Strong and Moving!

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

what a horrible treatment to a great script....all the characters are stiff and without any merit for the audience... how dare they ruin a wonderful story .. and especially try to duplicate a masterpiece.. with Holden and Novak... it stinks

Daniel Taradash did a splendid adaptation of William Inge's play back in 1955, preserving most of its structure and text while successfully fitting it into the form of a CinemaScope movie. Alas, this misguided and heavy-handed version seems to have learned little of value from Taradash's work. For some reason it's been updated, not to the present day but to 1966, perhaps to give Millie -- incredibly enough -- a chance to make a prescient but implausible speech about the coming turmoil of the Vietnam War. Did someone think this absurd insertion would somehow give the story weight and significance?Worse, however, is the way this version misunderstands and misplays its characters. Madge, the dreamy, not-too-articulate small-town beauty has here been turned into such a shrewd, knowing woman that one suspects she discusses her problems at least once a week with a psychoanalyst. The same applies to Hal Carter who, as glumly played by Josh Brolin, comes across more as a doctoral candidate in Russian literature rather than a washed-up, not-too-bright jock. And, let's be frank, Brolin just isn't physically impressive enough with his shirt off to justify his apparent effect on women's libidos.The characters of Howard Bevens, Millie, and Mrs. Potts are wasted and Mary Steenbergen seems utterly misdirected in the usually-glorious role of Rosemary, the old-maid schoolteacher. Utterly missing is Rosemary's sense of desperation. Bonnie Bedelia doesn't fare much better as Mrs. Owens and since this TV-movie never makes believable the college friendship between Hal and Alan Benson, Alan's turning against Hal doesn't have much impact. The backgrounds for this filmed-in-Texas production don't match the authenticity of the 1955 film which shot most of its exteriors in Hutchinson, Kansas. The Owens home, for example, is simply too large and well-maintained for a middle-class family headed by a widowed mother who has to worry about making ends meet. The Benson home looks regrettably like something out of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."Forget this muddle. Pay homage to the 1955 classic.

Since I worked on PICNIC as LOCATIONS CREW, and saw the movie on T.V. myself and recorded it on VHS, I think personally that DIRECTOR, Ivan Passer did an Excellent job along with PRODUCER, Blue Andre in making the film. GRETCHEN MOL, CHAD MORGAN, BEN CASWELL, JOSH BROLIN and all other CAST and EXTRAS that were involved made an outstanding performance in this CLASSIC EPIC. WONDERFUL, PERFECT... JUST ONE MORE... P I C N I C !Larry Friedel (LOCATIONS)

The Czech director Ivan Passer is perhaps the most unfulfilled of great contemporary filmmakers. His masterpieces in America--BORN TO WIN and CUTTER'S WAY--were seen by almost no one, and I doubt he had much of an audience for this "Kraft Premier Movie," which belies Robert Altman's notorious remark about Kraft's television products--"as bland as their cheese." William Inge's study of stifled erotic yearning in a small town now takes on a mythic stature. But powerful as that mythos is, Passer doesn't turn the star-crossed leads (Gretchen Mol and Josh Brolin, both luminous) into statues. On the contrary, he just accretes amazing lyricism everywhere--it stacks up on the surface of the movie like so many barnacles. The ending is a blissful liftoff that may make you feel you're living in another time and place. Visually, the work may not be as distinguished as you might like, but in terms of intuitive rhapsodic skill, Passer is right up there with Altman. Somebody, anybody, get this man more work.