Customer Reviews

Small Sacrifices Miniseries [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The small screen treatment of author Ann Rule's best-seller is all the more gut-wrenching because this really happened, a self-absorbed mother whose horrific act of violence against her own children (all for a boyfriend who, it turned out, couldn't wait to unload her?) commanded overdue attention to the threat to children in their own homes. For anyone still unconvinced by "The Burning Bed" that Farrah Fawcett can act better than she can jiggle, they won't be with this one. Fawcett is superlative in getting across the pathological selfishness of Diane Downs and how her children paid for it. The performance was, for Fawcett, a richly earned Emmy nomination. Despite more than ample supporting acting by the likes of John Shea, et al, Fawcett carries this production and highlights it with an indelible emotional wallop. This is an important social piece, much as is "The Burning Bed" remains, and forces us to examine our childrens' safety in a new light. Read Rule's book for background to appreciate the production's faithfulness to its subject matter. Despite that wrenching subject matter, the film gives us some comfort in knowing that the justice system worked this time.

Movies based upon books are usually not much good, but "Small Sacrifices" is the exception to the rule. Farrah Fawcett delivers a stellar performance as Diane Downs, an Oregon mother who was convicted in mid 1984 for the May 1983 slaying of one of her children and the attempted murders of the other two, all because she was trying to win back the affections of her married lover, who had broken off their affair because he didn't want to be a daddy. Fawcett absolutely excels as Diane Downs because she brings to life Downs's coldness, self absorption, disregard for her children, and psychopathology in an extremely compelling and realistic fashion. John Shea is also commanding as the intense prosecutor, who, convinced of Downs's guilt from the very beginning, relentlessly seeks justice, and not because he feels he has only a legal obligation to do so. Joyce Eliason based her fabulous screenplay on Ann's Rule's bestselling book of the same name. This is an emotional movie, vey tough to watch, and will leave you drained at the end, simply because it is such a hard hitting, spellbinding story about the awful crime committed by a cold blooded woman who never should have been blessed with the gift of children.

Small Sacrifices, a novel-turned-television-movie, is based on an incredibly true story about a women who tries to kill her three children to keep her lover. My first reaction to this movie was a sick feeling in my stomach that any mother could do such a thing. What also struck me was how convincingly Farrah Fawcett portrayed the cold Diane Downs. I was pleasantly stunned at the intensity each character showed and found that there were no lags or boring lulls in the story line. The devastating story prompted me to read the book by Ann Rule, and I fell in love with the story all over again. I wholeheartedly recommend this movie to anyone who is as fascinated by true crime as I am.

I agree with most of the reviews and am hoping that there will be a DVD version made. VHS tapes fade and get noisy with static.

Farrah Fawcett's interpretation of child killer Diane Downs stays with you forever. A multi-faceted banquet of film-making brilliance, this made-for-Tv adaptation of a real life event is haunting, seductive, and lacrimate. Chameleon-like Diane Downs is "Hungry Like The Wolf", and doesn't want any "kinks" in her social life. Her kids are the "kinks" that prevent her from pursuing a relationship with a clearly confused married man who up and moved hundreds of miles in a futile attempt to hide from the classique femme fatale. heartless maximus.

"Small Sacrifices" is one of the most haunting films based on a true story. Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett give excellent performances. Farrah is absolutely chilling as Diana Downs.

This TVM directed by David Greene is based on the book by Anne Rule and the teleplay adapted by Joyce Eliason. The female contribution accounts for the stance taken on Diane Downs, an Oregon postal worker who in 1983 was accused of murdering her own children to free herself for a lover who "just don't wanna be a Daddy". The crime outrages the male DA's assistant and presecutor with it's seemingly Medea brutality, their suspicion of Diane raised, in spite of her claim of a "bushy haired stranger" being responsible for the shootings, based on her "weird" behaviour. This behaviour is said to include a lack of emotion, inopportune humour, and a taste for the Duran Duran song Hungry Like the Wolf. (Greene's attempt to make Diane the wolf via her car headlights as eyes is a bit much). The DA's office takes months to form their case against Downs, and in their frustration, resent Diane's use of the media to gain sympathy, though we hear someone comment that "the camera loves her", implying that she possesses an unnatural empathy. At one point the audience becomes the TV camera with Diane talking to us subjectively. Given the nature of the context, it's easy for Downs to be more sympathetic than the police who wish to do her harm, but this perceived unbalance in the light of their feeling about the crime isn't helped by Greene's casting of John Shea as the DA's assistant and prosecutor, who specialises in a wooden stare. Eliason's teleplay reduces Downs by having someone say "She doesn't love. She devours" and gives her a memory monologue that she inexplicably delivers to Shea where she confesses that she hates men. There is also a court opportunity for Shea to project all his bile, and a queasy plot point of Shea's interest in Diane's children, overstepping his professionalism and getting way too personally involved. Greene uses similar cutaways of a crowd outside the courtroom during the trial, and stages a court re-enactment of the shootings in a model car for the camera with projected crosscuts, that the jury is unable to see.
As Downs, Farrah Fawcett has some delicious moments. Although an actress whose effort is always obvious, she captures Diane's recklessness and beauty, as she walks down a hallway talking and passing Shea, and as the camera circles her when a psychiatrist gives an evaluation of her personality. If she says and does things that appear to deliberately make herself look bad in the eyes of others, she still retains tube empathy so that we don't want to see her be found guilty, perhaps because only seeing her doing the shooting through the eyes of the prosecutor, helps it remain unreal. The casting of Ryan O'Neal as her former lover allows her to be uninhibited with him, though funny because of his resistance. There is also a perversity in the casting since it represents them at a time when they were a real life couple, but his stock was falling as hers was rising.
This TVM originally ran at 186 mins which is the version I saw, but ironically the length works against the treatment. In spite of it being truthful to the length of time the real events took, the inbalance of empathy becomes even stronger, and while we wait and wait with the police for Down's surviving daughter to regain her speech so she can stand as a witness against her mother, Fawcett's achievements become Greene's own small sacrifices.

Farrah Fawcett proves here that her performance in "The Burning Bed" wasn't just a fluke. This is a gritty, shocking story with a great supporting cast. Fawcett should have won an Emmy for her role. The high ratings of this movie prove that the film offers much to the viewer.

A fascinating, intriguing, heart-wrenching story about a sociopath mother who attempted to murder her three children to win the love of a male co-worker who was married and happened to be uninterested in becoming a stepfather. One of the three children dies and the other two are afflicted physically and emotionally, probably for life.

The acting, writing, directing, pacing, suspense, are excellent--Farah Fawsett especially so in her manipulative, callous disregard for anyone else but herself in her desire for sensual pleasure and control of men at the expense of other people's happiness.

The courtroom drama was very well done, slowly building to an emotionally fulfilling climax. The actress who played Dian Down's daughter was very moving and believable. This three hour movie was better than most theatrical releases today. I saw it at one sitting, finding it near impossible to turn it off and return to it the next day.

Based on a true story, "Small Sacrifies" stars former 'Charlie's Angels' star Farrah Fawcett as Diane Downs, accused of shooting her three children because her 'soulmate' lover (Ryan O'Neal) didn't want children.

The miniseries is better than I expected. Fawcett does an excellent job portraying Downs, a very troubled woman with a supposed horrible childhood. Much of the action takes place in the court trial of Downs as she is tried for the crimes she was accused of. Much is made of her reactions when she is confronted with the blood-stained clothing of her children, and the peculiar behavior she exhibited that night. The DA, (John Shea) is outstanding, as is Gordon Clapp as Detective Doug Welch (these last two will encounter each other again in the above-average television series 'NYPD Blue'.

Above average effort; highly recommended. It is a shame it is not out on DVD.