Christy

This two-hour TV movie served as the pilot to the 1994 series starring Kellie Martin in the title role. This movie may be a little hokey and cheesy, but it's good wholesome entertainment. I think the show failed when trying to deliver comedic scenes and worked much better as straightforward drama. Tyne Daly, Tess Harper and Emily Schulman also shine here.

This classic American novel was beautifully turned into a movie and then a television series. This film has it all for charming family entertainment. Cute, perky Kellie Martin in the title role who has the most expressive eyes of any actress around. Tremendously talented actress Tyne Daly playing Christy's mentor, Alice Henderson. Perfectly cast and playing Dr. Neil MacNeill is Stewart Finlay-McLennan who steals nearly every scene he is in. And then the very attractive Randall Batinkoff that does a pretty good job as Reverand David Grantland. Also outstanding in the cast is Tess Harper as mountain woman Fairlight Spencer and Mike Hickman playing the moonshiner Birds-Eye Taylor. Between MacLennan, Hickman and Daly, it's a wonder any other performances get noticed. But nearly every scene is compelling.

Cute children, beautiful location scenery, moving spiritual themes, unforgettable characters, and a budding romance triangle, these are all found in this film that you will watch over and over.

Christy was by far the best series to ever hit television. It is great for anyone who likes history based films. Kellie Martin did an excellent job as Christy Huddleston, and if you haven't seen this film than you need to. The book by Catherine Marshall was excellent too!

Christy is based on the novel of the same name by Catherine Marshall, written in 1967. It is a book to remember. I read it as a teenager and I am reading it again, finding it impacting me in different ways than before. When MTM made this a major television event and it was aired on CBS in the mid 1990's I watched it with my then growing children and we never forgot it. This autumn, we dug out the old VHS copies we had taped from television and fell in love with the whole series again. I would recommend it for the DVD collection in my library and I would recommend it to any family looking for an inspiring, educational and motivational kind of movie that brings out the good and bad in people;encouraging young and old to be the best that they can be and give to all others as we walk this path of life. It is a wholesome, well-done, extremely historical story about life in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennesee in 1912 when many people were truly poor, absolutely primitive, without modern conveniences or technologies, but wise beyond our times today. I thoroughly loved this series. I strongly believe we need more of this kind of movie for our young people today.

Aside from all the cinematic, photographic, casting, editing, and ambiance compliments I could lavish onto this lovely film, the thing that got me most was the balance of polarized realities and how they meshed through the conflict into a workable resolution. That all comes from superb directing.

This entire scenario is exactly like an Appalachian school house would have been in that era. My grandfather taught in one exactly like that. But they were often taught by men, in order to deal with the ruffians (both in the classroom, and the community.) Now comes this delicate girl of a school marm, played by Kellie Martin, who shows that virtue, ability, and dedication to principle can indeed rule over brutal opposition. In that sense, it is an inspiring movie.

Direction and filming are excellent, and scenes are edited together very smoothly. There is contained, all within this one film, a sense of adventure, fear, hope, rage, love, uncertainty, confidence, conflict, resolution, individuality, and community. It also reflects realistically a genuine era in the history of remote Appalachia. This is a film my family and I will never tire of.