Good start, but then it gets ruined

Expected more

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I played the trailer for The Turning Point because someone has credited Richard Basehart as the narrator. I don't recognize the voice but what I do know for sure is that "is not" Richard Basehart. I know his very recognizable voice and while some of the diction is similar, it "is not" the great Richard Basehart who has narrated so many documentaries during his career.

I'm not half as enamored with this film as when I first saw it back in 1977.First of all, there's too much ballet in it. I know that sounds dumb since it's a story within the world of ballet, but what's really key here is the character development. Too much ballet was almost distracting.Second, Mikhail Baryshnikov was pretty much irrelevant to the story other than as a human prop. The would have been better to hire an actor and faked the dancing with a double...pretty much as they did with Anne Bancroft. I know Baryshnikov was all the rage at the time (and rightfully so), but let's face it, film was not his forte.This film was key to Shirley MacLaine's "era of sophistication". MacLaine was pretty versatile, and I often enjoyed her breadth of acting. Not sure she was the best actress for this role, but she is believable as a mother, if not as a former ballerina.Anne Bancroft is fine here...again, as an actress, but she did no real ballet dancing. Good acting performance, however.Tom Skerritt is very believable as the father. I was particularly pleased to see Martha Scott here,,,a terribly underrated actress.The story itself is a bit obtuse. Who is the real focus of the story? The young ballerina? Not really...again, she is a prop. It's about jealousy between a prima ballerina (Bancroft) and a could have been ballerina (MacLaine). Each has given up what the other has. And thereby exists the problem here -- the story is really about the old broads, but it focuses for most of the film on the young ballerina. Of course the highlight of the film -- and one of the main reasons it got so much attention when it was released, is the fight between MacLaine and Bancroft.

I really like this movie, it has a fine cast and the stories are woven together very nicely. I was busy raising a family when this was in theaters in the late 1970s, but now was able to watch it on Netflix streaming movies.It is a story about dancers and families in ballet. It seems its whole inspiration came from the family of one of the cast members, Leslie Browne, whose family are all dancers and Ross, the director, is in real life her godfather. Nonetheless she is perfect for the role, young, beautiful, and a fine ballerina.The leads are veterans Anne Bancroft as 40-something Emma who is still a featured ballerina, even though she is probably past the years where she should be performing, and her old friend Shirley MacLaine as Deedee, who was a competitor of Emma's those 20-odd years ago, and who chose to leave ballet and be a wife and mother.In fact her daughter is teen dancer Leslie Browne as Emilia, showing so much promise that part of the family moves to NYC and stays in a small apartment inside Carnegie Hall for the summer so that Emilia can study. There she is noticed and appears destined for the career that her mother was never able to realize.Another dancer is 20-something Mikhail Baryshnikov as Yuri, one of the dancers in the company. He and Emilia dance together and also romance each other. Reliable Tom Skerritt is Deedee's husband, Emilia's dad, also a former dancer. The dancing is great because real ballet dancers are used. This is an old-fashioned drama, and it was nominated for several awards. The old friends have old issues to settle, the young dancers have to decide what their career choices will be. Good movie!

Years after she quit the ballet to marry and raise a family, Deedee (Shirley MacLaine) is reunited with her her old company and old friend/ rival Emma (Anne Bancroft). Deedee always wondered if settling down was the right decision and now that her daughter is a ballerina, the old doubts flood back.If you love ballet, this is the movie for you and if you don't love it, maybe you will after watching it. The dance scenes are simply magnificent; Leslie Browne, who plays Deedee's daughter, is a lovely dancer (though not a strong actress) and she is paired with the stunning Mikhail Baryshnikov who is charisma personified. MacLaine and Bancroft are old pros and play well off each other. The regal Bancroft doesn't actually dance but looks like a dancer and always owns the screen. MacLaine's character is whiny and at first doesn't appreciate how good her life is. The two ladies are well-matched and fun to watch; all four lead actors received Oscar nods (and the movie was nominated 11 times in total).This is a movie that will surely inspire many little ballerinas. The mix of classical ballet and sudsy soap opera is a good one. Recommended.