Memorable, crazy movie

Good movie but grossly overrated

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

. . . and the Historical Record shows that SEA OF GRASS director Elia Kazan deserved AT LEAST six or seven hundred Real Life stitches for that many betrayals, back-stabbings, lies, and false accusations during the U.S. Rich People Party's Fascist Witch Hunts conducted by Sen. Joe "Mad Dog" McCarthy, R-WI. They say that it's always hardest to Rat Out your two or three best friends and closest relatives, and after that you want to feel like a Big Man on Hell's Campus by making up Crazy Crap about ANYONE who has ever crossed your path. "Criss Cross," as SEA OF GRASS star Robert Walker always said before Mad Joe's CIA\NSA Black Ops henchmen gave Poor Bob a fatal "drug reaction," making him just one more of Elia's Real Life "Fall Guys" after Kazan cast him as the lead fall guy in THE SEA OF GRASS. Mr. Walker clearly was "Sober as a Judge" working with directing giant Alfred Hitchcock as the star of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, not realizing that his off-screen doom was sealed four years earlier when he rubbed elbows with Giant Rat Fink Kazan in THE SEA OF GRASS. Double Criss Cross!

A hard-headed cattleman clashes with homesteaders. Supposedly this is the only film of his that Kazan was embarrassed about. It is easy to see why this would not be something that one would want in his filmography. It is a shame that the script is so inept because it does have a good cast. The good news is that this film somehow did not end the team of Tracy and Hepburn, allowing them to go on and make such worthy films as "Adam's Rib." It is odd seeing Hepburn in a Western, a genre in which she made three forgettable films. Douglas is always worth watching and he does nothing here to embarrass himself. Walker turns in a rather bizarre performance as a gunfighter.

I tuned into this film on TCM expecting to see a familiar prairie epic about Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy fighting the heroic fight against the elements. What I got was a film about two flawed and vulnerable human beings who made a series of disastrously bad personal and parental decisions. Even though there was a lot of talk about Col. Brewton's (Tracy) attachment to the "grass"and being a cattleman, the story of the Brewton's failed marriage could have taken place in Baltimore. It was nice to see both Hepburn and Tracy acting in flawed ways and out of character. From the looks of it, Tracy was uncomfortable in the role. But Hepburn is the better actor here and her predicament is more poignant. It's an odd and interesting film that's well worth seeing.

In Michel Ciment's book " Kazan par Kazan" which is actually a very long interview (à la "Hitchcock by Truffaut"),the director recalled how painful the filming of "sea of grass " was for him:first of all,he complained for a subject like that SHOULD have been filmed on location and we can find little fault with his opinion;besides ,he had to use the Tracy /Hepburn pairing,two actors he admired but who were miscast here;"Tracy did not like horses and horses did not like Tracy either" .His wife should have been a frail young girl,which Hepburn was not :"she was clever but she was part of the high society.." The one thing Kazan seemed to appreciate was her crying;but reportedly Louis B Mayer watching the rushes complained: her tears does not flow from her eyes ,but from her nose;it looks like snot!" Among all my movies this is the one I like the least" he concludes.With hindsight,the film retains qualities and I do not think anyway that it is worse than the disastrous "last tycoon" which IMHO,is Kazan's absolute nadir.Hindsight displays its charms.Considering the limitations Kazan was working under,it's a wonder that the scene where Hepburn and Tracy are in front of the "sea of grass" listening to the noise and to the silence (of the Buffalos -now they are gone- and of the Indians -now in the reservations-) is really poetic.We can also save the scene of the storm ,where the farmer (David) has to fight his wealthy neighbor (Goliath).The historical context ,the end of the prairie of grass and the coming of the farmers ,is interesting.Robert Walker's character ,an unstable boy ,predates James Dean in "East of Eden" by eight years:too bad the part is underwritten.The fact that he was born of adultery is almost passed over in silence ,except for one scene or two.It is not my Kazan's favorite or even among my favorites,but it's a film to watch if ,like me,you are interested in the director's oeuvre..Like this? try this......"Giant" Georges Stevens 1955