Yeah it does remain rather vague and superficial in its characterizations. However, the acting wasn´t really that much of a picnic, either - Redgrave & Robards did good, but, all the same, there´s nothing particularly spectacular about their performances (suppose the kind of oh-so-soulful-solemnity and brave smiling through the tears Redgrave´s job consisted of, has a special appeal for the Academy). On the other hand, Fonda fared quite poorly, having a few scenes of wild anger where she was flat out awful. Her voiceover narration also sounded bizarrely wooden and awkward most of the time. And the film in general is also your typical Oscar bait with its broad, overwrought larger-than-life melodrama and epic pretentions; there´s always this air of ponderous self importance to the way it´s laid out and the flashback structure never truly pays off. And, of course, there are these laughably obvious, heavy handed symbolic parallels wheeled out occasionally - the one where Fonda´s upcoming, dangerous trip to Berlin and beyond, is contrasted with an episode from their earlier lives where Fonda´s character set out to cross a river via some hazardous log, being the worst example of this tendency. Really groan-inducing stuff. But what do you expect from such an obvious prestige picture, anyway? Overall, no good movie. 5/10.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
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smjensen312-158-669840
11 years ago
Production values notwithstanding, it's not a great film. I think a large part of this is due to the fact that Hellman fabricated her involvement with "Julia", whom she based on an American woman in the German underground named Muriel Gardiner, whom she knew of through her attorney but whom she had never actually met. This all came out after Hellman sued Mary McCarthy for saying, "Everything Hellman writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." That was a bit of hyperbole, but not much. The performances were also absurdly overpraised at the time of the film's release. Fonda simply did not achieve a characterization that was credible. She hardly seems literate, much less literary (maybe it would help if someone told her that professional writers don't hunt and peck with two fingers, or throw typewriters in a fit of pique). As for Redgrave, she's so determined to make her character seem improbably good and selfless that her character completely lacks credibility. A foreign woman involved in the anti-fascist resistance in Germany and Austria in the 1930s would have to have convinced the Gestapo she was harmless or above suspicion to have operated with even minimal effectiveness. She would have had to have a guile and an opaque quality, which Redgrave didn't even try to project.
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Simplythebest11962
9 years ago
smjensen stated,
She hardly seems literate, much less literary (maybe it would help if someone told her that professional writers don't hunt and peck with two fingers, or throw typewriters in a fit of pique).
LOL - True, most people type with 5 fingers NOT ONLY 2. LOL
I'm a fast typist, though, I can type 83 WPM+.
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Waldimore
9 years ago
Did you grow up in the time of manual typewriters or the age of computers?
You are making a sweeping generalization that has no basis in fact no different than the fabricated claims Hellman made in this story.
I grew up in the age of manual typewriters. I also happen to know many writers who hunted and pecked on their typewriters. Back in the day, you had to go to secretarial school to learn how to type. Fortunately, for me, I learned to type in middle school. But in Hellman's time, I doubt she had that available to her. And even if she did, at one time, if you were academically inclined, learning typing was looked down upon. It was a skill that people, mostly women, who did not do well in academics learned. I had to fight to take that typing course because I was on the academic track.
Computer keyboards along with software that teaches typing changed a lot, not to mention voice recognition software. Even today, there are people who don't know the keyboard, but they are able to still type fast because computers pick your speed up no matter how slow you type.
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deblasiogwae
10 years ago
"Fonda fared quite poorly"--you can't be serious. I saw this movie twice in NYC and CT theatres. Both times the audience broke out in spontaneous applause at the end.
Redgrave and Fonda both have the look of glory in their close ups--and Fonda's scene at Sardis after her play opens on Broadway--capturing that moment of Lillian's shyness yet wanting to bask in the glory of the moment--is Fonda at her best.
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