{"id":3731,"date":"2007-07-21T09:21:09","date_gmt":"2007-07-21T16:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3731"},"modified":"2024-05-20T22:30:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T05:30:51","slug":"group-the-1966","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3731","title":{"rendered":"Group, The (1966)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Sacrifice is dated, mother. You don&#8217;t reform a man; he just drags you down.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Poster-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-30175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Poster-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Poster.jpg 496w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the 1930s, eight Vassar graduates &#8212; Lakey (Candice Bergen), Dottie (Joan Hackett), Priss (Elizabeth Hartman), Polly (Shirley Knight), Kay (Joanna Pettet), Pokey (Mary-Robin Redd), Libby (Jessica Walter), and Helena (Kathleen Widdoes) &#8212; search for love and happiness while keeping abreast of each others&#8217; lives.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Candice Bergen Films<\/li>\n<li>Elizabeth Hartman Films<\/li>\n<li>Ensemble Films<\/li>\n<li>Friendship<\/li>\n<li>Jessica Walter Films<\/li>\n<li>Joan Hackett Films<\/li>\n<li>Shirley Knight Films<\/li>\n<li>Sidney Lumet Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nSidney Lumet&#8217;s adaptation of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Group_%28novel%29\">Mary McCarthy&#8217;s best-selling novel<\/a> starts out strong: through nifty editing (while an all-female chorus chants in the background), we&#8217;re introduced to each of the key players, as they gather together for the low-key wedding of their ostensible &#8220;leader&#8221;, Kay. From there, we follow Dottie (played by the marvelous Joan Hackett) as she explores sex for the first time with a notorious womanizer (Richard Mulligan), but quickly realizes that her dreams for a wild love affair in New York won&#8217;t come true. Unfortunately, from this point forward, Dottie becomes largely a persona non gratis, as she heads to Arizona to lick her wounds, and is barely seen again. <\/p>\n<p>As with every ensemble film, some vignettes in <em>The Group<\/em> are inevitably more compelling than others; we find ourselves wishing to know more about certain characters &#8212; and much less about others. Shirley Knight turns in a nuanced, compassionate performance as the do-gooding Polly, but her travails (which include an affair with a psycho-analyzed communist, and a mentally ill father) don&#8217;t do her justice. Elizabeth Hartman as Priss is equally compelling, and we definitely wish her character had more screentime. Libby &#8212; an amusingly clueless character in the book &#8212; is, unfortunately, portrayed with annoying smugness by Jessica Walters, and is easily the most irritating of &#8220;the group&#8221;. Kay&#8217;s failing marriage to an alcoholic philanderer (Larry Hagman, <em>perfectly <\/em>cast, but lacking nuance) is the primary thread of the story, but her character&#8217;s gradual transformation is less than convincing. <\/p>\n<p>Others in the group barely register at all. Lakey (Bergen in her film debut) is only on-screen for a few minutes at best, and her &#8220;surprise revelation&#8221; near the end of the movie goes absolutely nowhere. Pokey provides comic relief and little else, while Helena is merely the film&#8217;s convenient narrator. Even so, the film is at least 1\/2 hour too long. While screenwriter Sidney Buchman tries his best to do justice to all the subplots in the story, eight protagonists is &#8212; ultimately &#8212; too many. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Joan Hackett as Dottie<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Hackett.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Hackett.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-30179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Hackett.jpg 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Hackett-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Hackett-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Elizabeth Hartman as Priss<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Hartman.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Hartman.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-30180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Hartman.jpg 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Hartman-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Hartman-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Shirley Knight as Polly<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Knight.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Knight.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-30178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Knight.jpg 636w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Knight-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Group-Knight-300x226.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo. While it starts out strong, this melodramatic ensemble tale doesn&#8217;t live up to its promise. Listed as a Cult Movie in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0060479\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/the-group\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Sacrifice is dated, mother. You don&#8217;t reform a man; he just drags you down.&#8221; Synopsis: In the 1930s, eight Vassar graduates &#8212; Lakey (Candice Bergen), Dottie (Joan Hackett), Priss (Elizabeth Hartman), Polly (Shirley Knight), Kay (Joanna Pettet), Pokey (Mary-Robin Redd), Libby (Jessica Walter), and Helena (Kathleen Widdoes) &#8212; search for love and happiness while keeping abreast of each others&#8217; lives. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Candice Bergen Films Elizabeth Hartman Films Ensemble Films Friendship Jessica Walter Films Joan Hackett Films&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3731\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3731"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96876,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731\/revisions\/96876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}