Picnic
by Joshua Logan
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DVD details
Actor: Betty Field, Cliff Robertson, Kim Novak, Susan Strasberg, William HoldenDirector: Joshua Logan
Brand: Sony
Cinematographer: James Wong Howe
Editor: Charles Nelson
Editor: William A. Lyon
Producer: Fred Kohlmar
Writer: Daniel Taradash
Writer: William Inge
DVD: 2 Sides, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); Portuguese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-04-18
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of Picnic
DVD Review: Picnic
Summary: 5 Stars
Loved seeing Picnic again. We saw the movie on TCM and my husband wanted me to order it for future viewing.DVD Review: A Dated Classic
Summary: 2 Stars
I watched Picnic for the first time in decades this morning on TCM and was sad to see just how much this once favorite has dated.
On the plus side, you've got a gorgeous, sexy and still charismatic William Holden at his peak, as the gorgeous, sexy and still charismatic loser who falls in love with Kim Novak.
Novak is another reason why this movie was so popular back then in the mid-50s. And that slow dance they do--it's still dynamite.
Yet, the script and the direction don't hold up. In the big confrontation scene between Rossalind Russell and Holden, you cringe as she runs her big mouth and spits out everything venemous she can think of. And what does her long-suffering husband, and Holden and Novak do?
Nothing. They just stand there as she shrieks and vomits up all this horrific bile about the character played by Holden. He weeps and squirms and doesn't move and Novak just adopts a pained look on her pretty face and acts like a kid in school, whose teacher is shrieking to everyone what a rotten man she's in love with.
No one tells this virago to shut up. Her husband doesn't try to drag her away. When they're alone together, she asks meekly: "What made me go off like that, Herb?" And darn, if her long-suffering husband doesn't just smile, hugs her and tells her beautiful she is and what pretty legs she has. Most husbands would have slapped her around a few times or throttled her--at least. The victim of her abuse would have screamed a few words of abuse at her. Yet, none of this happens. Everyone acts as if this is something that you expect in the world of Picnic.
It's scenes like this one that makes the viewing of Picnic purely--for me--a visual enjoyment. We're able to catch Holden and Novak at the peak of their physical beauty. As far as believing anything in the script, it's a waste.
DVD Review: Erotic without the Sleeze
Summary: 5 Stars
The dance scene played to moonglow must be the ultimate depiction of sexual attraction between a man and woman Hollywood every did.
The depiction of small town America in summer is priceless.
A classic in many ways......enjoy it.
DVD Review: Not Widescreen!
Summary: 1 Stars
Picnic is a fabulous movie, but do not buy this DVD version as it is in standard screen format - not the original widescreen (like the VHS tape version). The standard screen does not do justice to this movie at all. I don't understand why the VHS (which I have) is widescreen and the much newer DVD (which I bought from Amazon) is standard screen. I should have read the description more carefully. DVD Review: Widescreen now available
Summary: 2 Stars
Both Borders and Barnes and Noble now carry a widescreen version of Picnic:
http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/Picnic/William-Holden/e/043396828797/?itm=4
Widescreen on one side, fullscreen on the other. It says "Columbia Classics" across the top of the package.
I wish Amazon would carry this version, as I don't want to open a new account at one of those other places just for one item.
Description of Picnic
A drifters plan to finally settle down quickly goes awry when his animal magnetism attracts every woman in town. Special features: subtitles in english spanish portuguese chinese korean and thai languages: english spanish and portuguese production notes talent files theatrical trailers and more. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/27/2008 Starring: William Holden Kim Novak Run time: 113 minutes Rating: PgWilliam Holden is the hunky drifter who rides the rails into a small Midwest town with dreams of landing a "respectable" job with his rich college buddy (Cliff Robertson). Kim Novak is the small-town beauty queen engaged to Robertson who falls for the cocky dreamer, as do repressed schoolmarm spinster Rosalind Russell and Novak's tomboyish kid sister Susan Strasberg. Their unleashed passions reach a crescendo at the Labor Day picnic.
Joshua Logan directed William Inge's play on Broadway and carried it to Hollywood, earning Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director in his screen-directing debut. Holden is years too old for the role but oozes sex appeal and makes a swoony stud when he takes his shirt off (or when, better yet, it's ripped from his back by a boozing Russell), and Novak is a lovely lost girl yearning for something she can't quite grasp. Arthur O'Connell earned an Oscar nomination as Russell's tippling boyfriend. The film was a huge popular and critical hit, but Logan's stiff and strident direction hasn't dated well. He makes his points in big capital letters--subtlety was never his strong point--and loses the natural beauty of the Kansas locations when he takes the climactic picnic scenes into an obviously artificial soundstage. Picnic remains a loved American classic, largely for Holden's tough-guy vulnerability and James Wong Howe's brilliant widescreen color photography. --Sean Axmaker
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