Absolutely Brilliant!

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There may be a spoiler or two in this review.There are times when my judgment and my emotions do not coincide when it comes to movies, and Raintree County is a case in point. The plot is bloated. somewhat disjointed and too lengthy. The acting is not great, despite the fact that Elizabeth Taylor received an Oscar nomination for this film. Nevertheless, after I sort of forced myself to watch the entire film, I discovered that it captivated me, emotionally.What got to me was the quality of the musical scoring and the essential story (love story and love triangle, set during the Civil War), and the indefinable connection to the land and the mystical Raintree, that the lead characters had. The Liz Taylor character's progressive mental problems, and confusion about her own childhood and racial background all added to my interest in this film. Some reviewers have commented that the Liz Taylor character was supposed to be part black, and yet this is not true. A black slave who delivered Liz Taylor clearly states in the movie that she is born to a white mother and father. Watch the film to discover where her own racial confusion comes from... this is also an interesting twist to the plot.I would say, the film is well worth watching, if you can get yourself to sit through the entire 2 hrs. and 50-some minutes.

I feel really guilty because my partner of 40 years, who is an avid film collector, fished this tape out of his vast repository (5000 films) and set it up so I could watch it. Since his media center is in one room and our eating space in another (the kitchen)I was running back and forth between the movie and my breakfast lasagne waiting breathlessly for La Liz's entrance which I caught just in time between bites of food and of course she was ravishing as always and utterly the center of attention in every shot, everyone else fading into the woodwork - there will never be a star to equal her! But alas the script is a muddled mess and there is no question the studio (MGM)could not have found a worse writer than they did - I looked him up here and he did nothing to warrant being asked to adapt Raintree County from the book which he did along with the book's author. Right off the bat both the story and the central character (The Professor) are just plain silly with heartthrob Clift running off into a swamp in his Sunday Best for absolutely no reason and the professor running off with some man's wife. What all this has to do with the main storyline is anyone's guess, but after reading the synopsis of the story here I realized that poor MGM in its quest to film a sequel to GWTW failed miserably with this pathetic attempt. As the old saying says, you can't go home again!

To make "Raintree County,"-the " Great American novel", according to one of my Lit profs some 44 years ago- into a movie was just too much at the time. One must read the book and compare. Having been raised less than 40 miles from the real location, (not the locations where it was filmed), I love and appreciate the novel, and I really do like the movie. The book shows John Shawnessy as literally part of that land, but that does not transfer onto the screen. Such things happen a lot with really good books that get hacked up for the movie- like Hemingway's "Farewell To Arms." Still, it tries hard to capture the symbolism of the raintree, and by the way, the swamp did exist in the 1860's, though now it is just rich Indiana farmland.I give the movie the best review I can: I watch it every time it is on (I first saw the film late at night, in black and white, on TV). It gets an A for the attempt, a B+ for the results. I am fine with the casting and the acting: after all, it was Hollywood, 1957. Last words: Get the book and read it, and you decide if it is indeed "The Great American Novel."

I Just wanted to add that the title ballad was sung by Nat King Cole, not Johnny Mathis - a minor correction perhaps. While the pacing did seem slow since all viewers are expecting the Civil War to break out since the movie opens with "1859" emblazoned on the screen, the latter part of the film is well paced. The civil war footage itself seems, surprisingly, spare and small in scale at the very best. Still, the film packs a powerful story-line and addressing the issue of mental illness as a core element in a lavish, color "big screen" spectacular is unusual for the time and I'm glad that I saw it. Eva Marie Saint's understated style contrasts perfectly with Elizabeth Taylor's pulsating dramatic flair.