She Lives!

I watched this movie when it first came on in 1973 (I was about 8 or 9 at the time) and I loved it! I finally managed to get a copy of it just a few months ago - thanks, Regina, wherever you are! - and I still think it's a pretty good movie. Season Hubley and Desi Arnaz, Jr. are very convincing as the young couple whose happiness is threatened when Pam (Season) gets cancer. It's not a Love Story ripoff, in that this movie centers around the illness itself and not how the characters are so different. Also, you can tell by the title how the movie ends.

The plot of "She Lives!" is very, very similar to "Love Story" in that it's about college students who fall in love...and the lady comes down with a terminal illness. But, unlike "Love Story" there is hope in this film that she MIGHT not die.

I can barely remember seeing "Love Story" but can say that with "She Lives!" I had a hard time sticking with it because I didn't like the couple and really didn't care if she lived or died! The editing was terrible--with choppy bits of Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle" clumsily dropped into the film. Some of the camera-work was blurry and looked cheap. And, the acting, at times, was silly--with some terrible overacting. A few scenes which show this was the screaming scene which was unintentionally funny as well as when she later said she felt fine and only seconds later she was on the ground...practically dying. So, aside from the writing, acting and filmmaking the film wasn't bad...though I guess that really doesn't leave much, does it? Oh, and I forgot to mention that the ending was VERY abrupt and incomplete.

In retrospect, with a title like "She Lives!", I wish it had been a horror movie.

I can remember seeing this movie like it was yesterday. It made such an impression on me that whenever it was re-run on TV I made sure to watch it. This movie is a perfect example of a simpler time in some of our lives when a movie, even a TV movie could entertain us without sex, drugs or violence! The music by Jim Croce was probably the one thing that has kept this movie in my mind all these years. After seeing this the first time I went hunting for anything by this then 'unknown' singer. I still have all the albums and I had "Time in a Bottle" for my wedding song. I only wish some of the great TV movies from years gone by would be put out on DVD.

I love this film. First saw it at age 14, when ABC broadcast it in Sept. '73. Unlike others, I've always been impressed by the acting and writing. Even Desi Arnaz Jr. is okay and likeable...but Season Hubley - WOW! It's an edgier performance than a lot of other young actresses would've given, and she's so cute with that super-short haircut! Hubley was poorly used by Hollywood - most of her roles after this one seemed to be as hookers and nuns. This film, however, is a real showcase for her talents. The dialogue is excellent, very much of its time (for instance, when they recall the disillusionment they felt after Bobby Kennedy's recent - just 5 years earlier - assassination.) The cast includes Anthony Zerbe (I was never a fan, but he's okay) and Jack Soo of "Barney Miller" fame. Watch it as a time capsule, as a tear-jerker, or just to see one of the sexiest actresses of the '70s at her peak.

The dialogue is hysterically bad. The direction inundated with early-70's-style montages. And the acting by both leads seem to alternate scene-by-scene between overwrought and stoic. In many ways, this is a time capsule of bad 1970's movies. But, on that level, it is always fascinating -- especially with superb supporting performances all around, and a magnificent original score including Croce's Time In a Bottle and Chapin's Circles. Some other goodies in the score also.