SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS

US, 1981, 96 minutes, Colour.
Melissa Gilbert, Cyril O’ Reilly, Ned Beatty, Eva Marie Saint, Michelle Pfeiffer.
Directed by Richard C. Sarafian.

Splendor in the Grass is a play by William Inge. It was first filmed in 1961, making it something of a classic, as it featured the adult Natalie Wood and a newcomer, Warren Beatty. The subject was controversial, young adults, love, sexuality – and the consequences for themselves and for families and society.

Twenty years later, the subject was not so controversial. This is a television remake for the home audience. It features Melissa Gilbert, most famous for Little House on the Prairie, but a star of many television films. The lead is Cyril O’ Reilly, also a television actor. However, the other members of the family are higher profile: Ned Beatty as the father, Eva Marie Saint as the mother and a young Michelle Pfeiffer as the sister.

The film was directed by Richard C. Sarafian who had made an impact in the early 70s with such films as Vanishing Point, Man in the Wilderness, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. His main work was in television and in remakes of films such as The African Queen in 1977.

1. The importance of William Inge's play in the '60s? The original film version and its status and impact? Audience familiarity with the material? The value of a remake? The qualities? Greater "freedom"? A film for the '80s - themes, Americana, memories of the '30s?

2. The quality of production: re-creation of period, 'period' issues? The design of the film for television audience? The cast and its qualities? The musical score? The impact for home audiences and their reactions and response?

3. The work of William Inge? His drama and its contribution to the American stage? His slices of life, critiques of the American dream? Impact in the '50s and '60s? '80s?

4. The title of the film? The reference to Wordsworth? Its being quoted in the film? Its significance and symbolism: beauty, youth, fleeting beauty, memory?

5. The atmosphere of the town: the families, the traditions of family life, customs, school, the dances and socialising, work, ambitions, hopes, drives? Parental pressure? The heavy emphasis on respectability and tradition? Surface respectability - and the repression of realities? The film as an examination of the life of the town,' an expose? Highlighting repression and the consequent explosions?

6. The film's focusing on each family? The family life? Better of worse? Bud and his relationship with his father? An ordinary student, his ambitions, experience of pressures, the emphasis on qualifications? His father's money? Self-image? The background of Wall Street? His father not listening to him? His love for Wilma Dean? Curiosity about sex? Permissive attitudes? Final commitment? The contrast with Wilma Dean and her silent father, her mother and the strong emphasis on respectability, traditions, her mother's narrow views, fear of sex, emphasis on propriety and being a good girl? Times, permissions? Her mother not facing reality? The eventual shock? Her wanting to protect her daughter? The good American family - but ready to break? Wilma Dean's collapse and breakdown? The film's critique of the parents, of the next generation?

7. Bud as hero, local hero, pleasant young man, attraction to Wilma Dean - sexual attraction and the question of how far to go? Activities? Moods? The liaison with Juanita and the effect? His father's push? The pressures to go to college? His not wanting to go? The discussions with the Head? His ability to cope? Decisions? His letting go? The Wall Street crash? His wanting to be a farmer, establishing his farm, marrying, his children. relationship with his wife? His meeting Wilma Dean again? Regrets? A spoilt life? The portrait of the adolescent American male? The American male trying to be adult? who controls the decisions?

8. The sketch of the college friends, pressures, behaviour, incidents at school, support of Bud? The background of school and growing up?

9. Wilma Dean seen at home, her relationship with her mother, her youthfulness, adolescence? her experiences with Bud? Her inner preoccupation about good and evil, sexuality as bad, her low self-image? School and her ability? Wandering, the poem? Alienating Bud and the hurt about Juanita? The growing crisis? Her breaking and inability to cope? Sexuality, health, wanting to die? The experience of the hospital and the clinic? Going to the institution? Her experience there?

10. The sketch of the parent generation and the screenplay being critical of them? Vicarious living through their children? The father who would not listen and who made decisions for his son to be in his own image and causing his rebellion? His inability to face life when his own financial world crashed? The silent father and the prudish mother and the effect on their children?

11. Girls growing up in the 20s and '30s? Parental pressure? The emphases on propriety? Their inability to understand themselves and their inner feelings and drives?

12. Themes of education - for professions rather than for life?

13. The mental institution, the grim aspects, the parents' unwillingness to face Wilma Dean's going there, Wilma Dean coping and learning?

14. A story of the American past - its relevance to the present?