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Martin Sheen gives a rich, rewarding performance in this memorable, underrated television drama. It's rare to find a film simply and honestly built on the budding relationship between just two main characters. Sheen's escaped mental patient and Linda Blair's kidnapped farm girl talk, fight, come to a mutual understanding, and finally become lovers. Sheen spouts poetry to tomboyish Blair, but he grows on her, and she to him. The scenes where they discuss the meaning of words like "symmetry" and "phosphorescence" is charmingly played, and Blair is right in tune with Sheen's reckless, showy abandon. This ABC-TV production, based on Nathaniel Benchley's book "Welcome to Xanadu", is let down a bit by the low budget (as well as by the romantic theme song which plays at the beginning and nearly gives away the plot!), but it has two terrific lead performances and a loose, brisk direction by Lee Philips. "Sweet Hostage" is mighty sweet indeed.

I watched this movie many moons ago and enjoyed it very much. In todays standards it probably would not rate but even if I saw it today I would still love it, wish I could buy the movie on DVD. This movie is for the romantics at heart! It starts off strange and mean and the whole time your rooting for linda blair character to get away, but towards the middle you find yourself wanting them to get along and be together. Martin sheens character is very strange, but towards the end you love him and understand him. Even though he's supposed to be crazy you want to be like him because he sees the world differently, a kinder world until the end.

The 1970s brought a number of things: disco, disaster movies, and the rise of televangelists. But the Me Decade also brought about a revolution in prime time. Not only did series like "All in the Family" and "Sanford and Son" debut, but movies started getting made for TV. One of these was "Sweet Hostage", based on Nathaniel Benchley's "Welcome to Xanadu". Martin Sheen plays an escaped mental patient who kidnaps a farm girl (Linda Blair), and the two of them develop a relationship. Their roles are reversed from what you might expect: he's a worldly guy while she can barely read and has no prospects in life. To be certain, he often corrects her grammar.

It was interesting seeing Linda Blair in a role very different from the one with which she's most associated. At a Wizard World convention last year I got her autograph. She's a really nice person. Martin Sheen had just played a delinquent in Terrence Malick's "Badlands", so this wasn't a totally new role for him. Both do a great job with the characters. I really liked the scene where Sheen's character and the Indian do the Vulcan salute; that scene now feels like a tribute to Leonard Nimoy.

Nathaniel Benchley was the father of "Jaws" author Peter Benchley, and it turns out that Nathaniel Benchley's father was also a noted author. The director, Lee Philips, had directed a completely different kind of TV movie the previous year: "The Stranger Within", starring Barbara Eden as a woman who inexplicably becomes pregnant and then starts behaving very strangely (it had to be the only movie in which Barbara Eden looks terrifying).

All in all, I thought that this was a good movie. I wish that more movies got filmed in New Mexico. I really liked it when I spent spring break there in 2002. And above all, please remember to use correct grammar ("if I had done X yesterday", NOT "if I did X yesterday" or "if I would have done X yesterday").

One of my all-time favorite movies.

I first saw the movie when it ran on t.v. in 1975. After repeated near-misses, I finally got it on tape almost 20 years later. I was already a Linda Blair fan, and this movie introduced me to Martin Sheen (I still have not seen a bad Martin Sheen movie).

The movie gives a moving portrayal of a hopeless love affair. It's a must-see if you enjoy a good tear-jerker.

This is an amazing movie for its time and you can really see the talent of Linda Blair and Martin Sheen in this film. It's about a man who escapes from an asylum and kidnaps a teenage girl. The two of them fall in love, but sadly their love is doomed. It's a story that really stays with you for years. It's well worth watching.

Sweet Hostage is another excellent example of a seventies made for TV movie. There were a lot of great TV movies made during what is probably the richest decade for great movies, although this one stands out a little from many as it is both feature length and feels every bit like a 'proper' movie, not a made for TV one. The plot focuses on the idea of 'Stockholm Syndrome' and we follow a young girl who is kidnapped by an escaped mental patient but ends up falling in love with him along the way. The film doesn't really appear to have any real point to make, but the way that everything plays out is always interesting and that is mostly thanks to the two lead performances which are excellent throughout. Martin Sheen gives a lively performance as the escaped mental patient and actually manages to make his character realistic in spite of the over the top script. Linda Blair is also very good as the kidnapped young girl and has a good chemistry with Sheen. The film is a little under ambitious and that's a shame as it does feel like more could have been made out of this plot; but what we do end up with is an undoubtedly successful drama and I enjoyed this movie on the whole.

I am a Girl from Germany and I am 15 years old. I have seen "Sweet hostage" ( It is called "Geliebte Geisel" in Germany) few weeks ago( for the first time). And now i cannot forget the movie. It a movie from the seventies, but it is nicer than all movies today. I love Martin Sheens character in this movie and the whole story.Now I am searching photos of the movie (internet), but I cannot find any. I hope I will see the movie again soon. And I know that I won't forget it anymore in my whole life!I just can say: It is a wonderful Movie!

Sweet Hostage (1975) boy did they re-run a lot of those 70's television movies. Martin Sheen (looking a lot like his son Charlie) escape the nut house and while he's on the lam kidnaps a young country bumpkin (Linda Blair looking all too innocent). Ol' Marty is shocked to learn that she's in dire need of some education. I liked this movie. A strange made for television film. Good for a change of pace.

Recommended.

I'm going to assume those praising this as a romantic movie watched this at a young age and their opinion is based in nostalgia.

I had never seen this before, but I was interested in seeing Linda Blair act after seeing another of her tv movies on YouTube (where I watched this).

Honestly this was pretty horrifying to me. A mentally ill adult in his 30's (people seem to gloss over that part) impulsively kidnaps an underage girl who looks like an actual child. Probably due to her crappy home life, plus the whole young girl thing, she winds up falling in love with him (Stockholm syndrome anyone?).

Romantic movie what? Which part? The insane rambling? The hitting? The hair pulling? The pushing? The statutory rape?

I guess the fact he was nice to her sometimes when no one else was. Setting the bar pretty low even accounting for different times.

Back when i first saw this movie I was in the Navy on the USS Enterprise. It was 1978 and I was 18. Very young and impressionable. I had been going thru the usual stuff most people that age go thru. A search for self and something I could believe in. So when they showed this movie on the ships TV I was on watch and sat their mesmerized as the movie progressed. The more i saw it the more i felt completely captivated by the main character martin Sheen played. He represented everything i was feeling and going thru. I felt like and outsider and that no one understood my true self. I found my self in tears and could hardly believe that there was someone who felt the same, even if it was a fictional movie character. I was deeply moved for days and found myself wanting to do everything from go AWOL and run away to commit suicide because there was just no way I could live in the world as I saw it and Martin Sheen saw it in that movie. I have never seen it again and hardly feel it would have any impact on me other than nostalgic but on that night far away on the Pacific Ocean, this TV movie Sweet Hostage was a godsend that I felt was meant to be shown while most the ship slept, I had a deeply spiritual experience. all from a movie! I chuckle now but it was one of my favorites for years until I finally grew up and got jaded and swept away in the typical pursuits of a young man..sex, girls and fast cars! Excellent movie.

I saw this film over 25 years ago I was very young, but it left a deep impression in my heart, this was a very touching movie that stayed with me for all these years, I only saw this movie that one time, but I never forgot about it, I did however forget the name of the movie, but I never forget the two main characters; Linda Blair and Martin Sheen they were absolutely fabulous. Why did they not make more movies together. I will always keep this movie in my memories. I hope to see it again soon as would like to have a copy of my own to watch whenever I want. Sweet Hostage was and still is Sweet Brilliance!!!!.

The ultimate male fantasy. kidnap a beautiful girl, joust with her for a while and then she falls in love with you. MARTIN SHEEN plays a romantic young man who escapes from a mental asylum and kidnaps country cow girl LINDA BLAIR on the way. they shack up in a cabin in the woods. the girl who has problems with her bickering parents begins to fall for her poetry reciting kidnapper. it is a nice breezy romantic comedy that could have been a lot more. maybe SHEEN (who is a terrific actor) wasnt the best actor to play the role. but LINDA BLAIR is simply adorable in her cowboy dress. the film clearly emphasizes its love for the wild and the romantic, beginning with BLAIR's encounter with a rattlesnake early in the film. the cabin in the woods and locales tickle your fantasies. i am curious about the book, the movie is based on. SHEEN acted in two other movies which involved dangerous encounters with teenage girls - BADLANDS and THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE.

(6.5/10)

I was fortunate to have recorded this film on video many years ago, and it's always a real joy to watch it again.

A literate script, a totally involving storyline, Linda Blair's best-ever performance, and an awesome turn from Martin Sheen, all go to make up one of the best films of the 1970s.

A pity about the slightly OTT music soundtrack and naff song, and the film could have been a little longer. Also the much better book title of 'Welcome to Xanadu' should never have been dumbed down to 'Sweet Hostage'. But these are minor gripes about what is in any sense of the word a masterpiece.

A synopsis has already been provided by another user.

I just wanted to comment on the film.

Linda Denise Blair and Martin Sheen truly shine in this movie. Based on Welcome to Xandu by Nathaniel Benchley (father of Peter Benchley of Jaws' fame), the movie is funny, cheerful, tense, upsetting, romantic, and tragic.

Linda is my favorite actress of all times, and this is her greatest performance.

It is also Linda at her most beautiful and charming.

Martin puts forth a delightful performance.

The character Leonard Hatch is clearly not an insane man.

He is in all honesty just misunderstood.

Doris Mae is trapped by her narrowed minded parents who aspire to see her remain ignorant and completely uneducated.

Leonard opens her mind and provides Doris Mae, a.k.a Christa Bell, with the beginning of an education and buys her her first dress.

It is my favorite movie of all times!

I will start off by saying the only reason why I watched this movie is because I wanted too see a teenage Linda Blair, who still hadn't digressed to the cheap schlock of later years. On one hand you could say it is a disappointment that she didn't take on projects with more substance... But when you see a movie like this with so much squandered, it is easy to see why some actors stop caring.

As to the stageyness of the plot, the movie opens with Martin Sheen escaping from a mental asylum of sorts by hiding in a laundry basket. (wow... these clothes sure are heavy today...) It comes off as half convincing but the more you think about it the more you just wanna press the stop button instantly. That Being said... the whole movie is geared towards Linda Blair being soon held hostage by Sheen... But FIRST... he needs a car obviously... which he obtains by walking in someones unlocked door and grabbing the car keys laying on the coffee table. Not stupid enough for you? DO what Michael Moore did and go door to door to try that one. Anyhow.. now he has a car.... and soon he obtains some cash "unexplained to the viewer" and has been hiding out at an abandoned cabin that he stumbled upon, near a small country town where he stalks up on supplies. These 2 points are half plausible I suppose, as everything is with the less explanation given possible, in the hands of a mediocre director. At least now I know who can hook me up with an abandoned cabin, a deranged escaped mental patient, that's who. Cause honestly who wouldn't enjoy a nice vacation house?

As of now, Linda Blair is driving "oh no, my car broke down. Ooo someone has come to help me.... Oh no hes an escaped mental patient." ......as often happens. Fix your cars and your children would have no way of being abducted... like while WALKING. THAT would have been much better and not seem staged as it was here, but what do I know, I didn't go to director school or anything. I'm just a jackass who watches the news occasionally... Anyhow, now shes abducted but she cannot escape, because he dug HOLES around the cabin..... Forget about the roads that lead in and out... And when he leaves, he ties her only by her hands and feet with the door open.... leaving an axe nearby. What could go wrong? Bottom line.... he did not show enough forcefulness in bringing her with him, and she did not show enough resistance.

The only asset that largely eclipses the pathetic plot development is the acting from both main characters. Admitedly I never liked Martin Sheen, but that was likely because the first time i saw him was in "SPAWN" as "Jason Wynn", a horrible misscast. Here he pulls off one of the maddest characters as convincingly as possible, though the many fake voices do become irritating before long. Bottom line; you can't decide whether hes merely extremely eccentric or "totally mad", and the character is thus elevated to being believable amongst the many failed lunatics in cinema, thus saving the film. Martin Sheen's character is virtually a sexless near identical version of Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty in "Lolita", meaning that yes there is no nudity and nothing sexual in this film, being loosely explained with the suggestion that Sheen's character had repressed sexual problems growing up, though his empty excuse; "people place too much importance on sex" basically comes off as; "yeah...i kidnapped you... but we wont have sex because.... its socially unacceptable..." So why did he kidnap her? He wanted some sort of PRODIGY... OK fine we can live with that...

The growing bond and the chemistry between the 2 main characters is well developed and well acted through the dialogue, and it seems very much like they both worked on the script themselves to some degree. The scene with Linda Blair reading her poem to Sheen, followed by his reaction is amazingly touching and almost borough me to tears. As a reference, I am one who willfully seeks out movies containing rape and brutal violence and watches them as casually as eating an apple, but the sappy stuff does it for me too, and Sheens reaction to the poem proves how great an actor he is.

The movie essentially RESTS upon this scene which i find to be a greater movie climax than when it is soon spoiled by another hokey plot sequence where a passing helicopter SEES them, (Gotta watch out for those nosey helicopters) and hours later a huge arsenal of police are there and start shooting at the cabin "knowing that he abducted Blair, a resident of the nearby town, though apparently not caring if they kill her in the process of killing him." Maybe in the south once you've been abducted you're better off dead, I don't know the local customs.

What we're left with is an extremely stupid storyline worth only seeing if you're able to overlook such things and focus on the excellent chemistry development between Blair and Sheen. If however you're looking to see Linda Blair in teeny form, and a decent movie worth hanging onto, search for "born innocent" where she DOES get raped, and the director holds few punches in a situation where sex would be MUCH less expected than in this film.

I saw this movie for the first time as a young teenager and fell "in love" with Martin Sheen. The story was excellent and touching. I loved the "exchanges" between the characters and no matter how many times I saw it, I still cried! This is still probably my all-time favorite movie. It's the one that I will always scan the TV guide for to see if it's playing somewhere! A must see movie for romantics at heart, Martin Sheen or Linda Blair fans.

I First Watched This film when i was 17 and it was the most moving film i had ever watched it was so good both Linda Blair and Martin Sheen were fantastic in this movie i have tried to purchase this film for years and was told it had been withdrawn from British shops My boyfriend decided to search the net and found a copy from USA for $150 and decided to purchase for me for Xmas last year and again when i watched it it made me laugh and cry it is still the best and was worth the money all my friends agree and even my boyfriend agreed what a good film it is all i can say is if you haven't seen it try and get it cause i am sure you will love it as much as me.....

I wish someone would put this out on DVD because I'd buy it instantly! It was scary, romantic, and dramatic. Loved Linda Blair and Martin Sheen in this.

My daughter and I saw this movie on a rainy Saturday afternoon. We couldn't take our eyes off of this story. All, I want to say is, that we now own this movie and just about everyone we know has seen it. I will never forget the love between two people, that didn't seen to fit in this world. Martin Sheen, is the best actor, I have ever seen. This movie is the best, in my book. I think everyone should watch this movie. I have a lot of Martin Sheen's movie, but this is number one.