Barnes & Noble

A self-styled "woman's picture" that generates laughter and tears with equal facility, Steel Magnolias is blessed with an extraordinary ensemble of female actors, each of them cast to perfection. Much of the action revolves around a small Southern town's beauty shop, managed by lusty, straight-talkin' Dolly Parton. Her regular customers and close friends include devoted mother Sally Field, who's worried that her diabetic daughter (Julia Roberts in her first major screen role) isn't up to raising her newborn child; Shirley MacLaine, the town's tart-tongued curmudgeon; Olympia Dukakis, a no-nonsense matron who's Shirley's frequent sparring partner; and Daryl Hannah, Dolly's ditzy assistant. These characters are sharply drawn by Robert Harling, who adapts his own play to the screen and provides the women with crisp, natural dialogue. Director Herbert Ross (The Goodbye Girl) unites his talented performers, making them a cohesive group and reinforcing the notion that when women with common goals and yearnings stick together, there's nothing they can't accomplish or endure. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

The title refers to those seemingly frail Southern belles who survive any and all deprivations through whims of iron. Robert Harling's original stage play was set exclusively in a Louisiana beauty parlor where an all-female cast of characters laughed, cried and compared menfolk. The film expands the playing field by including scenes at picnics, hospitals and the like, and by visually depicting the males who never appeared in the stage version. Dolly Parton plays the goodnatured beauty-shop owner, while Shirley MacLaine is the cantankerous town eccentric, decked out in grungy overalls and speaking fluent Trash. Well-to-do Sally Field bravely endures several assaults to her sensibilities, not the least of which is the illness (and subsequent death) of daughter Julia Roberts. The performances are first-rate, with the possible exception of Daryl Hannah's overemphatic portrayal of a gawky hairdresser. The film stumbles a bit in its depiction of the male characters as fools and deadheads, and in the final overlong hospital scenes involving the comatose Roberts, which play like a road company version of Terms of Endearment. Otherwise, Steel Magnolias is a prime example of ensemble filmmaking, lovingly coordinated by director Herbert Ross. (Sidebar: Herbert Ross was reportedly rather rough on Julia Roberts, deriding her lack of experience. The rest of the female cast rallied around Roberts and told the director to lay off or pay the price). Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 043396702479
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: stereo
• Language: English, Español, Portugais
• Subtitles: English, Español, Portugais, Chinese, Korean, Thai
• Time: 1:59:00
• Sales Rank: 1,375

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• My Best Friend's Wedding / Steel Magnolias
• Mona Lisa Smile / Steel Magnolias
• Steel Magnolias & Sleepless in Seattle

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