I just finished watching this curiosity. A great movie it's not. But on the whole it was fairly entertaining and enjoyable.
Normally I tend to write about what I found lacking in a film. This time I want to praise some of its strong points.
Henry Fonda's Clay Sr. was just a wonderful character. I adored his unabashed love of cussing and smoking and drinking and dancing and fooling around with his wife, and his steadfast refusal to give an inch to the uptight church crowd. Usually, religion is treated with kid gloves in the movies, so it's a rare treat to see a film where a hero actually stands up to it. I mean, as an atheist, how can I not love a character who, on hearing that his son has applied for a ministry scholarship, exclaims "I'd as soon see my boy in jail as have a pulpit!"
Also, I adored Mimsy Farmer as Claris. I'm surprised to find a number of people here describing her as "annoying". I thought she was magnificent. OK, let's not mince words: I thought she was HOT. It's not that she's the most gorgeous creature to ever come down the pike, she's not. I mean, she's attractive enough, but nothing amazing. But the character, and the way she plays it, oh my! The way she is so openly and unsubtly hot for Clayboy, the way you half expect her to start ripping his clothes off-- I mean, I'm sorry if that didn't do it for you, but for me, this is the material of which fantasies are made! I'm not usually very impressed by the titillation factor in a movie, but this one was definitely an exception!
Yeah, there are flaws in the film, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point them out (and you'd think I'd been replaced by an alien pod-person). The Tetons set looks impressive, but really was a mistake; in particular, I don't think people in northwest Wyoming speak like down-home Virginians. The funeral scene for grandpa was painfully overlong-- it was about ten times as long as the amount of screen time Grandpa had had while he was alive! And let's face it, it was pretty stupid the way he couldn't get out of the way of a slow-falling tree (let alone be so stupid as to walk right into it's path in the first place. He's supposed to be an old mountain hand!)
But on the whole, it was a pretty good movie, with a couple of good characters. When you add the interest factor of seeing The Waltons' origins, I think I can comfortably give it a solid 7 stars.
Normally I tend to write about what I found lacking in a film. This time I want to praise some of its strong points.
Henry Fonda's Clay Sr. was just a wonderful character. I adored his unabashed love of cussing and smoking and drinking and dancing and fooling around with his wife, and his steadfast refusal to give an inch to the uptight church crowd. Usually, religion is treated with kid gloves in the movies, so it's a rare treat to see a film where a hero actually stands up to it. I mean, as an atheist, how can I not love a character who, on hearing that his son has applied for a ministry scholarship, exclaims "I'd as soon see my boy in jail as have a pulpit!"
Also, I adored Mimsy Farmer as Claris. I'm surprised to find a number of people here describing her as "annoying". I thought she was magnificent. OK, let's not mince words: I thought she was HOT. It's not that she's the most gorgeous creature to ever come down the pike, she's not. I mean, she's attractive enough, but nothing amazing. But the character, and the way she plays it, oh my! The way she is so openly and unsubtly hot for Clayboy, the way you half expect her to start ripping his clothes off-- I mean, I'm sorry if that didn't do it for you, but for me, this is the material of which fantasies are made! I'm not usually very impressed by the titillation factor in a movie, but this one was definitely an exception!
Yeah, there are flaws in the film, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point them out (and you'd think I'd been replaced by an alien pod-person). The Tetons set looks impressive, but really was a mistake; in particular, I don't think people in northwest Wyoming speak like down-home Virginians. The funeral scene for grandpa was painfully overlong-- it was about ten times as long as the amount of screen time Grandpa had had while he was alive! And let's face it, it was pretty stupid the way he couldn't get out of the way of a slow-falling tree (let alone be so stupid as to walk right into it's path in the first place. He's supposed to be an old mountain hand!)
But on the whole, it was a pretty good movie, with a couple of good characters. When you add the interest factor of seeing The Waltons' origins, I think I can comfortably give it a solid 7 stars.