brickboy1966 I have always loved this movie. We have a running joke in our family. Daryl Hannah played Annelle Desoto. My name is Darrell and my sister's is Annelle. When we talk about the movie, we say Darrell played Annelle. Loved the beauty parlor scene talking about Marshall who is played by James Wleck. He bacame a regular for a couple of seasons of Walker Texas Ranger. He is one of my favorite actors. Sally Field is one of my favorite actresses. I loved her on Brothers and Sisters. Does anyone know if Robert Harling has written anymore screenplays. If anyone has an address for him, I would like to have it to write a short fan letter. I'm sorry I'm kind of rambling on here, but they said it had to be ten lines of text.

Sandy Matosz There are a couple reasons why everyone should watch this movie.First, Steel Magnolias is led by a strong female cast whose snappy and comedic dialogue are enjoyable to watch. Their performances are so raw and believable that it's a shock to learn that only Julia Roberts was nominated for an Oscar.The supporting cast is full of wonderful characters from Dolly Parton (Truvy) (she's so cute!), Olympia Dukakis (Clairee) and Shirley McLaine. McLaine was my favorite as Ouiser, a sarcastic, grouchy, two-time widow. Daryl Hannah was the one weak point within the tight group. Hannah's performance was spot on, but I found her character exhausting and annoying at times. Roberts was lovable as Field's daughter Shelby, whose Type One Diabetes casts a somber cloud over the otherwise cheerful movie.Second, the story is adapted from the play written by Robert Harling (The First Wives' Club). Harling's inspiration for the story came from his own tragic real-life experiences of dealing with his sister's sickness and eventual death.Third, Sally Field. Field is fantastic as Robert's strong and overprotective mother, M'Lynn. Field's monologue at the end gave me the chills, it was perfect representation of what M'Lynn was going through. It's enough just to watch the movie for that one scene. I have not seen many of her movies so I didn't realize how incredibly talented she is. I really really like her, I really do.Throughout the movie, I got confused with the time jumps and what was going on during some scenes. Sometimes the next scene jumps ahead a couple of years and I wouldn't realize it until the next scene. Other than that issue, I really have no complaints. The cinematography, hairstyling (the southern big puffy hair), and the acting by everyone (even the men) was perfect for this chick flick.A heartwarming and charming tearjerker, Steel Magnolias is a movie that everyone has to see at least once. Highly recommended. 8 out 10.

writers_reign Difficult to find fault with this feel good chick flick. Even Shirley MacLaine can't louse it up but it is a young Julia Roberts who crawls away with it despite strong competition from Olympia Dukakis and Sally Field. I was fortunate enough to see the play before I saw the movie, albeit an English production of an American play set in the Deep South which meant it had two strikes on it going in but the quality of the writing overcame that handicap and is evident in this fine adaptation. Friendship is the theme that runs through it and the fact that in this case it is female friendship is more or less irrelevant. There's a nice symmetry in that it begins with the wedding of the Roberts character and ends, to all intents and purposes, with her premature death following a kidney transplant. Films about the South tend to get it wrong as often as they get it right but when they do get it right, as in To Kill A Mockingbird and this one, they really get it right. A winner.

bkoganbing Robert Harling's off Broadway play based on the death of his real life sister had the good fortune of having him do the screen adaption. In expanding it for the big screen and shooting it in his native Louisiana, Steel Magnolias lost nothing of what he was trying to convey in his one set drama which only involved the six women who are the leads. In fact seeing them interact with other family and friends added well to Steel Magnolias.Still the root of the play is the conversations among six friends in Dolly Parton's Beauty Parlor in a small Louisiana bayou town. The friends are friendly enemies Olympia Dukakis and Shirley MacLaine and Sally Field and her daughter Julia Roberts. A new hairdresser is hired by Parton as it turns out on the day that Roberts is to be married and that is Darryl Hannah.Roberts is a diabetic and she takes some very big health risks when she gets pregnant and has a baby boy. These women despite a lot differences and some occasional cattiness are really tight and the health problems of Roberts unites them all.Steel Magnolias should have received a bit more recognition from the Academy than the nomination Julia Roberts got for Best Supporting Actress. If Steel Magnolias is nothing else it's an ensemble piece and recognizing Roberts over the others was unfair. For this story to work, all of the six females have to be good and all of them are.This story has everything, laughter, sadness, great joy, and great pathos. Sometimes the six women are putting out several of these emotions at one time.The best thing I can say about Steel Magnolias is that it is the kind of film you can watch over and over and be moved by it and maybe pick up an emotion you should have felt before in a particular scene. A rare and extraordinary work can do that and Steel Magnolias is a film for the ages.