Customer Reviews

Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One of the greatest telefilms ever made, from an era in which filmmakers were first sensing the possibilities of the form. Sally Field will break your heart as Denny, the young hippie girl who returns to her mom and dad and their ultra-square suburban lifestyle, after a year or so away from home exploring the complicated hippie life with a boyfriend, "Flack" (the young David Carradine). 40s and 50s screen star Eleanor Parker is super as the icy mother; she makes the most out of a difficult role, outdoing Mary Tyler Moore's part in ORDINARY PEOPLE and doing it ten years earlier, when it was a braver career choice. Jackie Cooper is all right as the Dad, but he and Carradine are no match for the female super acting power of Field and Parker.

It's not a big blockbuster sort of picture, but it is one that you'll take to your heart, and I wonder if Sally Field ever really topped her acting work in this movie. By all means get the DVD, and revel in a different time and place.

Sally Field really wowed us when this first aired on television as a made-for-TV-movie of the week. It shows what happens to families when parents don't listen and watch what is really happening with their kids. Sally runs away, does drugs, and hangs out with the hippies (in very effective flashbacks). The depiction of thoughts with flashes of images and voice-over was innovative and genuine. The movie opens when she returns home and we (and she) begins to see the same thing begin to happen to her younger sister and she can't stop it. Sally's charactor has learned from her mistake and she tries to warn her sister as well as tries to warn her parents that they are making the same mistakes they did with her. It's a good movie with realistic portrayal of it's time period. I was a kid at the time and I understood it and this film was something that teens of this era were able to relate to. Most important--there is a lesson to be learned. Unfortunately, television always cuts out the songs to make this movie fit into it's time slot. Rent the video instead.

This made-for-tv movie was filmed at the time when Sally Field was trying to break out of her "Gidget" and "Flying Nun" roles. It is effective at showing what great dramatic work she would do in the future. One drawback about this DVD is it has no special features. Overall, this movie has an absorbing story about the conflict between parents and teenagers. If one can get past the dated '70's feel, it is a film worth watching.

I saw this movie in l970 when I was 15. Growing up in small town Texas I wanted to be a hippie more than anything. The thought of being on my own, doing what I wanted to do as a Hippie seemed almost more than I could bare. I never made it to be a Hippie but I relive those desires each time I see this movie! Brings back great memories!

I love this film because it can be analyzed on so many different levels, in terms of parent-child relationships and the whole family dynamic. The film begins with Sally Field coming home as a burnt out hippie, basically trying to go back to the life she left behind, only to find out that nothing has changed, and her parents never learned what drove her away from home in the first place. The only difference is that now she sees her parents repeating the same mistakes with her younger sister. Her sister, played by Lane Bradbury, is popping downers, and the parents are going through her room, yelling at her, berating her for using drugs, yet the parents have a medicine cabinet overflowing with pills. They are constantly telling Sally and her sister to "Take a vitamin!", "Take a sleeping pill!", "Take a couple of aspirin!". Then they can't understand why their daughter starts popping pills.

Meanwhile, Sally has her own problems trying to readjust to coming back home. She cuts off her hair, goes back to playing with dolls, and basically tries to go back to being the kid she was a year earlier, but realizes she can't, especially since she keeps having flashbacks of her hippie life, and the boyfriend she left behind (played by David Carradine).

Granted, the movie is dated, but that is one of the reasons I recommend it. Because it takes the viewer back to another time and place; before anybody had ever heard of Osama Bin Ladin or terror cells or Internet chat rooms, any of the things we take for granted today. I highly recommend this movie.

when this video first aired on tv, i was a 17 year old runaway hippie chick (not PC but true), hitch hiking all over the country, smoking lots of dope, dropping lots of acid, looking for an older guy to take care of me etc. i tried coming back home a few times without success. i had a younger sister who was into her own problems. this movie floored me. years later i found it on VHS and brought it home and watched it again. despite some silly and dated stuff, it still floored me. sally field did an outstanding job presenting a bewildered child of the times. the wierd part is that those of us who were there really believed that running away and getting high was the better option compared with staying home and following the rules. the world changed so much in such a short time! i felt like my soul was dying and i just had to get out and start living. if you're older than 45 and had a troubled adolescence, this might really hit you where it hurt.

If I remember right, this was a movie of the week. I was blown away by the clothes, cars and hippie.... stuff. Oh, the memories this brought back. If you were around at all during the Haight/Ashbury days and knew anyone that was experimenting with the scariest of drugs or had run away from home, this will be a movie to bring all of that back.

This movie is interesting and thought-provoking on so many different levels, that it is hard to summarize, but I will try. First of all, watching the movie makes you feel as if you've entered a 1970s time machine. The premise of the movie is about an ex-hippie (Sally Field as "Deenie") that comes home after being on the road and living the life of a hippie. When Deenie comes home, she finds the same problems and family dynamics just the way she left them; only being repeated through her younger sister. I felt that "Deenie" should have told her sister what she experienced living the life of a drugged-out hippie, so that her sister wouldn't run away and make the same mistakes. Instead, when her sister questions her about why she came home, Deenie just says, "I don't want to talk about it; it just wasn't that great, that's all." The parents in the movie are constantly talking about taking vitamins, aspirins, and sleeping pills, and the medicine cabinet is running over with pill bottles. So is it any wonder that Suzie (Deenie's younger sister) is popping downers?

The generation gap is illustrated beautifully in this movie; how many parents tend to talk AT their kids and not TO their kids. It also shows that they are oblivious to their own pill-popping behavior, and how they don't realize that Suzie is just emulating their behavior. Kids do what they see, not what they are told. Even when Deenie tries to talk to her parents about Suzie getting in deeper with drugs, the parents are too wrapped up in their own life to listen.

Excellent movie. Highly recommended.

I've seen this movie several times on TV since it first aired back in 1971. Sally Field gives a powerful performance in what could be a forgettable story. The 'hippie commune' scenes are a bit laughable when viewed today, but some are also very disturbing. Sally's character of Denise is believable and very real; her strained relationship with her family comes across well. Lane Bradbury offers a noteworthy presence as Susie. The parents' performances are way over the top, but you get the point of why both the daughters want out of the house! Overall the film works, although the rather silly part where Denise runs down the street with the animated wand is kind of pointless. Linda Rondstadt singing the title song merits note; a nice touch.

Right from the opening scene of teenaged-runaway, Dennie, stumbling back toward home and Linda Ronstadt's beautiful voice( yep, that's her) singing the title song... this movie captured the angst of the 70's American teen and family. MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING is like a snapshot in time.
Thoroughly watchable today and...just as pertinent.
ajm57