opieandy-1 Excellent performances by Wood and Redford (as well as the others), great feel of the poor southern town, compelling human emotions. Cinematography was outstanding. Some of the camera work seemed to preview Butch Cassidy, one of my all-time classics. Wood's free-spirited and naive nature was compelling, and Redford, understated as always, was a fantastic counterpoint for her. Mary Badham, following on her role as Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird, brought her role to life and was very sympathetic as well. It is interesting that at 13, this was her penultimate role for almost 40 years. I wonder what happened? I generally rate movies on how they make me feel, and this one connected me to the characters, the time and place, and made me feel empathy and admiration, respect, and/or concern for them. Well done, Sydney Pollack.My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre"6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very Good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings10 - A Classic (6 of 430 movies have received this)

edwagreen Four years after her triumph in "To Kill A Mockingbird," Mary Badham shows us that precocious Scout charm once again as the sister of Natalie Wood when she tells the tragic story of her sister Natalie Wood. In depression era Mississippi apparent drifter Robert Redford enters the town. He turns out to be anything but a drifter. He is there to serve layoff notices to the railroad workers who live at the boarding house of Natalie's mother, a wonderful Kate Reid, a mother so despicable that she is willing to pair her daughter up with an older married man so as to get out of town.The film constantly refers to papa and by midsection we learn that he walked out on them some time back.Redford falls for the Wood character, Alva. She is the dreamer and he faces reality. Through misunderstanding and a misguided marriage by Alva to a Charles Bronson character, tragedy ensues.

Debora87 The scenario, is just as I would expect in that location during the great depression period. The younger sister is what you would expect, when being raised near a beauty attraction sister, an oblivious mother, and strangers around all the time. She is tough, "boy-like", but still dreams inside herself with a more colorful life, so she is amazed by her sister stories, which are not always true (but they do not seem to care, they need to dream, to survive that grey world). Alva is some parts a reflection of her irresponsible mother, which seems to try to run a brothel, and not a bead and breakfast like. She hangs around with pretty much anyone that can give her something, she is a party girl, until she meets Owen. His lack of care about her being attractive, affects her, and she starts to question why inside of herself, because so far all men around kiss the floor for her to step. She is smart, charismatic, and even flirting with everybody, she still has some sort of innocence, that glows in her eyes when she speaks about the world, as she sees it (where everything is poetic). Owen, by the other hand, is a straight forward guy, with no "dreams" for his life, pretty much just work, and survive. He is a caring person, but do not show that to just anyone. He cares about the young sister, because he sees that she does not have a good future ahead of her, and show little nice gestures to her. Alva deep down, does not want to just party, like her mother tries to push her, because of money. The mother sees in her daughter her long gone youth, and practically sells her daughter to any man with money. Even her boyfriend, is with her, to be near o Alva, and she pretends not to see. Alva starts to change because of Owen, she starts to show her true self, and Owen, starts to see the world a place more joyful. Owen believes in a misunderstanding, and for that, Alva's strength to fight her fate fades away. She makes a terrible mistake, most of it, to tear her mother apart once and for all, and tries to move on, to get the road that she was supposed to, since Owen came into her life. They reunite again, and they are just so happy, living this simple cozy life, until her mother shows up (to ruin everything for revenge). As soon as she opens her mouth in front of Owen, she just can't bare to hear the words of disappointment coming from her love, and she runs, under a storm, that seals her fate. Now, I honestly expected a different ending... I just love this two actors together, and it was too sad. BUT, if you get to know Alva through the movie, you can understand why she just ran. In my dreams, her mother was kicked out, and after a long discussion, Alva and Owen stayed together, and went to Chicago to start over. I am sorry for practically resuming the movie story, but I just feel very strong about this movie, and is hard to say only a few things.

pointer165 First Natalie is breathtaking to watch and I still miss her!.. her sister ,is played by the wonderful Mary Badham. The search for the right girl for " To Kill a Mockingbird" ended up with children that had no acting experience ( IN THAT AREA they filmed) in their lives(Mary played Scout )but forever became a part of our lives with their incredible performances...and she also stands out ,a bit older then" to Kill a Mockingbird" but still that feisty character that played "Scout" in Mockingbird! but Natalie steals this movie ....I just love watching her act..and Sydney Pollack directing Redford would prove a very long collaboration.I think Redford is the same in almost any movie, if they need a wild game hunter,"Out Of Africa" but costarring with Streep, they give a wonderful performance and he does the same thing as if it was in "Barefoot on the Park" nothing differs with his acting, that's my opinion but I like him in his movies...Hubbell .another name that will always go down in Film History...another point,Natalie wears ONE dress this entire movie, a thing a Hollywood actress would shun away from...but Tennessee Williams as the writer, you can't go wrong.Anytime I hear his words, as I do Truman Capote's words.."the world is AOK!" for me..WOW...Redford did "Barefoot in the Park" one year after this movie...that's interesting!revised: I just looked at it again and she wears more than one dress in the movie..sorry Natalie fans!..still just a great movie..how times were, when all you had to worry about was"train service" but T.Williams adds the fact of so many losing jobs, from the lose of that train service