treeline1 The story opens in 1859, in rural Indiana, as John and Nell (Montgomery Clift, Eva Marie Saint) are graduating from school. Though they've been in love for years, John is bewitched by the beautiful newcomer, Susanna (Elizabeth Taylor), a high-strung and unstable young woman.This 1957 film is an obvious attempt to match the grandeur of "Gone With the Wind" and it fails miserably. It's poorly written; by trying to include battle scenes, romance, mental illness, slavery, and good ol' country life, it lacks focus and purpose. Taylor shrieks and wails in her faux-Southern drawl and generally overacts the whole time, although she does wear some spectacular gowns. Saint and Clift are a boring couple and I didn't care about them at all. Rod Taylor and Lee Marvin steal the show - what there is of it - with bravura performances. Bad movie.

kenjha With the Civil War approaching, a young man falls in love with a rich but disturbed woman. This was an ambitious attempt to do another "Gone with the Wind," but matches that classic only in terms of its subject matter and epic length. The story here is not compelling enough to sustain the running time, causing the film to drag. The film is perhaps best remembered for the car accident that disfigured Clift's good looks and shortened his career and life. There is morbid interest in noting which scenes were filmed before the accident and which after. Clift and Taylor collaborated more successfully previously (A Place in the Sun) and later (Suddenly, Last Summer).

Benoît A. Racine (benoit-3) I wasn't quite of age when this film was made and came out. I only saw it on television many, many years later. Its contemporary blockbuster "Ben-Hur", however (filmed in the same insanely spectacular Camera 65 process), did make it across the border to Canada and became compulsory viewing for all good little Catholic boys in my native Quebec. As this latter film was a remake of a past MGM glory, so was "Raintree County" supposed to rival "Gone With the Wind" in splendour and publicity. Although this hooplah never made it across the border into Canada either, I suppose it did have an effect on the American Public in those pre-video days when the chance of seeing GWTW again in all its Technicolor glory seemed slim to none. If you happened to be American and a little older than myself and a teenager in 1957, you would have known that Elizabeth Taylor was the flesh-blood-and-celluloid embodiment of the Veronica character in the Archie comics and the most desirable teen idol who ever graced a magazine cover. A rumoured romance with Montgomery Clift and her recent widowhood didn't hinder her status as queen of the teen tabloids. As a three hour period "Peyton Place"-like melodrama, the film was sure to be a hit with romantic US adolescents of both sexes and I think it is remembered fondly for that reason, despite its commercial flop. Its theme of miscegenation made it contemporary in a kind of daring pre-Civil Right Movement way and its unromantic, if not downright cynical view of the war made it a "serious" film. The thing that struck me the most about the reputation of that film is that when I became an avid collector of soundtracks on vinyl in the 80's I found out - to my utter befuddlement - that in collectors' cicles its legendary double stereo LP OST album of a very atypical score (by Johnny Green) was the most sought-after item in the history of the medium. (It is now finally available on CD, although, amazingly, the film itself is still not on Region 1 DVD.) In those days before video became the force that it is in making movies known and available to the largest audience, soundtrack albums were the best (and sometimes only) way fans could actually connect with the magic of reliving experiences tied to a beloved film that one didn't expect to ever see again except in souvenir-program format. And the fact that a relatively "un-Golden era" but perfectly original and competent composer like Johnny Green could attract that kind of attention is an apt measure of the love and fond remembrances that a lot of early baby-boomers felt for this movie, despite all its other faults and qualities.P.S.: The well-known factoid that the novelist's name was misspelled in the opening credits of the film is indicative of two things: (1) that the literay origins of the film didn't count for much in the attendant hype surrounding its production and (2) that big studios like MGM were starting to creak at the seams and to overextend themselves with such gigantic projects that couldn't possibly be held together in a rational manner. Distant echos of the future "Cleopatra" fiasco...

mcbride500 I read the novel before I saw the film. The book was magical despite its odd pattern of flashbacks that were out of chronological order. At 1100 pages, the story suffers mightily when compressed to fit the length of the film. I believe that the film starts about 1859 and ends in about the year 1866 while the book covers 1839 thru 1892. The plot was significantly altered regarding the Susanna Drake character also.I enjoyed the film and think that it was wonderfully cast. The book dwells at length on the natural beauty and the eternal character of Raintree County. This is hard to capture on film without narration. I hope that a more robust version of the story will someday be developed.