Customer Reviews

The Trip to Bountiful

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This wonderfully heart-warming movie is finally on DVD. Based on the 50 year old play by Horton Foote, it tells of an elderly woman's quest to return one last time to her childhood home. Knowing her life is coming to a close, she gets on a Greyhound bus heading for a town (Bountiful, Texas) that no longer exists. Chased by her weakling of a son (John Heard) and his shrewish wife (Carlin Glynn), accompanied along the way by a gentle and kindly young lady (the lovely Rebecca De Mornay), who acts almost like her guardian angel, and framed at beginning and end by Cynthia Clawson's rendition of the hymn "Softly and Tenderly", "Trip to Bountiful" is truly an American classic. Geraldine Page deservedly won an Academy Award for this at the end of a long and illustrious career.

MGM has released this on a double-sided DVD with the original 1.85:1 theatrical version (anamorphic) on one side and a fullscreen version (either open-matte or extracted from a super35) on the other. Picture quality is excellent with rich, natural colors and good black levels. There is very little dirt, the picture looks quite immaculate. Sound is the original 2.0 Mono but with excellent fidelity. My only disappointment is that this would have been the perfect opportunity to release a Special 20th Anniversary Edition. But I suppose MGM figured there would be no market for that. Shame. Still, we do have a 22 minute, brand new documentary entitled "Return to Bountiful" and the original theatrical trailer. All in all, no regrets buying this one. A true American treasure.

Geraldine Paige creates a masterful memory of her home and
all the joys , activities and sadness that made it a house
full of love...In my work as a hospital chaplain I daily see
how important it is for seniors to share their memories with
friends and especially younger family members. Trip to bountful
gives us a symbolic understanting of the life review which
normally takes place as we age...and these memories are important and life-giving to all of us....That is why she sings the old
songs and hymns because they carry with them the group memory of who she is and what she means to other people...The son does not understand this in the beginning but then he catches on and the relationship between mother and son completely changes..This happens in nursing homes, and in home care when seniors are listened to and their stories are told and reverenced they begin to own their new surroundings and more easily make new friends
as they go on with their long lives...we all will have to face
something like this in our own families , so why not see the
movie and study it, and it will bring you to BOUNTIFUL.

Add me to those that find this truly, beautifully inspiring film so moving that it is timeless! A true classic film, made at a time when most movies being made are trash and garbage. This film deserves more than five stars. The story, the acting, the cinematography and the haunting musical score are all worthy of awards. This little known film is what is known as a 'sleeper'...meaning that it is extraordinary in every sense of the word, but that many do not know about it. The first time I saw this film, I wept many tears at the end. Geraldine Page truly deserved the Oscar for this performance and for a wonderful career. She died not long after she received her Oscar but I'll never forget night she at long last won!

I also join on the bandwagon for those who want this film to be released on DVD to be kept forever. This one is a true classic that stands out from all of the wicked, evil that is being turned out by Hollywood today.

This movie was extremely well done and absolutely brilliant. The Trip to Bountiful is pre-Driving Miss Daisy and far better. Geraldine Page who portrays an elderly woman is trapped in her son's apartment with his hateful wife. She plans an escape to try and see her hometown Bountiful before she dies. It's sort of like The Wizard of Oz meets Driving Miss Daisy, with the "getting home" theme, and the friends she encounters on the journey. This movie delivers Geraldine Page at her best, she carries the picture at an awesome pace that will exploit all of your emotions. DVD is calling for this picture, buy this and enjoy classic film making at its best! Look for Rebecca Demorney and John Heard in supporting roles.

I tried to find some fault with this movie, but I simply couldn't. I tried to pick apart Geraldine Page's performance, but I truly can't.

Why, you may ask, would I want to dislike this movie?

Well, for the mere fact that Whoopi Goldberg gave the performance of her career in `The Color Purple' and Page stole her Oscar. Sure, Goldberg got her Oscar in 1990 (despite Bening being the better supporting actress that year) but I think everyone under the sun knows deep down that that 1985 Best Actress Oscar should have been hers. So, with that on my mind, I sat down to watch and criticize this small little film; but my end feelings on the film are far different from what I expected.

`The Trip to Bountiful' tells the beautifully uplifting story of Carrie Watts, an elderly woman living with her son and daughter-in-law. She is miserable, living under the sharp reign of her daughter-in-law Jessie Mae and she desires to see her old home in Bountiful before she dies. Living in the prison her daughter-in-law has created for her is not the way in which she wishes to die. Carrie hatches a plan to flee, hiding her social security check from Jessie Mae's greedy paws and making her way to the train station and heading out towards the place she fondly remembers as home. Along the way she meets up with the tenderly compassionate Thelma and the sympathetic town Sheriff who offers to take her to see her abandoned home.

`The Trip to Bountiful' is as sad as it is inspiring and it will leave you speechless by the films end. This is the story of a woman who has been reduced to living a life she wouldn't wish on anyone, and the very thought of just seeing a place that brings her fond memories is enough to make her feel like a kid again, happy and care-free. This woman's emotional journey is brought to life by Geraldine Page's fantastic performance (she is still second fiddle to Whoopi). She really gathers behind this woman's every solitary emotion and fleshes it out before our very eyes. She loves her son, and in a way she even loves her daughter-in-law, but she can't live the life they have set for her. She can't take the fighting and the worrying and the constant feeling of fear in her own home.

Page is supported by a nice cast of supporting actors, most notably John Heard who plays her son Ludie. He does such a phenomenal job, especially in his final scene, of exposing the hard position he has been forced to reside in; pitted against his wife's demands and his mother's broken memories. Carlin Glynn, Richard Bradford, Rebecca De Mornay and Kevin Cooney all deliver nice performances that elevate the films core.

At the heart of this film there is a story about a woman journeying home. Her home is different than she remembers. The town is all but deserted; her friends are all passed and her home is barren, but that home is everything to her. Her heart swells with joy at the prospect of just spending an hour within its rotten shell. She desires nothing more than to have it become a part of her, for it represents everything she feels she has given up; everything she feels has been taken away from her. `The Trip to Bountiful' is a beautifully sincere, soft and delicate film that will reach your heart and tug those strings and will quite possibly choke out a few tears.

One of only a handful of perfect movies. Geraldine Page is beguiling and mesmerizing from beginning to end. Her's was genius of the life-changing kind. She was an impeccable film artist, a master actor to awaken us, and make us better. Of all her great films, I think this one the finest. First rate cast - Rebecca DeMornay is moving as hell, and John Heard extra fine as Carrie Watts' son Ludie. Horton Foote crafted a perfect screenplay, intelligent and brave, itself a kind of paean to Page; it holds her sounds, and insights, already in place. Foote deals auspiciously in ribbons of moments actors are blessed to find once in a career. Geraldine Page deserved no less, and she, of course, rose to the occasion. The result is a caution to our complacency, a farewell performance so unaware of itself, and as beautiful as anything you'll ever see on film. Page's repeated traversal of the Baptist hymn 'There is a fountain filled with blood' is one of Bountiful's brilliant grace notes, as her perfect incarnation of Carrie Watts flourishes. Don't miss treasuring this gem. It is American filmmaking at its rarely glimpsed best.

It's easy to see by some of these older reviews that this is a long-awaited release. I've had the VHS for years and I was happy to see the DVD available, and at a cheap price. Unfortunately, that price also meant that I wasn't going to see the extras that I have now come to expect from all DVDs.

Geraldine Page won the Oscar for her role here, and she was up against Whoopi Goldberg's powerful performance in The Color Purple. They had it in for Spielberg, anyway, but at least you could say that Ms. Page's win was not a sympathy vote. She was brilliant as Carrie Watts. Fans of Bette Midler may recognize John Heard, who plays Carrie's impotent but sympathetic son as CeCe Bloom's husband in the film classic, "Beaches", which has also been re-released on DVD.

I think a word or two has to be said about the haunting theme song, "Softly and Tenderly", sung so beautifully by gospel legend Cynthia Clawson. It appears on her album "Immortal", which by now may be available on CD from her website. But every time I drive to Texas and see the bluebonnets by the side of the road, I think of Ms. Clawson's beautiful voice. My wish for this DVD would have been for them to explain, in the relatively short "making-of" documentary, the music choices and how this song and this singer came to be chosen. It was an excellent decision, however it came about.

The quality of the DVD was not quite up to standard in my opinion. It looks as if they just recorded it straight off the tape without any cleanup, colors seem dark and muddied in places. I had hoped this classic film would have been treated with better respect when it came time to digitize it. That having been said, four stars is a good score, and it's better to have it in digital form than not at all, even though I think I'll be hanging on to my VHS version.

If there are any youngsters (under 30) who haven't seen this film or who were very young when this came out but love their grandmother or great-grandmother, they are in for a treat. Maybe they will come to view aging people with a little more compassion if they haven't been before now. That alone could be the best thing that can come from the re-release of this wonderful film.

How can a person begin to write an unbiased review on the work of Geraldine Page? If anyone knows the answer, PLEASE let me know!!! This woman is truly beyond peers and this performance, for which she FINALLY won the Oscar is beyond words! Forget the rest MISS PAGE IS THE BEST!!!

This is Geraldine Page at her very very best, portraying an elderly woman living unhappily with her son and daughter-in-law. The two women don't get along, the daughter-in-law resenting her intrusion in their lives and seeing her presence as a big sacrifice to have to make for her marriage. The steadily growing loneliness of Geraldine Page's character and her journey into her memories of what was and what could have been touches many themes and portrays the wishes and dreams of many ordinary people beautifully. She decides to go back to Bountiful, the only place where she ever was really happy. Would the expectations created by her memories (coloured by the passing of time) be met by the reality of present day Bountiful? Or is it the journey, not the destination, that is all important? This you will have to see for yourself and make up your own mind - because this is a "must-see" film. It will make you think about your own plans for living as an older person, it will make you think about what is really important in your life, it will make you think!

After reading many reviews here about "The Trip to Bountiful", I felt compelled to add my two cents worth about the film and its star, Geraldine Page. I own every single Geraldine Page movie ever released; she is my favorite actress of all time! And "The Trip To Bountiful" is my FAVORITE film of all time, as well. Why? Because when you watch this film, it's not like you're watching a movie at all, it's like you are experiencing the heartache of a lifetime, the dreams, the illusions, the sadness and the happiness,truth and also the lies that compose a lifetime. What Geraldine Page does with the main character, Carrie Watts, is nothing short of astonishing. She creates a living breathing woman who has yearned to go home for twenty years after having been cooped up in the city all this time. And her weak son, her loud, rude and hurtful daughter-in-law (Why Carlin Glynn didn't win Best Supporting Actress, or at least earn a nomination for this role is beyond me) and the beautiful, polite, sweet girl portrayed by Rebecca DeMornay...each of these important supporting roles contributes something substantial to the film...however, this is a Geraldine Page film all the way. Her mannerisms, the way she moves, speaks, sings, falls onto a sofa, or into the arms of a sheriff...ANYTHING she does is virtuoso, beyond the measure of good acting...it is sublime and perfect. This movie, so sentimental and charming, is also perfect. I have seen it about 50 times, and I cannot wait until it's out on DVD! I can't believe it's taken this long. But thank you, Powers That Be, for releasing this film on April 12th. I will cherish it always, and I suggest if you have never seen this movie, that you spend a few bucks and own one of the most wonderful movies and acting performances ever committed to celluloid.