Product Details

• Actors: Sissy Spacek; Art Carney; Jane Wyatt; Henry Winkler; Julie Kavner
• Directors: Jeremy Kagan
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Studio: Reel Enterprises
• DVD Release Date: April 5, 2007
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000P2A5IU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,870 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars NOT the Patty Hearst story, August 11, 2007

By 

Shloma ben Avram HaKohain "Threat to the Stat... (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Katherine (DVD)

This movie is constantly referred to as a fictionalized version of the story of Patty Hearst. Far from it. It is a fictionalized biopic of Diana Oughton, an early member/leader of the Weather Underground. It is pretty well made for a 70s TV movie, and, with the exception of the end, is fairly accurate. Many of the events depicted in the film are taken directly from Diana's life. It is well worth seeing for anyone interested in the Weathermen or simply the radical student movements of the 60s and 70s.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Revolution Will Not Be Televised--Or Will It?, May 1, 2005

By 

Gregor von Kallahann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Katherine [Slim Case] (DVD)

Sissy Spacek was already well on the road to a significant big screen career in 1975 when she opted to do this TV movie loosely based on the life of Weatherwoman Diana Oughton. Spacek has always shown a leaning toward socially conscious films, so it's no surprise that she was intrigued by the socio-political angle as well as the dramatic possibilities of this script (penned by Jeremy Paul Kagan, whose directorial and writing credits also show a socially conscious bent).

In 1975 you could still expect network television to at least OCCASIONALLY undertake a film like KATHERINE. The nation was still reeling from Vietnam, newly reeling from Watergate, and despite what TIME Magazine called "the cooling of America," we were still trying to come to terms with the social and generational rifts that the 60s had wrought.

As a portrait of a revolutionary, KATHERINE is pretty much paint-by-numbers. Passionate, well meaning and socially conscious rich girl Katherine Alman gets caught up in the spirit of the times. At first she's a non-violent undergraduate activist, volunteering to teach inner city teens basic literacy. Upon graduation, she heads off to South America, despite her parents objections, and witnesses firsthand the oppressiveness of the oligarchical regimes there. Back in this country, she takes a job as an instructor at an alternative school in the Deep South, where she is further radicalized by the Fonz, I mean, Henry Winkler as a more radically inclined teacher there.

After leaving the school (forced out not only by the local pols, but also by their angry black colleagues who opt for a strict "black pride" curriculum for their young students), the two young activists become itinerant organizers, and eventually hook up with the Weather Underground. Katherine herself becomes increasingly strident, disavows her earlier non-violent stance and becomes increasingly alienated from her family and friends.

Utterly convinced of the rightness of her cause, she ultimately and tragically loses her life in its name. Like the real-life Oughton, she is blown up by her own bomb. Unlike Oughton, who died when a Greenwich Village bombmaking factory exploded killing almost all the Weathermen and -women in the building, Katherine is killed on a solitary mission to blow up some unnamed government target. That's cinematic license, and it works fairly well. Although it's not clear if the man plainly following her at the time is a government agent or one of her wealthy family's private detectives. Also not clear is if she actually winds up taking some innocent bystanders along with her--which would seem likely on a busy San Francisco street.

All of this could have been better developed. The film hits all the expected--and, in some sense necessary, notes--but like most TV movies, remains somewhat sketchy on the one hand and cliched on the other. I mean I could be wrong here, but it seems pretty ludicrous that every stick of dynamite used in the bomb that ultimately becomes Kathrine's, uh, undoing, is labeled "DYNAMITE" in big black lettering. OK, I haven't seen much dynamite up close, I admit, and maybe it is labeled nowadays (or even 30 years ago) for safety's sake, but the effect in the movie is still pretty absurd. At least in didn't say "ACME" as well.

The historical value of the film makes it worth watching. It would not be totally out of place on the syllabus of a history or poli-sci course today. In other words, it's a fairly good introduction to the history of the late 60s and early 70s. And it is well acted. Spacek's character is a "hothead" throughout, as one previous reviewer noted, but she has her tender moments too, particularly with her boyfriend and her family. Art Carney and Jane Wyatt are ideally cast as her wealthy parents. And Winkler is actually very good as Katherine's fairweatherman boyfriend. He appears to be a somewhat underrated actor.

Interestingly, the best scenes are the pseudo-documentary interviews with all the main characters. It is here that the characters seem to break away most distinctly from stereotypes and begin to reveal themselves in all their complexity. Odd in a way, since usually interviewees almost reflexively adopt a persona for the camera. Here, one suspects that it is only in these scenes that the characters get the chance (or perhaps, more accurately, feel compelled) to reflect on their actions and beliefs. It is only at the film's end that it becomes clear that Katherine herself is more apparition than interview subject. That makes her stridency--apparently even after death--all the more striking.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Surprisingly Good Movie, January 19, 2008

By 

Nachem (South Dakota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Katherine [Slim Case] (DVD)

Though this film has a dated feel (such as poor sound quality), it nonetheless is surprisingly good. The immitated "documentary" form (including "interviews" with the family members, and statements from Spacek's character) is very effective, and lends the film a postmodern feel, far ahead of its time. Impressive also are the inserted authentic film footages of 1960s protests, including the famous riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, 1968.

But what stands out most is the excellent acting. We would expect fine acting from Spacek, of course, but Henry Winkler, as the classic 60s radical Jewish liberal, is superb. Winkler, a Jew in real life, became famous for his role as "The Fonz," an Italian character in Happy Days. But playing a Jewish radical in "Katherine" is the best acting I've ever seen Winkler perform. I wish he had acted in more Jewish roles throughout his career, he does it with such authenticity. Spacek's "parents" (including Art Carney) also are good in their roles as upperclass, wealthy, WASPs.

I bought the DVD for fifty cents at a dollar store, almost as a joke. But my wife and I were surprised how good it was on the day we watched it, just on a lark.