A complicated film that never really successfully yokes together the themes of money-making and sexuality, it reveals both Kazan's operatic sensibility and his inability to follow an argument rigorously through.
Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:11
Fresh:10
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.4/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Set in rural Kansas, "Splendor in the Grass" tells the tragically romantic tale of teenagers Deanie and Bud who repress their desires because of their families' disapproval. Coming from radically... Set in rural Kansas, "Splendor in the Grass" tells the tragically romantic tale of teenagers Deanie and Bud who repress their desires because of their families' disapproval. Coming from radically different backgrounds -- one wealthy, the other staunchly puritanical -- they allow class differences to prevent any possible union. Their passions exist purely in their hearts and minds, but the couple never physically or socially express this forbidden love. Later in life, Deanie is institutionalized following a breakdown, and she eventually returns home to resolve her feelings about Bud. [More]
Starring: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Audrey Christie, Pat Hingle
Starring: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Audrey Christie, Pat Hingle, Barbara Loden, Zohra Lampert, Fred Stewart, Gary Lockwood
Director: Elia Kazan
Director: Elia Kazan
Producer: Elia Kazan
Composer: David Amram
Reviews for Splendor in the Grass
One of Kazan's two or three mastrpieces, this powerful small-town film examines growing pains, respressed sexuality, and social hypocrisy, featuring Warren Beatty, in an astonishing screen debut, and Natalie Wood, at their very best.
Splendor in the Grass is a prestigious, top-of-the-line, sensitively-handled melodramatic literalization of the axiom "If you touch yourself too much, you'll go crazy."
Splendor in the Grass (1961) is another of director Elia Kazan's dramatic, hyperbolic films with daring and controversial content for its times - sexual repression
Youth exploitation pictures were all the rage at the time, and while this is better than some in execution and intent, it's still exactly that.
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