source: Steel Magnolias

Trailer—Steel Magnolias

Steel Magnolias

This is an excellent movie, one of my favorites. It is also based on a true story. Robert Harling, the playwright, who wrote the play had a sister who had diabetes. Her's was just like Shelby's. It was very serious and having a child was life-threatening. However, though she went right ahead and had one anyway because she was afraid she would be denied one through adoption. Susan was her real name. He wrote the play for her of course. It was so good that it was turned into a movie. I have the DVD of it. I used to rent all the time before I got it. I love Julia Roberts, and all the others. Kudos to the filmmakers, cast and crew. Two Thumbs Way Up!

Shelby Eatenton (Julia Roberts) is getting married to Jackson (Dylan McDermott). Her parents M'Lynn (Sally Field) and Drum (Tom Skerritt) are getting ready. Things revolve around Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton)'s beauty parlor. Truvy takes pity on the bumbling Annelle Dupuy (Daryl Hannah) hiring her. Next door neighbor Ouiser Boudreaux (Shirley MacLaine) is angry at all the fuss. Clairee Belcher (Olympia Dukakis) loves to crack jokes at Ouiser's expense. Shelby is weak with diabetes. She suffers attacks. She shouldn't have children, but some time after the wedding, she announces that she's pregnant. Sure it's a chick flick. But it's not a frivolous chick flick. There are big emotional melodrama. It's overwrought at times. The impressive cast is able to tame this beast. The best part is that these chicks are good friends. It's a chick flick in the best sense. There are some cute fun moments, some big lines, and some down right sharp jabs. Then there are the big cry moments. It's all there.

Get the hankies out. As you will cry. About female friendship and that over in set in Dolly Parton's character beauty shop where she hired Daryl Hannah's shy character there. As it starts with Sally Field's being mother of Julia Roberts character as the latter marries and wants to start a family. But her diabetes will possibly end her life due to it as it is a special kind. Rounding out the cast is Shirley MacClane as the town grouch and the late Olympia Dukakas as Shirley's only friend and the former first lady of her state as both add much needed comic relief to the story. Really can never at all stop watching this movie as it is my all time or one of them there movies.

It's no wonder this is considered a favorite among many. One of the best Southern charm films out there for sure. Wonderfully unique characters all Southern folks will recognize, beautiful cinematography and filming location, and a truly heart wrenching yet inspirational tale.

Difficult to find fault with this feel good chick flick. Even Shirley MacLaine can't louse it up but it is a young Julia Roberts who crawls away with it despite strong competition from Olympia Dukakis and Sally Field. I was fortunate enough to see the play before I saw the movie, albeit an English production of an American play set in the Deep South which meant it had two strikes on it going in but the quality of the writing overcame that handicap and is evident in this fine adaptation. Friendship is the theme that runs through it and the fact that in this case it is female friendship is more or less irrelevant. There's a nice symmetry in that it begins with the wedding of the Roberts character and ends, to all intents and purposes, with her premature death following a kidney transplant. Films about the South tend to get it wrong as often as they get it right but when they do get it right, as in To Kill A Mockingbird and this one, they really get it right. A winner.

I have always loved this movie. My mom and I watch it all the time and never get sick of it. It also never fails to make me both laugh and cry. It's amazing how real it is. I cannot relate to the events or the whole southern aspect to it, yet the movie is still easy to connect with. That is not only due to the incredible writing, but the acting is phenomenal. The characters feel so real. I have a hard time picking who I like best because everyone is so incredible in their own way. Even the more minor characters. But like I said, the impeccable writing is impossible to ignore. My mom and I can't seem to stop quoting it to each other. Although, yes, it is a chick flick, it is actually a good one. It's meaningful and powerful. And it's always nice to see a movie about women that does not revolve around them trying to get a man. I can't think of anything that is wrong in this movie. I really can't find a flaw. Every women, adolescents and on, should see this movie. I love it!

"Steel magnolias" is a chronicle of a small circle of friends .The actresses get the lion's share ,which has become unusual ;that alone is cause for celebration,mainly when the cast includes a grumpy sullen Shirley McLaine who overplays as hell,Sally -never without my daughter-Field,A holier-than- thou but good -hearted Daryl Hannah wearing horrible glasses ,a very young Julia Roberts who was more endearing than she is now in such parts as "Brockovich" and of course Dolly Parton -too bad she does not sing-. The dramatic plot -Shelby's illness- is kept to the minimum,at least in the first hour.Then when the tragedy strikes,Herbert Ross avoids pathos and melodrama (it's not the return of Douglas Sirk).And the last scene is wonderful,Easter meaning a renaissance .As usual,Georges Delerue's score superbly enhances the film :he's so good a musician that even when the movie bores you (Godard's "le mépris" for instance,as far as I'm concerned),his tuneful work survives.