Review Julia [VHS]

Julia [VHS] Best Review

Having been much taken with "Julia" upon its release in 1977, I was curious if I would be so enthralled by it over thirty years later. It holds up very well indeed. Starring Jane Fonda as the writer Lillian Hellman and directed by Fred Zinnemann ("A Man for All Seasons") it is based on a story taken supposedly from Hellman's memoir PENTIMENTO although Reynolds Price in his latest memoir ARDEN SPIRITS accuses Hellman of "purloining" incidents from the life of Muriel Gardiner Buttinger. At any rate the story of what happens to Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) and her fight against fascism in the 1930's makes for high drama of the first order. Both Redgrave and Jason Robards, who plays Dash Hammett, Hellman's lover, both received Oscars for their performances. Maximilian Schell and Hal Holbrook have minor roles, and Meryl Streep has a few lines as well. This seems to me to be Jane Fonda at her best-- she looks terribly young and beautiful-- before she started playing herself as so often happens to actors as they get older. Certainly she is in good company here: think Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson as two examples. Oh, and Redgrave, never one to shun controversy, is just as famous-- or infamous, depending on your point of view-- for her "Zionist" remarks in her Oscar acceptance speech as she is for this very fine performance.

The film opens and closes with the same peaceful scene with voice over from Hellman's memoir. A really fine movie indeed.

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Julia [VHS] Overview

Part of the late-'70s wave of films about strong women (as if none had existed before that), Julia starred Jane Fonda as writer Lillian Hellman in a story based on some of Hellman's own writings. The stronger woman here is the title character (Vanessa Redgrave), a socially active young woman who teaches Hellman the importance of sticking to her beliefs--even in the face of Nazi terror. The subplot focuses on Hellman's growth as a writer, under the supportive wing of lover Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards). Lushly photographed by Fred Zinnemann, it's one of the few films that projects a sense of how a writer writes; it also was unafraid to explore the dark consequences of conscience, when Resistance-fighter Julia is captured by the Germans. Robards and Redgrave both won Oscars (leading to Redgrave's Zionist hoodlums acceptance speech). Watch for Meryl Streep in a tiny role in her film debut. --Marshall Fine

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Customer Reviews

Good movie, - Jean Iguatemy - Denver, USA
Great acting, refreshing to watch an "old" movie with more content and less just "holywood action". Also the DVD in itself (physical media} is in great shape, plays flawlessly. I'm very pleased.



Lives of the saints - Jay Dickson - Portland, OR
Fred Zimmerman's 1977 film based on one of the sections of Lillian Hellman's memoir PENTIMENTO has not aged so well, despite some lovely compositions and the undeniable star power of Jane Fonda as Lillian Hellman, Jason Robards as her lover Dashiell Hammett, and Vanessa Redgrave as the titular heroine, a wealthy young woman who was Lillian's best friend in childhood and has grown up to fight injustice in general and the Nazis in particular. The film was made with Hellman's assistance (that's the real Hellman in the rowboat fishing in the framing shots), and you can see why almost immediately. Both Lillian and Julia are basically enshrined in the film as ideal heroines, brave, brilliant, beautiful, and resolutely heterosexual. (Fonda decks John Glover for implying she and Julia are lesbians in one scene that seems specifically included to forestall the audience getting any funny ideas.) There's not much plot except for a long Ambleresque sequence where Hellman is sent into Germany to smuggle in money to bribe officials to save victims of the Nazis; it's much more interesting than the rest of the film, which mostly alternates scenes of the young Julia (the lovely Lisa Pelikan) being saintly alternating with Fonda sulking at the typewriter, trying to please Robards's hardbitten Hammett. There's been quite a bit of controversy whether Julia ever existed, whether she's a composite of women Hellman knew, or whether she was the famous psychiatrist Muriel Gardiner who shared a lawyer with Hellman (but whom Hellman herself never actually knew).



One of the BEST FILMS of the latter 20th Century. - Delia Cochrane - NYC-MN USA
I have seen this over 20 times, and find the story, pacing and settings captivating. Let us review the film on its merits as a docu-drama and the wonderful and deep characterizations portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda. A woman's memoir of a turbulent time in her life and the world's. A story of devotion and sacrifice.
I had seen this in the cinema with my best friend when we were very young, and it has stayed with us over the years. I purchased two DVDS: one to replace my old-"taped from TV" and the second as a gift to my dear friend.
I recommed this film highly for anyone looking further into the life of one of our pioneer female writers and playwrights, and for a vision into what sacrifice can mean.

For more interest in Socio-polictical topics, I also recommend Citizen Cohen...The story of Judge Roy Cohen, the infamous second to MaCarthy...and the subsequent Red-hunts of the late 40s and early 50s. Starring James Woods (HBO).



Not really sure... - Lee C. Ford -
I didn't watch the movie, actually I ordered it for my father ('puter illiterate).
Frankly, it would be a subzero day in hades before I would poison my eyes or mind by watching anything that starred hanoi jane, but that's just me...
He said he'd give it a 3...

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