Finding strength in what remains behind

SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Up until the release of 1961's "Splendor in the Grass," the sprightly Natalie Wood had already played the naive ingenue in films like "The Girl He Left Behind, "A Cry in the Night," "Cash McCall" and "Marjorie Morningstar." The differences, aside from her spectacular turn in "Marjorie," is that Natalie delves into deeper territory here, exposing wounds that almost lead to tragic consequences. Elia Kazan's "Splendor in the Grass" is a grown-up movie about young people who are unable to conform to parents' expectations. 

As the story begins in Kentucky 1928, Wilma Dean "Deanie" Loomis (Natalie Wood) is deeply in love with football player Bud (Warren Beatty), but nothing is what it seems. There is no question loves exists between the two teens but is it just puppy love where sex is nonexistent? The answer is yes because Deanie will not have sex with Bud, despite his ongoing frustration. Deanie's mother is insistent that the couple do not consummate their love - the mother consummated with her husband only to produce a child, having sex recreationally was never a choice or a conjured thought. Deanie doesn't comprehend such a love bereft of passion.

Meanwhile, Bud wants to fulfill his own dreams and not necessarily what his wealthy father (colorfully and explosively played by Pat Hingle) expects. Bud's father wants him to attend Yale and then he can return to run the family business and marry Deanie (of course, if Deanie gets pregnant, Bud is expected to marry her regardless).

"Splendor in the Grass" has no real sentimental inclinations and probably bespeaks the 50's nuclear family unit more so than 1920's Kentucky values. Of course maybe writer William Inge is saying that nothing has changed, family unit is important and so is attaining wealth and conformity is essential. Since the period is the 1920's, the stock market crash is impending and tragedy befalls one family over the other. As we shift from the societal expectations of family unity, we see how Deanie reacts to Bud's brief affair with one of her classmates and how she cannot process the emotion of losing someone she loves. The naive ingenue has turned into an exposed live wire of emotion, and the film implies that such wrecked emotion (which almost leads to a suicidal drowning) can only be solved in a mental institution.

Natalie Wood has several electrifyingly emotional scenes, particularly when she breaks down while quoting Wordsworth in a classroom or the scene where she has a crying fit of rage in a bathtub. The scene in the bathtub with a naked Deanie screaming at her mother in agony at the prospect of her calling Bud is so powerful, so intensely saturated with emotion that you will spring from your chair and want to hug Natalie and tell her everything will be okay. It probably helps that director Elia Kazan was on board yet Natalie Wood's strength is in finding the vulnerabilities of her characters and nakedly exposing them - she is the movie, no question.

Warren Beatty has always been a strangely remote actor to me but as the indifferent Bud (who doesn't express a speck of emotion over the passing of his father), he singularly captures the kind of young man who sees a future that he cannot attain. His remoteness here works wonders and you feel more pity for him than sympathy. He is a lost soul but it is Deanie who finds the meaning of Wordsworth's poem and has learned that happiness is not always attainable.

"Splendor in the Grass" is elegantly made with a finesse and sophistication that can only come from Kazan with his upfront approach to the material. From scenes of heartbreak over Bud's flirtatious and drunk sister parading herself around others at a party, to the last chilling smile from Pat Hingle as Bud's father, to Bud seeing the possible mistakes he has made in the final scene, to Natalie Wood showing us an emotionally unstable young woman who is not so much emotionally disturbed as she is in adapting and controlling her emotions, "Splendor in the Grass" captures the soul of young love and its consequences. Deanie has control of the past by letting it go and is ready to move on, the other characters have more difficult adjustments to make. Pure Wordsworth poetry, and one of the purest Natalie Wood performances.