Katherine

"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

I saw this only once--when it was on TV in 1975. I was 20 years old. It left a powerful impact on me. I hadn't yet heard of Sissy Spacek or Henry Winkler. I deeply "identified" with Katherine as the movie began. I kept thinking "Yes, she's doing the right thing!" Then in the end... I felt the way a balloon must feel when it's popped. I realized the error of her ways--and mine. I realized I too could've been sucked right into all that. I've never, ever forgotten this story. Someday I'll try to get my granddaughters to watch it with me.

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.

I know this was based on Diana Oughton, not Hearst. I know this because I knew Diana and her family. Jim Oughton (dad) was a good friend to my father. I've been to their home, ate at their restaurant (long since closed). Mr. Oughton even gave me a horse which my dad said no to.

This isn't a bad film but when you know the people, it's a bit shallow. Art Carney is excellent in delivering the lines given him but Mr. Oughton was more generous and willing to help people with problems. He worked hard to help people with alcoholism. He had an easy laugh and while someone mentioned that being rich in Dwight Illinois isn't much, I assure you, this was a supremely privileged family.

I don't know. I realize this is a movie and stories need to bend but the real people were so much more interesting. It still makes me cry to know that Diana was only identified in that horrid explosion by fragments of her jaw and teeth.

Art Carney and Jane Wyatt are perfectly cast as the upscale Denver parents of Katherine Alman, a renegade revolutionary in the 1960s. She had a life of privilege but gave it all up to make the world a better place. In this film, she is played by the wonderful Sissy Spacek. Henry Winkler plays her boyfriend who is equally liberal in the film. Julie Kavner plays her college friend. There are others in the film. It's an okay film even though I had technical difficulties towards the end which I think left us hanging for more. According to the internet, it's loosely based on the life of Diana Oughton. Anyway, the film goes back and forth over Katherine's life in a beautiful estate in Denver, Colorado where she was raised with a horse, tennis court, and pool by loving and supportive parents to her college days. After college, she went to Peru where she taught to children and adults but she seen as a threat to the system. She returns to the United States where she teaches African American children in the South where she meets Henry Winkler's character. The movie returns to how she must conduct a final mission. It's chilling but the end is cut short. We never really know what her final mission is but we know who she was.