Splendor in the Grass (1961)

“Ginny Stamper is too low for the dogs to bite.” – Mrs. Loomis

Number of Times Seen – 1 (15 Jun 2017)

Brief Synopsis – Two teenagers during the 1920’s try to figure out what is important to them despite the fact that their parents want each of them to choose a different path in life.

My Take on it – In my continued quest in watching more and more of the filmography of Natalie Wood, I finally got around to seeing this film.

It has always been on my list of films to watch, but I never got around to it despite knowing that it is considered to be one of the best of her films along with Warren Beatty’s film debut.

The two of them are both great here and that has mainly to do with the fact that it feels so easy to understand their characters and the difficulties they face.

The choices they make are also completely understandable because of the time and place that this film takes place in.

The rest of the cast is also quite good and they help round out a complex and detailed story about the quiet lives people tried to live back then.

We also get to see the lengths people were willing to go to maintain those quiet lives outwardly in order to keep their secrets.

This is far from an upbeat film, but it does feel so realistic in its portrayal of the time and touches upon so many interesting issues to for us to learn all about.

Bottom Line – Wood and Beatty are both great here because we can easily feel the difficulties they both face here and can also understand their choices based on the time and place they lived in.  The rest of the cast is quite good and we get a story filled with so much detail about quiet lives that people tried to live back then and what everyone was willing to do in order to keep things secret.  Not a very upbeat film, yet it definitely touches upon so many important ideas for us to learn about. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Depicts the first French kiss in a Hollywood film. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy

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