grew up and got jaded and swept away in the typical pursuits of a young man..sex, girls and fast cars! Excellent movie.

I remember watching this movie when it first came out. I was a high school freshman at the time (boy, does *that* date me!). I remember thinking this was one of the best romantic movies I'd ever seen. The box of kleenex was dragged out, my eyes were red, etc.I spent about 15 years trying to find this movie when VCRs became rampant, and couldn't.Lo and behold, there it was on eBay. It cost a lot more than I usually pay for a tape, but I'd looked so long that I decided to get it anyhow.Now that I've seen it as a middle-aged woman, all I have to say is: this is a terrible movie! It's so bad that it's almost hilarious. The first three minutes give you an idea; Martin Sheen is in the courtyard of his Massachusetts mental institute, wearing a bathrobe and slippers, and telling the aides, "You may address me as Kubla Khan." It's all downhill from there, folks.What redeems it? If you want to take it seriously, be a young female who's waiting for Prince Charming, as this film is a bizarre sort of wish fulfillments. If you *don't* want to take it seriously, there's Linda Blair in one of her more nymphette stages, and the young Martin Sheen looking as quite the stud muffin, so there's some eye candy for all genders. And, of course, there are a bunch of lines in the script that are so bad that you've got to burst into laughter.I think the reason we couldn't find tapes of this film for so long is because Martin Sheen confiscated all of the original negatives. If Francis Ford Coppola had seen this, he would have never cast Martin Sheen for the lead in "Apocalypse Now." Fortunately, someone must have found one at a flea market and turned it into a video.Ratings: If taken seriously: 3 If not taken seriously: 10

I saw this film over 25 years ago I was very young, but it left a deep impression in my heart, this was a very touching movie that stayed with me for all these years, I only saw this movie that one time, but I never forgot about it, I did however forget the name of the movie, but I never forget the two main characters; Linda Blair and Martin Sheen they were absolutely fabulous. Why did they not make more movies together. I will always keep this movie in my memories. I hope to see it again soon as would like to have a copy of my own to watch whenever I want. Sweet Hostage was and still is Sweet Brilliance!!!!.