Katherine

although not a very full featured one. I got it at a bargain shop for $1.00. I bet that you would be hard pressed to find it at a higher price. It is not a particularly good transfer, but still better than most VHS. It is published by Digiview Productions (www.digiviewus.com).

I liked this film. It was thoughtful, unpretentious and well acted. I must admit that I had forgotten what a great beauty Sissy Spacek was in her youth and what a terrific actress she was from almost the very beginning.

I guess this was right around the time Henry Winkler was playing Fonzie and some of those mannerisms come out in his performance.

For a 70's TV movie, this is strong stuff. Katherine tells the story of a pampered, UMC, boomer-princess who gets the virus of guilt when she is confronted with injustices in the third world and, you guessed it, turns Marxist.

I sound flippant here, but you can just guess the depths of depravity Sissy Spacek's Katherine--within the bounds of TV sensibilities--goes in her radicalized zeal to tear down the capitalist, fascist, materialistic, racist, showered and shaved system. And yet, when she is confronted with her lover's (Henry Winkler) using of revolutionary principles to justify his banging other girls, you can see her losing her last shred of sanity, her desire to someday have marriage to enjoy and family to care for. The transformation of Katherine from seeker of justice to angry, depraved killer is heartbreaking.

Spacek shows the sort of talent that has made her such a seriously good actress, Winkler is a journeyman actor himself (and you learn to hate him as his idealism morphs into something darker), Art Carney and Jane Wyatt are excellent as Katherine's good Democrat parents who enable her radicalization by funding their daughter as she dives deeper into the underground, and the rest of the supporting cast enriches the story.

The only drag on Katherine is the fact that it is a TV Movie (although the version I saw had a few moments of violence, drugs, and semi-nudity added; presumably for a theatrical release in Europe?). The film just doesn't have enough time to completely tell the story of the radicalized 60's and early 70's. Even though it's told in flashbacks and documentarian interviews (and the interviews with Spacek are so chillingly peaceful, you suspect there's something really bad coming), the time constraints truncate the story. You're left with an almost-told story, not a complete one.

Yet, the strength of the performances and the topicality of the story keep Katherine alive, watchable, and ultimately, crushingly sad.

Saga of the well-meaning teenager gone awry during those turbulent political years 1965-1972. In flashbacks to her girlhood, Sissy Spacek's Katherine, the daughter of wealthy Capitalists, is revealed to be a political hothead from the start (she was never an innocence lost). As she describes to us her reasons for becoming a radical (in an unpretentious, direct-to-the-camera way), we see Katherine move from the Society Column to the Most Wanted pages...and a living, breathing character begins to take shape. Smart, perceptive made-for-television drama with yet another remarkable performance from young Spacek; also good, Henry Winkler as a non-conformist love-interest and Emmy-nominated Art Carney as Katherine's father. Jeremy Paul Kagan directed (he also directed Winkler in 1977's "Heroes") and his work is stark and focused. At the finale, when Kagan shows us that unoccupied stool, we've come away with a lot more than a glimpse into the radical mind--we're aware of a promising life misbegotten.

It's been many years since I saw this, but I do recall enough details to know this was not based loosely on the Patti Hearst case, as has been stated, but on Dwight, Illinois's Diana Oughton, who got involved with the Weathermen and was one of three "urban commandos" killed when a bomb they were working on went off in their NYC townhouse, in May of 1970. Diana was the daughter of an important landowning family, and was brought up in the "lap of luxury", such as it can be in rural Illinois, who became socially conscious while teaching school in Guatemala, circa 1962, then joined the SDS and its Weathermen offshoot in the late 60's.

Given that this is fictionalized, the performances are wonderful and the writing and direction (given that it's a TV movie) are above average.

"Inspired by true events, 'Katherine' documents the conversion (in flashback style) of a sensitive '60s activist to radical extremist. Played with great sensitivity, and foreshadowing the great roles that would come to characterize her career, Sissy Spacek delivers a nuanced and ultimately tragic performance as the title's lead. Spacek is ably supported in this drama by legendary actors Art Carney and Jane Wyatt as her parents, and Henry Winkler as a fellow activist and supportive boyfriend," according to the DVD sleeve.

Writer/director Jeremy Kagan's "ABC Sunday Night Movie" seems to have been loosely based on "Weather Underground" member Diana Oughton's life, and also followed the big media story involving "Symbionese Liberation Army" recruit Patty Hearst. At the time, the American TV viewing public would have been familiar with the stories involving young women who gave up affluent socialite status to join revolutionary militia groups. With everyone wondering "Why?", "Katherine" provides an answer.

Ms. Spacek's glasses and wigs look like props sitting on her head, even when meant to look real. Still, Spacek is a fine actress, and worth watching. Taking a "Happy Days" break, Mr. Winkler always shines in these 1970s roles; he is so unlike his "Fonzie" character. Mr. Carney, experiencing a career resurgence, was predictably Emmy-nominated for an "Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special". Television veterans Ms. Wyatt (once the mother on "Father Knows Best") and Julie Kavner (then little sister to "Rhoda") also appear. The song hits are not the original recordings.

***** Katherine (10/5/75) Jeremy Kagan ~ Sissy Spacek, Henry Winkler, Art Carney, Jane Wyatt