Rating: 
Summary: Ken's Op
Review: The 1961 film, Splendor in the Grass, stars Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty has a running time of 134 minutes. Elia Kazan directed this Warner Studios film portraying high school sweethearts frustrated with kissing and heavy petting while struggling with efforts to refrain from having sex. The story takes place just before the Great Depression in Kansas during a time when people were very sexually repressed. Natalie Wood plays the part of a "good" girl who temporarily goes insane and attempts suicide because her boyfriend (Beatty) follows his fathers advice and has sex with "a different type of girl". Life changes so much for both of them after school, and the film eloquently portrays that it isn't always fair. Although the film is in black and white, it soon becomes unnoticeable because the engaging performances of Wood and Beatty and a very interesting story, which is why I give it four stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Can you say
Review: ...seeing this movie. Despite the melodrama and limited psychosexual understanding of the 60s (when the movie was made), this heartbreaking story is the -only- vehicle which finally brought me completely face to face with my own shattered dreams and painful memories. There has never, ever been a scene from a movie so utterly heartrending and moving as the scene where Deannie reads a passage from Wordsworth's "Splendor in the Grass" to uncomprehending (and, in 90s jargon, clueless) classmates and teacher. "While nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, glory in the flower
We grieve not. Rather
Find strength in what remains behind." No. No! Rather,
Splendor is ours, always; Despite our many hours
Greying hair, diminishing powers .... Please....watch this movie if you've ever wondered if our youthful dreams can ever come true.......Yes. Yes! They can, they will! In a sublimely more mature and sensitive, sensible, giving, fulfilling, selfless adult way.....
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing classic
Review: A little too soapy for my taste. The relationship between Beatty and his father was the most interesting aspect of the story. (Pat Hingle is great!) Every time I felt like I was starting to get close to the characters, the action would jump ahead a few years, which served to distance me from the story. Also, I never really understood why Wood's attraction to Beatty was so strong. It seemed to be too intense too fast.
Rating:
Summary: Splendor of a splendid movie
Review: An excellent love story that should be watched by anyone who appreciates great movies. Natalie Wood shines as the beautiful Deanie Loomis. She is a great actress and this is one of her best movies in my opinion, of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Still emotionally powerful today
Review: Both "Splendor in the Grass" and "West Side Story," both released in 1961, were the most influential and well-loved movies of my generation, the first of the post-World War II baby boomers. "Rebel Without a Cause", of course, was the most important movie for a slightly earlier generation, those teenagers growing up in the mid-1950's ultra-conservative Eisenhower era. Judging from the above, one could reasonably argue that Natalie Wood was our most influential actress, especially since she starred in all three films. (Frankly, Natalie never again had the opportunity or the parts to top what she had already achieved, despite such hits as "Gypsy" or the dated "Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice," but then, what other actress, no matter how talented, can you name who even came close to being a part of such milestone films?)
It's also true that teenagers of the early 1960s were as sexually repressed as the teenagers depicted in this movie, set in the late 1920s and early 1930s. There were the "good" girls who managed to stay virginal, the "bad" girls who didn't, and a third group, the girls who were clever or lucky enough to have it both ways -- keeping their reputations, if nothing else, intact.
Thus, the story of Deanie's frustrated love for Bud, hampered by the family and societal pressures that keep both of them from "going all the way," make this "Romeo and Juliet" tale one that spoke to an entire generation. Though nearly half a century has passed since this film's release, it still continues to be emotionally moving for teenagers and adults of today.
Based on a one-act play by William Inge, "Glory in the Flower," the author's expansion to a full-length screen version opened up the story and improved vastly upon the original source. By setting it in the Midwest pre-Depression era, Inge assured that even if sexual morality among teenagers became more lax, as it certainly did with the passing of years, the repressions depicted within the movie's timeframe are still valid. (William Inge even has an uncredited cameo role as a minister, Reverend Whitman.) Also valid are the movie's two other major premises -- first, parents, with the best intentions, still manage to screw up their children's lives (just as their parents did to them), and second, people are ultimately resilient, learn to pick up the pieces of their damaged lives, hopefully learn from their mistakes, and carry on. Thus, "Splendor in the Grass," meticulously directed by Elia Kazan, beautifully acted by Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, with a superlative supporting cast, including the one-of-a-kind Zohra Lampert, Audrey Christie, Pat Hingle, Barbara Loden, Fred Stewart, Sandy Dennis, and Crystal Field, can never truly be dated.
Rating:
Summary: Movie deals with a delicate subject in an up-front way
Review: Deanie and Bud are two well developed characters. When Deanie goes insane over the loss of Bud the audience feels her pain. Although it does give perpetuate the idea that a woman is nothing without a man by her side, after all Deanie goes from Bud to another man without spending any time in the real world.
Rating:
Summary: Moving film.
Review: Elia Kazan is one of the giants of the screen, forever. This is but one of his jewels. For me it is perfection in its genre. Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty give wonderful performances, quite credible, enjoyable, moving. What I dislike is Pat Hingle's overacting, and the fact that he was not old enough for his role and is an unseemely father for Warren Beatty. That's why I take off one star. Its subject is not out of date, if we don't have a narrow view of what it really is. The decision to have or to have not sexual relations is, in spite of the contraceptive means that have come later, not an easy one, particularly for a woman. There is always a tension here between what male and female want, desire, and finally do. How, why and when, this is the question. Of course nothing is left of the outer, cultural constraints that were on the way. But the same problem can cause misunderstanding and unhappiness on the grounds of personal convenience or interest.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, tragic, darkened with life's profound sadness
Review: For anyone captivated and moved by the power of love, you must see Splendor in the Grass. It's a story that most everyone experiences in his or her own personal lifetime.
Rating:
Summary: Forever
Review: Forever etched in time is this William Inge tale of lost love and unfullfilled footnotes of the past. Its almost surreal to see Natalie Wood running across that dam. Only Kazan could have captured most of what Inge had in mind with this film. Look closely for Sandy Dennis and Gary Lockwood in their youthfull intoxications. Certain scenes in Natalie Woods films are framed forever for a movie goer..With Dean in the ol Mansion..in " Rebel......." The final reel of "West Side Story" .. and her white outfit in this films final reel... CP.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it, Buy it NOW.
Review: Have you ever been a teenager in love? If you are an emotionless person who has never been experianced in heart break, well, go find some comety, but if you remember what it was like with your first love, this is a movie for you. It's an old flick, true, but do special affects and movie stars from the 21st centry really make a romance any better? This movie proves that you don't need fancy computer animation, all you need is love (corny, trite, I know, just... buy it.)
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