Customer Reviews

Family Reunion [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I remeber seeing this on TV when I was growning up, and I liked it. Davis is magnificient as the matriarch of a family with problems (which family doesn't!). She is at home in this New England setting, baking bread and stirring up trouble. She is desperately trying to keep her family together, despite their resistance. It is a good movie to watch as the weather gets colder, as I remeber the interior sets being cozy, and the exterior shots are gorgeous of the New England Fall. It is also a good film to watch before the holidays, to possibly examine your own family's issues, and how you would (or wouldn't) want to deal with them.

This is a terrific Miniseries made in 1981. Starring Bette Davis in one of her best roles of her long career.

In Family Reunion, the incomparable Bette Davis shines in one of her last roles of her illustrious career. Portraying a woman of conscience, she speaks of all that is noble about small town America and the value of family loyalties.

Bette Davis stars as Elizabeth Winfield, a feisty, New England school teacher, retiring after fifty years of educating children in the community which bears her name.

For her years of service, she is given an unlimited bus pass and sets out on a cross-country odyssey to heal old family feuds, not realizing she is being lured out of Winfield in a cunning plot by greedy shopping mall developers. She comes home in an attempt to stop the construction, armed with the moral integrity she has taught throughout her lifetime.

I'm leaving my original review below so people can laugh at it. This title is now out on DVD yip peee ). I've waited so long for this title to come out on an updated format. My VHS was coming apart before my eyes. I bought this dvd title here on amazon october 1,2011.

I bought the VHS movie in october of 1992 at TARGET for $27.98. The DVD is much better in so far of the quality of the picture. It has taken 19 years of waiting but it's out. THANKS SONY. MRMUSICALS

Why is this 1981 made for tv movie not yet on DVD?.There are other less then great titles that have come out in this forum but this movie seems to be elusive. I watch this VHS title around mid-november as the extrior shots are quite beautful. The house that Bette Davises character lived in is now a Holocaust museum in Glen Cove, NY. The scene where she is walking in to town is now a wildlife preserve. I hope and pray that some day this title will be released ON DVD, but I get tired of waiting for that date . THE PAHNTOM CHORUS BOY

This 1981 film is one of my favorite made-for-television movies, and it is so wonderful to have it on DVD at last--especially when you consider that it is rarely shown on TV anymore.

Details about the plot and acting can be had from the other reviews, so I will address the picture quality. The VHS release from years ago looked awful: somewhat blurry and contrasty, with color that had shifted and faded. Shortly after buying it, I saw it on one of the cable channels looking wonderful. This DVD falls between the two (hence my rating of four stars out of five). While looking much better than the atrocious VHS version, it definitely falls short of the later showing on cable. The picture could exhibit better clarity and sharpness. Grain is present, but not obtrusive.

Overall, you can tell the DVD was transfered from a film copy instead of an element made from the negative. However this is a made-on-demand DVD-R release, so little or no money is budgeted for remastering and restoration. Sony, Universal, and especially Warner Brothers are using this method to make available titles that are not in great enough demand to warrant national retail distribution. So given all this, we are extremely lucky to have "Family Reunion" available at all. Now, if only someone would release another Bette Davis TV movie, "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home."

I love Bette Davis movies & this one is one of her best. She play's a very mean woman, which she does great. She is evil & beleves in witch craft & no one crosses her. If you are a Bette fan you need to buy this wonderful movie.