Tornerò a primavera

I remember watching this made for TV movies back in the early 70's when I was about 11 years old. See, at that time I was too young to be a hippie but was old enough to think hippies were "cool", I liked the hair, clothes, etc. Watching this strange little movie made me rethink that position. Sally Field plays "Dennie", a young woman who has run away from home due to the wildly dysfunctional family she has. Eleanor Parker and Jackie Cooper play her screwed up parents who live in a nice house and drink too much. She has a younger sister who wants to be just like Dennie and to escape the weird family dynamics she too starts doing drugs. The movie is hard to watch at times, there are weird "flashback" scenes of when Dennie and her boyfriend, numbly played by David Carradine,out on the road, doing drugs, making love, protesting the war and eating food left on a table at a drive-in (believe it or not, that scene stuck in my mind for years, yuck-eating some strangers left over garbage!!!!!)The film maker tried too hard to be hip and cool with unusual lighting and a weird scene of Dennie writing "Happy" in the air (that scene is truly surreal and has to be seen to be believed), but the message is overall a good one, that drugs and unhappiness just don't happen to people living in the hood, but also to middle class white people.

I, like others, saw this movie during a rebroadcast one afternoon late in 1971. At the time I was in the third grade and apparently impressed enough by this movie to remember it 35 years later. (I especially remembered the scene where Dennie "pretend plays" with her dolls and doll house alone in her bedroom). It turns out this movie was in a bargain bin of DVDs for one dollar and I was finally able to see it again. At the time this movie debuted in 1971, Sally Field had just completed the series "The Flying Nun" which had been canceled. In 1971 TV audiences must've been shocked by this drastic change in character in contrast to the squeaky clean image Ms. Fields had been known for on TV. Audiences in 1971 were not ready to accept her drastic change in character and unfortunately did not recognize her versatility as an actor. I found this movie especially poignant since I had an older teenage brother who left home and went to live with his dad during the same time.

"Maybe I'll Come Home In the Spring" is a first rate TV movie about a then extremely relevant issue with good acting, a good script, and a first rate title song sung by a first rate artist--Linda Ronstadt before she achieved superstar status. Where the movie lags is in its excessive flashbacks and a party scene which is rather ridiculous and unnecessarily dramatic. However, production values and direction are excellent, especially for a TV movie. The movie draws the viewer in immediately and keeps its attention, from its interesting beginning starting with Dennie hitch hiking her way across the country with a narration voice over of her speaking on the telephone as she reestablishes contact with her parents. She gingerly approaches the topic of returning home by casually telling them, "Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring", hence the movie's title. Poignant, right from the start!

Sally Fields plays Dennie, a young woman who returns home after a hippie sojourn which didn't work out. David Carradine plays "Flack", the hippie boyfriend who deserted her and Eleanor Parker is the super image conscious mother Dennie must confront and learn to communicate with again.

The rest of the movie deals with Dennie's adjustment and reintegration into the family while she reflects on her sojourn. Her major problem is being ignored by her parents and a mother who simply hasn't a clue why she left in the first place and doesn't understand her. Meanwhile, her younger sister begins to romanticize Dennie's hippie sojourn and copies it, in spite of the older sister's attempts to dissuade her and warn her of the negative consequences of doing drugs.

The movie bluntly shows the audience the reality and negative consequences of living the hippie lifestyle, vis a vis Dennie's experience which is shown in a series of quick flashbacks. At the time, the public's perception and romance with the hippie lifestyle was being drastically altered and portrayed quite negatively by the media thanks to the Charles Manson trial which was in full swing at the time.

In fact, the film is definitely bias against the counter culture relying heavily on stereotypes promoted by the media while in fact not all hippies are meth addicts and rummage through the garbage, etc. Many held jobs and contributed to society or held jobs and lived on self supporting communes. One scene which I dislike, told in a flashback shows Dennie's boyfriend, Flack high on Meth and crashing through a window in slow motion not once but THREE times while Field's character cries "Flaaaaaack!"

Having stated that, this movie was remarkably realistic. There is a lot of yelling and screaming and door slamming in it, and many teen agers who lived during that era can probably relate to it, especially those who got fed up and ran away from home. Sally Fields is especially good at these types of brooding, nuanced performances. She was around 24 at the time this was filmed but could easily pass for sixteen in this movie. The viewing public was not ready for this type of drastic change from her squeaky clean "good" girl portrayals to this "bad" girl characterization. It would be another four years before she would have the opportunity to prove to the TV watching public her versatility as an actor playing a schizophrenic with multiple personalities in "Sybil". After that, it would be another four years for her to achieve superstar status in her Oscar winning performance as "Norma Jean". When Ms. Field's stated "You like me, you really like me" she was referring to the public's acceptance of her as a versatile actor who could play various roles, not just the squeaky clean ones but complex, nuanced characters as well.

I recently saw Ms. Fields on the "Ellen" show where she talked about being typecast and how much she wanted to play more diverse and interesting characters, but she simply wasn't offered such roles because of "Gidget". Patty Duke would've been good in this type of roll because she already had a "bad" girl reputation at the time.

I give this movie three stars *** out of five.

I remember seeing this movie when I was very young and there were certain scenes that have stayed with me my entire life. For instance the scene when they are eating other people's garbage and the final scene. So my curiosity got the best of me and I rented this movie from Netflix to see it now as an adult with children (and one grandchild). I wanted to see if it would have the same impact and oddly enough it did.

The acting was relatively good in the movie, the writing a bit weak in certain areas but it had a message and that comes through loud and clear. It actually reminded me a bit of an "After School Special" but that was OK.

It didn't glorify either the parent's side or the "hippie" side. It made you see what was wrong from both ends of the spectrum. Sally Field's did not play a "Gidget" type of part in this movie but I thought she was good.

My real shocker was that David Carradine played her boyfriend. I told my husband this and now he wants to see it for just that reason!

I was six years old when I saw this on TV. I know that for a fact because I was in the first grade and Mom and Dad let me stay up to watch a movie on our new color TV, which had cost Dad a small fortune. First, I remember the hitch-hiking scene because it was common in those days to see kids hitch-hiking everywhere, and my parents would constantly tell me to never do that (and I never did); I also remember the theme song, although I didn't know who sang it. The rest of the movie today is fairly predictable once one understands what it is about, and our familiarity with the young Ms. Field was also a curiosity factor with my parents and a good reason to watch this movie. The incredible thing is that I have not seen this movie since! Honestly, I have never come across it anywhere and I had to jog my memory by reading the reviews but it has all come back to me, and had obviously stayed with me. This should be proof that, as young as I was, it made an important impression on me and had influenced my subsequent closer relationship with Mom and Dad, which is still the case today...thus making this film truly unforgettable. I hope to see it on DVD somewhere and will gladly purchase it. To me it's just another glimpse into the amazing talents of the still-adorable Sally Field. And little did I know that a mere couple of years later I would be taking martial arts lessons, due to the influence of Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine)...another passion for the rest of my life.

These comments come from the memory of seeing this movie when it was first on television. Although it says the movie was made in 1970, it was more like 72-73 when it was aired.

My experience as a teenager in the United States in the late 60's was similar to this movie although I did not grow up in the suburbs. The Vietnam War protests had split the generations. Our parents, who had survived WW2 were grateful for the suburban homes and cars. We teenagers were not going to fight a useless war. In many homes, this led to a deep rift that lasted for years. It was not unusual for young teens to simply leave home. In many cases, it was at the pushing of the parents. (Now as a parent, I would have died of a broken heart had my teens left). This movie depicts one story of a teenager (Sally Field) who leaves home. She experiences a lot of horrors that cause her to return. But she discovers that although she has changed, the home has not.