This is an old film I love and have seen enough times to quote from the screen. I’m a New Yorker but spent a few years travelling back and forth to Georgia for work and picked up a bit of a southern drawl along the way, a taste for pink lemonade and sitting out on the porch. I liked the humidity too and the insect crackle, so the southern ways when I left stayed with me in part, the Atlanta Braves are still my baseball team. You don’t have to be from the South to enjoy this movie or get it, I think it just may be that little bit funnier especially for someone like me, not from there but experiencing “The South” as an observer. I first saw the film whilst visiting, a southern belle recommended.
What a cast, Shirley MacLaine received a BAFTA Nomination for Best supporting actress as the hilarious Ousier Boudreaux a cantankerous old rich women with a big dog she struggles to control named Rhett.
Clairee Belcher played by the late great Olympia Dukakis, at age 58 when the movie was released in the late 1980s, comedic genius that lasted until 2021 when she died aged 89; “Well you know what they say; if you haven’t got anything nice to say, come sit by me.”
It is a line that lands every time I watch this classic film from so way back, 1989 gosh explains why I have seen it so many times. It’s a film so good you can just have it on in the background, like a favourite sound track to catch all the blooming brilliant lines in the script by American author and screenwriter Robert Harling also credited with First Wife’s Club 1996 and Laws of Attraction 2004.
For anyone from the South or has visited numerous times like me, this film captures the unique essence of the place, you can see why the confederates (the 11 states that seceded from the Union 1960) were so feared during the civil war, joking aside, the gentile nature guised in quick wit from tough made of steel women. Hence the name Steel Magnolias I presume. It’s a place with set in stone ways, racial tension that definitely is still present and everything has church and religion running through it whatever your denomination, three factors that come across in the film with tongue in cheek civility and the whiter than white cast.
It’s a star studded cast of fantastic females from Julia Roberts as Shelby, Sally Fields as her Mom, M’ Lynn, Dolly Parton as Truvy Jones who plays the town’s local beauty specialist at aptly named Truvys and her assistant Anelle played by Darrell Hannah, bespectacled and professional in equal measure, the devout Christian in the group abandoned by her husband yet committed to not let her “personal tragedy interfere with her ability to do good hair
Miss Truvy” married women are called Miss or Missy as a sign of respect.
Annelle meets bartender Sammy at Shelby and Jackson’s wedding, Jackson played by a very young handsome Dylan McDermott and there are some very funny scenes between Sammy (Kevin J. O’Connor) and Annelle usually centred around her rigid Christian beliefs and his colourful language “God Damn It” “Jesus Christ” when they get into a disagreement about simple things like Sammy keeping a beer or two in the refrigerator.
It’s a film about community and friendship and I think it’s these two recurring themes that have stopped it dating and kept it timeless and very funny.
There are famous guys in the ensemble too, Sam Shepherd plays Dolly parton’s husband Spud, Tom Skeritt is cast as Drum Eatenton
Opposite Sally Fields and Owen Jenkins, Shirley MacLaines love interest she barely acknowledges until the end of the movie is a super addition from Bill McCutheon, the contrast of this swaine to her belligerent quips makes for a memorable watch.
Aside from the clever very funny script tackling issues of family and most importantly friendship the film plays heavily to the quirks and peculiarities of life in the aforementioned states of America collectively known as the south, everywhere from North Carolina down through Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina especially for women. This particular story is set in Louisiana but it could be any one of the southern states for me.
The clothes, the big hair, the soft accents and rigid protocols guide the story of a diabetic girl, Roberts, marrying young and having a baby against the advice of her doctors and family. She’s a free spirit who doesn’t wish to be constrained by religion, protocol, tradition or what is expected as being the right choices for her, none more rebellious than cutting off all her hair in an act of defiance.
The conflicts are balanced by deep affection and wisdom shared between the women. Amongst all the laughter keep your tissues at the ready as this is a tear jerker it has to be said.
Even though the story doesn’t have your typical sickly sweet happy Hollywood ending for films in this genre, the harsh reality of life makes this one a keeper, actually based on a true story about the writers sister.
I can’t think of another movie that traverses through such horrific tragedy with enough laugh out loud lines delivered by tough as old boots women you barely feel the pain at all.
It’s a classic every woman should watch. Would men like it, urgh not so sure about that, the boys certainly take a backseat in this huge star studded cast of the strong female led cast.
I think guys would relate, in a way to women in their own lives but the connections made may be amusing but not necessarily complimentary.