Product: Julia (1971)
Rating: 5.0
Jane Fonda as Lilliam Hellman
JULIA (1977) is a great movie, beautifully adapted from Lillian Hellman's story by Alvin Sargent, exquisitely directed by Fred Zinnemann and boasting a cast of fine actors, including Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Hal Holbrook, Rosemary Murphy, Maximilian Schell and, in her film debut, Meryl Streep.The film earned eleven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Redgrave, Robards and Sargent won their statuettes.Fonda plays Hellman, who in the early 1930s was an angry, struggling wannabe playwright, living with mystery writer Dashiell Hammett (Robards). With success still eluding her, she travels to Europe, hoping to find a better atmosphere in which to write, and also to visit with her oldest and dearest friend, Julia (Redgrave), daughter of a very wealthy family who is studying medicine in Vienna.Julia is also involved in an anti-Fascist/anti-Nazi movement, which has resulted in her being badly injured. In fact, after Hellman visits her in the hospital, she disappears. Years later, after she has become a Broadway success, Lillian is asked by Julia, via a political acquaintance (Schell), to undertake a dangerous clandestine mission against the Nazis.Though much of it may be fiction, JULIA is a gripping, moving, often suspenseful drama that stays with viewers long after it has ended. It's one of this writer's very favorite films.Michael B. Druxman