Woodyanders Shy, introverted eager beaver young school teacher Melodye Amerson (sweetly played by the adorable Kim Darby of "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" fame) takes a job at a remote, quiet rural farming community that's isolated from the rest of the world. The job proves to be far more difficult and challenging than she initially figured: the students are extremely terse, reserved and uncommunicative, the other townspeople are every bit as reticent, mysterious and unapproachable, and everyone lives by a strict code which leaves Melodye feeling confused and alienated. Melodye remains determined and persistent, making a slow, but steady attempt at getting the students and other townspeople to open up so they can let her in on their incredible secret.Directed with exceptional restraint, acuity and tenderness by John Korty (who later helmed "The Ewok Adventure"), sensitively scripted by James M. Miller from Zenna Henderson's thoughtful, low-key, utterly beguiling novel, deftly acted by a top-rate cast which includes Dan O'Herlithy as a sage town elder, Laurie Walters as O'Herlithy's fetching, but repressed daughter, Diane Varsi as the token accessible kindly local who gives Melodye guidance and advice, and an uncharacteristically subdued William Shatner as a friendly "outsider" physician, this gentle, folksy, leisurely paced Francis Ford Coppola science fiction TV movie parable works as a lovely, reflective, and oftentimes charming exploration of overcoming fear, how tightly held to superstitious beliefs can be very constricting, opening up to allow nice, well-meaning others to have a positive, eye-opening influence on your life, and a particularly moving sincere plea for accepting and understanding those individuals whose uniqueness defies rigidly set and highly restrictive preconceived notions of so-called "normality." A beautifully lulling and poignant little gem.

miss katie k Despite the fact it is often set in some remote setting, temporal or spatial, science fiction reflects the sensibilities of its own timeframe more than any other genre. This science fiction TV movie evokes a strong memory from my youth that is as much semi-personal cultural artifact as it is broadcast entertainment.In the early 1970's, there were a number of us, adults and children, who lived "apart" from the everyday society: rural, rustic, spiritual seekers, community-minded, experimental and questioning. We looked to the past to create the future. Many of us ended up in Marin County, in the northern section of the San Francisco Bay Area.It is never really possible to perfectly signal the everyday mood of a cultural zeitgeist, though all movies attempt to, in varying degrees of success and intentionality. "The People," while to some a modest and moderately successful literary adaptation, is, to me, a stunning capture of the "mood" of Bolinas, California, 1971. The social remove of the "people" acted as an allegory for our cultural dissatisfaction. Step backwards. While a lot of people in this time/place avoided television (though not my family), the broadcast of this movie generated a great deal of excitement for at least three main reasons.At the top of reasons were the crew involved. The director, John Korty, was local to the area (though I forget exactly from where...) Also, of great interest was in the scene in which the schoolchildrens' story was told. Arthur Okamura was a Bolinas artist who did the illustrative paintings. (He also happened to be my father's best friend at the time.) Of course, for Northern California grounding, there is the ubiquitous Coppola involvement. Another reason for the interest were the filming locations in Northern California. This was before every other movie was made in an over-speculated and glamorized-to-death San Francisco. The final reason is the message of the film, most importantly the final scene in which the group is able to act as a single healing force. This manages to fairly sum up the collective dream of our little alternative society.Is it a good movie? I actually can't say.Then what can be said about this movie? Mostly is quite amazing that such a pristine cultural document exists in the form of a network movie of the week from its own era. Thousands of portrayals of "hippies" exist from the time, this is one of the few that is the real deal. It feels like an subversive art film that managed to get commercial sponsors.That's pretty, uh, cool...

kolchak25 Kim Darby plays a teacher who is hired to teach in a small isolated town inhabited by a group who appear to be similar to the Shakers or the Amish. Even though the people of the town obviously have different values and rules to live by, Darby's character shows not only incredible ignorance, but intolerance as she dismisses everyone's ideas other than her own. She repeatedly tries to get the children to sing and play music. When they don't, she gets angry at them. Three costume changes later, she is still harping on them. What sort of time frame is this - a few days, weeks, months? Why is still trying to force the children to play music? Doesn't she have any respect for their beliefs? William Shatner is a local doctor, and is not in the film enough to make it enjoyable.

John Costello I saw this when it first came out (I was at an SF Con at the time) and then later in a re-run. Considering the budget constraints of 1970s TV Sci-Fi movies, they did an impressive amount of story telling, mixing two of the first 'People' stories to re-cast the tale for non-fans. The cast gives good performances (Shatner is not the ham he usually is), the 'special effects' are limited to wires and a series of crayon drawn pictures which tell the background very effectively. This is actually the second 'People' filming -- Science Fiction Theater ripped off the same story for one of its episodes. Zenna Henderson's People stories were collected by NESFA Press and can be found at Amazon.com and elsewhere.