Steel Magnolias

Plot synopsis:
Annelle Dupuy (Daryl Hannah), a reserved beauty school graduate, is hired by Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton) to work in her home-based beauty salon in northwestern Louisiana. At the same time, in another part of the neighborhood, M'Lynn Eatenton (Sally Field), and her daughter, Shelby (Julia Roberts), are preparing for Shelby's wedding, which is taking place later that day. They arrive, along with Clairee Belcher (Olympia Dukakis), the cheerful widow of the former mayor, to have their hair done. Suddenly, Shelby, who has type 1 diabetes, falls into a hypoglycemic state, but recovers quickly with the help of her mother's quick thinking. Later that afternoon, short-tempered, grouchy, and sarcastic Louisa "Ouiser" Boudreaux (Shirley MacLaine) arrives in the salon and questions Annelle about where she has moved from, forcing Annelle to reveal that her husband has recently left her while fleeing the police, taking all their money and their car. Moved by Annelle's emotional confession, Shelby invites her to the wedding, where Annelle meets Sammy (Kevin J. O'Connor), who is tending bar.
Several months pass and Shelby returns to town to celebrate Christmas. During the festivities, she announces that she and her husband, Jackson Latcherie (Dylan McDermott), are expecting their first child. Shelby's father Drum (Tom Skerritt) is thrilled, but M'Lynn is too worried to share in the joy. Truvy, Annelle, and Clairee had originally thought that Shelby couldn't have children, but on the night of the big announcement, M'Lynn clarifies for them that the doctors said Shelby shouldn't have children because of her health. It becomes clear that Shelby could actually die due to pregnancy complications related to her diabetes. Unable to give her any words of wisdom, Truvy suggests they focus on the joy of the situation: Jackson and Shelby's first child, as well as Drum and M'Lynn's first grandchild, as well as their sons, Jonathan (Jonathan Ward) and Tommy's (Knowl Johnson), first niece or nephew. M'Lynn agrees, saying that nothing pleases Shelby more than proving her wrong.
Shelby successfully delivers a baby boy, Jackson Jr., but begins showing signs of kidney failure and starts dialysis around the time Jackson Jr. turns one. M'Lynn successfully donates a kidney and Shelby seemingly resumes a normal life. Clairee and Ouiser offer to make sure that M'Lynn's husband, Drum, Jonathan, and Tommy have enough food to last until M'Lynn returns home after the transplant. Later, on Halloween, Ouiser, Clairee, Truvy, and M'Lynn throw Annelle a surprise wedding shower, as she is now engaged to Sammy. Shelby is unavailable to attend due to a conflicting schedule with her nursing job, and is later found by Jackson unconscious on the porch of her house. Shelby is rushed to the hospital, where it is determined that her body rejected the new kidney, and she is now in a coma. The doctors inform the family that Shelby is likely to remain comatose indefinitely, and they all jointly decide to take her off life support. At the funeral, after the other mourners have left, M'Lynn breaks down in hysterics in front of Ouiser, Clairee, Truvy, and Annelle, but is comforted by them.
Later, at the wake, M'Lynn begins to accept her daughter's death and focuses her energy on helping Jackson raise Jackson Jr. Annelle, now married and pregnant, asks M'Lynn if she could name her own baby after Shelby, since Shelby was the reason Annelle and Sammy met. M'Lynn gives her blessings and assures Annelle that Shelby would've loved it. Months later, on Easter morning, Annelle goes into labor during an Easter egg hunt, is rushed to the hospital by Truvy and her husband Spud (Sam Shepard), and another life begins.

Tags: cult, humor, cute, sentimental

Review:
Another movie that is part of my permanent video collection and never get tired of watching, STEEL MAGNOLIAS is the beautifully expanded version of Robert Harling's play about the relationship between six women who frequent the same beauty parlor.
I am pretty sure the first phrase that comes to mind for most people when this film is mentioned is "Chick Flick", but, as a male, I happily admit to loving to watch this movie over and over again, not just because of the six charismatic performances by the actresses, but because this film also has one of the funniest screenplays ever written.
Everyone was great:  Sally Field as M'Lynn,  a mother who still worries about her very grown up daughter;  Julia Roberts as Shelby,  a special young woman who feels that having a baby is worth risking everything;  Dolly Parton as Truvy,  a lonely beautician who brightens like a light bulb when her little shop is full of "hens" : )  ; Olympia Dukkakis as Clairee,  the town bigwig who loves to gossip;  Daryl Hannah as Annelle,  a very religious young woman who drives her friends crazy with her sudden fits of prayer;  and of course who can forget Shirley McLaine as Ouiser,  the grouchy old wretch who tows her pathetic dog around and mercilessly cusses out the equally obnoxious Drum (Tom Skerrit)???
The film gives us a glimpse into their daily lives over a period of several years, their laughter, their joy, and their tears, all through the lens of their enduring friendship.Here are the six magnolias...M'Lynne (Sally Field)...perhaps the steeliest of all the magnolias, who has a bittersweet relationship with her grown daughterShelby (Julia Roberts)...everyone's favorite girl next door, M'Lynne's endearing, diabetic daughter; we see her planning her very pink wedding (wait till you see the groom's cake!) and charting a difficult path, given her medical history Truvy (Dolly Parton)...the married but lonely hairdresser with the heart of gold, who owns and operates Trudy's Beauty Parlor, center of social life for these ladies, site of gossip, teasing quips, and comfortOuisser (Shirley MacLaine)...the sarcastic spinster and cantankerous comic relief who is frequently seen carting her little dog around and exchanging barbs with her Old Nemesis, M'Lynne's husband, Drum Clairee (Olympia Dukakis)...the charming, gossiping widow and town bigwig Annelle (Daryl Hannah)...the shy, awkward new girl in town, who has a mysterious past and lands a job at the beauty parlor, under Truvy's mentoring Through these six, we see the strength that lies behind the legendary Southern lady's charm (well, maybe Ouisser's not that charming!) and supposed flower fragility, their humor, their optimism, their faith, and above all, their banding together and supporting each other in the face of adversity.I understand that this movie is based on a well known play by a famous Louisiana playwright.
This is by far and away, her best role and performance she ever snagged, and nailed, and I rank her performance in this as one of my top five best performances in motion picture history of all time.All the characters and performances in this are excellent, including one such, by Daryl Hannah, who I don't care for, but love in this movie.
In fact, her character Anell, is the only role I've ever liked her in, and applaud her work in it.Among the cast there are very few men, but my favorite is Tom Skerrit, who plays Sally Field's husband, and father to Julia Robert.
Although not the whole movie is set in the hair salon, a good portion of the film is, but it is done in just the right amount, and is written very well.I recommend it for girls of all ages, and men who want to impress their girlfriends with a great flick for a Friday night.
It is one of the best films of all time, and if for no other reason, you should watch this merely to see the performance Sally Field gives, because it is amazing..
With Julia Roberts the superstar she is today, it's an excellent time to enjoy the film that contains her best performance, Steel Magnolias.As the doomed but optimistic daughter of Sally Field and Tom Skerrit, she holds her own in a cast of movie divas, including Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, and (in her best film work, as well), Darryl Hannah.The film is basically a warm, upbeat character study of a group of women friends, played out in a beautiful Louisiana bayou town.
The men in the story are secondary characters, and occasionally come across as a bit selfish (Roberts' husband), or buffoons (Hannah's boyfriend), yet one of the joys of this movie is that you come to love the women so much, you don't mind the men's shortcomings, and start liking them, too!The standout performances of the film are from Roberts, and MacLaine, as a spinster with a sarcastic tongue, and, ultimately, a heart of gold.
An extremely episodic story of several smalltown southern women whose social lives revolve around meetings in the local beauty parlor, STEEL MAGNOLIAS' script and performances are dogged by an aura of artificiality--but it scarcely matters, for the film is a tremendous amount of fun.Some of the performances are more successful than others, with Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Julia Roberts, and Darryl Hannah coming out on top (I am greatly surprised that so many other reviewers dislike Hannah's performance, which seems to me considerably less artificial than many others--but perhaps since I'm actually Southern I have a different perspective).
Perhaps most surprising in a film which focuses on women are the brief but impressive performances from the male supporting cast, which includes effective performances by Tom Skerrit, Sam Shepherd, and Dylan McDermott, and which serve to ground the film with a sense of the broader community in which the women live.The script abounds in zinging one-liners ("If you can't say something nice, come sit by me!") and often hilarious situations (imagine Olympia Dukakis surrounded by naked men in the highschool football team's locker room); it also contains some very touching segments sure to choke up all but the most heartless viewer.
"Steel magnolias" is a chronicle of a small circle of friends .The actresses get the lion's share ,which has become unusual ;that alone is cause for celebration,mainly when the cast includes a grumpy sullen Shirley McLaine who overplays as hell,Sally -never without my daughter-Field,A holier-than- thou but good -hearted Daryl Hannah wearing horrible glasses ,a very young Julia Roberts who was more endearing than she is now in such parts as "Brockovich" and of course Dolly Parton -too bad she does not sing-.The dramatic plot -Shelby's illness- is kept to the minimum,at least in the first hour.Then when the tragedy strikes,Herbert Ross avoids pathos and melodrama (it's not the return of Douglas Sirk).And the last scene  is wonderful,Easter meaning a renaissance .As usual,Georges Delerue's score superbly enhances the film :he's so good a musician that even when the movie bores you (Godard's "le mépris" for instance,as far as I'm concerned),his tuneful work survives..
I only watched this film because I read a commentary on Julia Roberts where it noted that she had made it to be a massive star but had a questionable collection of films behind her, without the quality you would expect from her  specifically it mentioned Steel Magnolias so I thought I'd give it a stab to see if that was a fair dig or just a comment by someone who doesn't like the genre anyway.
None of it really engaged me because I felt it was going through the motions but, like I said, if this is your type of thing then by all means.The characters are also pretty by the numbers  female friends including the bickering ones, the serious one, the hopeful one, the uptight one etc; they are acted well enough but that is basically what they come down to and none of the cast can do enough to make them more than that.
I can think of two scenes in particular--one where the town-big wig Clairee (played by the noted-Southern belle Olympia Dukasis) buys the local radio station so that she can do the color commentary on the local football games (the scene features the same guy filmed bare from the back waist-and-lower view as he walks in front camera in the locker room three times.) In another scene, the Darryl Hannah (hard to recognize) committed Christian character argues with her boyfriend over his repeated taking of the Lord's name in vain.
Sally Field has a pretty good scene near the end, she and the story make you think a little about the motives of the main character (Julia Roberts as Shelby).Overall, I thought that Steel Magnolias was a relatively embarrassing depiction of life in the beautiful town of Natchitoches, LA.
Based on the Robert Harling stage play, and adapted by Harling himself, the film features Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis and Darryl Hannah in the other principal roles.
Even watching it now in 2019, it remains such high quality acting and screen adaptation - while there are some really good films today, this holds a rare quality you don't come across often now.Lines are well delivered, Every single actress was amazing and I love how Sally Field portrayed Shelby's mother M'Lynne.
There are so many reasons to watch Steel Magnolias, and once you've watched it, you can cross it off your "classics to watch" list and move on to the next one.You'll appreciate the large cast (Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Daryl Hannah, Tom Skerritt, Sam Shepard, Dylan McDermott) and you'll get a kick out seeing Julia Roberts in the movie just before she donned knee high boots for Pretty Woman.
Based on Robert Harling's play, which is inspired by his own life story, the film version of STEEL MAGNOLIAS is directed by the schmaltz-brewing old-timer Herbert Ross.
Emboldened by a pronounced female-centred cast, its narrative gaily situates in a Louisiana parish, where a palsy- walsy clique of (all-white) residents builds up rapport and strong support during the twist of fate, befalls the central Eatenton family.The film starts from the perspective of an outsider, an gauche young woman Annelle Dupuy (an uglified Hannah) arrives in town on the wedding day of Shelby (Roberts), the eldest daughter of M'Lynn (Field) and Drum Eatenton (Skerritt, a delightful comic relief), to work for Truvy Jones (Parton) in her beauty salon.
If the couple wants children, adoption might be a wiser option, but no, that never gonna happen, Shelby is opinionated in her regressive determination to have a child of her own with a side-note faintly insinuates that perhaps, it is also what her husband Jackson (McDermott) wants despite the huge risk, their marital undertow only alluded during the women folk's regular saloon gossip, and any slant from their opposite sex has been maximally sidestepped (the original play has no male characters in the plot), and Jackson evidently doesn't come off as a model husband, but what comes to fore is the relationship between M'Lynn and Shelby, a mother's completely-selfless affection to her daughter (including donating one of her kidneys) Vs. a young woman's death-defying conviction to become a mother on her own term (latently also to ameliorate her marriage snag), although in hindsight, the latter descends to borderline injudiciousness, but quite tallies with the ethos of its time.Thankfully there are more upbeat subplots, which include a coruscating widow-duo, a graceful Clairee (Dukakis), once was married to the late former mayor, and a cantankerous Ouiser (MacLaine, a salient transformation in her appearance to enhance her senility), they banter, change repartee, bicker, make up, both are sprightly and wonderfully larger-than-life; whereas Annelle also says goodbye to her own troubled past, and finds solace in religion and soon a new husband with a baby on the way; only the relation between a generically spirited Truvy and her offish hubby Spud (Shepard) doesn't pan out effectively in the final product.STEEL MAGNOLIAS is a springboard to leapfrog Julia Roberts into stardom, earns her the very first Oscar nomination at the age of 22 over the more prestigious distaff thespians, still, how can one not be petrified to watch Field's mind-blowing flare-up in the cemetery one-take and in the next second, not get wryly bemused by Dukakis' off-kilter humor to swerve the mood back from abysmal heartbreak?
Steel Magnolias (1989) tells the story of a group of southern women, including Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Julia Roberts, Shirley Mclaine.......
The ladies frequently meet together at Dolly Parton's beauty salon where many subplots are planted: the typical madness and joyfulness Sally Field and Julia Roberts share in light of a wedding taking place, Daryl Hannah developing self-confidence amidst a trial, the apparent solidity in Shirley MacLaine and Olympia Dukakis's friendship..
The story tells about Life: its philosophy (a journey that each one must do with people), its best moments (the give of life) and its worst (the loss of life).The lead characters are the mother (played by Sally Field), her daughter (played by Julia Roberts) and her close friends.
Sometimes the six women are putting out several of these emotions at one time.The best thing I can say about Steel Magnolias is that it is the kind of film you can watch over and over and be moved by it and maybe pick up an emotion you should have felt before in a particular scene.
"Steel Magnolias" has a fabulous cast of ladies taking the lead roles - Dolly Parton as the beautician/hairdresser who is friends with all and keeps the place going, Sally Field and Julia Roberts as mother and daughter, Daryl Hannah as Parton's assistant, Shirley MacLaine and Olympia Dukakis as two old broads in-fighting, and then some.
Its blend of emotion (laughter through tears, for example) and intellect (dramatizing the ramifications of diabetic complications, such as kidney failure) combine to make it a movie worth watching over.In addition, the ensemble cast is a unique pairing of three actual southerners (the misses Roberts, Maclaine, and Parton) and three non-southerners (the misses Field, Dukakis, and Hannah)..
Sally Field (Roberts' mother), Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacClaine, Dolly Parton and Darryl Hannah are all along as southern women who experience triumphs and tragedies together.
My favorite quotes: M'Lynn: "That church looks like it's been hosed down with Pepto-Bismol." Truvy: "When it comes to pain and suffering, she's right up there with Elizabeth Taylor." Truvy: "Oh, Sammy's so confused he don't know whether to scratch his watch or wind his butt." Ouiser: "I'm not crazy, I've just been a very bad mood for the last 40 years!" There are so many great lines that you must see the movie.
I love Julia Roberts, Shirley MacLaine, Sally Field, Dolly Parton and Daryl Hannah.
Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, Shirley McClaine, Daryl Hannah and Olympia Dukakis star in what was at first to be perceived by the public as a feel good drama comedy but is now becoming a cult classic for slasher film fanatics around the world.
The women make funny jokes and laugh with each other, but when something terrible happens they are always there for each other to make each other feel better.The reason I like the movie "Steel Magnolias" so much, is because it is such a good movie that makes me laugh, but at the same time makes me cry.
Now, in conclusion, I highly recommend this excellent tearjerker which is also very funny at times to any Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley Maclaine, Olympia Dukakis, Daryl Hannah, or Julia Roberts fan who hasn't seen it.
Steel Magnolias is the type of movie that just practically SCREAMS "Woman Picture!" as you have the star-power of the century here, what with a then-unknown Julia Roberts, Shirley Maclaine, Sally Field, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, and Daryl Hannah all competing to tug the heart strings.
With an all-star ensemble cast, witty dialogue and a drama-driven, comedic story line, 'Steel Magnolias' is a classic that will make you laugh and cry - and sometimes make you laugh UNTIL you cry!The story line revolves around a Louisiana family - The Eatentons - played by Sally Field (as M'Lynn - the mom), Julia Roberts (Shelby - the daughter), Tom Skerrit (Drum - the father) and Tommy & Jonathon - the younger brothers.
With the talent of little-known-country-girl at the time, Julia Roberts and experts of the screen Sally Fields, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, and Dolly Parton you can't miss on this movie.
Field refuses to let the sentimentality of the script overshadow her performance -- it's a terrific piece of acting.The film also features that tireless work horse, Tom Skerritt, hopelessly under-appreciated as an actor, along with a female cast that includes Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts, Oscar-nominated for her performance as Field's sick daughter.Grade: B+.
Set in the South, the film is a study of a group of female friends' relationships with each other and their individual experiences in life, love and death.Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Darryl Hannah and Julia Roberts are beautiful and exceptional in their roles, playing off of each other like they were all best friends.
Dukakis and MacLaine get most of the big laughs in the movie as a pair of wacky elderly women who share a love hate relationship, and Julia Roberts shines as Shelby.The musical score to this film is beautiful and each scene and story is as wonderful as the next.
Everyone in the film from Shirley MacLaine, Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah, they are all so good.
Of all the Sally Field movies I've seen, I liked her best in Steel Magnolias.
Dolly Parton, Sally Field, Olympia Dukakis and Shirley MacLaine are all great actresses in this fully emotional film.
Shirley Maclaine is also witty, and Sally Field is beautiful like the mother of Julia Roberts.