Movie Reviews

Steel Magnolias

This review contains a considerable amount of spoilers, as I couldn't analyze the movie without mentioning major events.

"Steel Magnolias" is a 1989 drama and comedy slice-of-life movie by Herbert Ross, inspired by the play of the same name by Robert Harling (1987). It has a star-studded casting, starring Sally Field as M'Lynn, Julia Roberts as Shelby, Shirley MacLaine as Ouiser, Dolly Parton as Truvy, Daryl Hannah as Annelle, and Olympia Dukakis as Clairee.
The story follows the relationships between those 6 women in a Louisiana country town sometime during the 80's. This is a rather classic film in filmography: flat 3-point lighting, mostly eye-level shots with medium framing. The only unwell-lit scene is after Shelby's death, where her family is seen in the hospital waiting room in just silhouettes against a lit wall. The colors of the 80's pop out well, and amplify the Southern country feel. The movie tells Shelby's life as marked by common celebrations: it starts with her wedding on Easter, she knows she's pregnant on Christmas, she announces it on New Year's Eve, her son's birthday is celebrated extensively, she falls into coma on Halloween, but there are no more of those timestamps after she dies. The movie ends on Easter again (seemingly 2 years after the wedding). In the first part of the film, the wedding, there are many people coming in and out of frame and places, and everywhere is hectic except for Truvy's beauty salon. It's quite an interesting dynamic. It contrasts a lot with the last part of the movie, after Shelby's death, where everything is slow and movements are collected. The six ladies entertain various relationship: mother-daughter, businesswoman-apprentice, and best-worst friends. They are all linked by the salon and are somewhat friends with each other. They are all very strong women, in opposition to the men in this movie who are useless or crazy or criminal or lazy or stupid... It doesn't feel feminist though, just naturally strong-willed women of the South. The dynamics between them all are also interesting, as they are seen alone, in pairs, trios etc... and even though they are often all in the same place, they are only all together in the same frame when in front of Shelby's grave towards the end. Just the analysis of who and how many characters are in frame and how they are placed could be a complete essay, honestly. This movie is quite slow in storytelling, but going beyond and reading through the character is so entertaining and I feel like that's how it was intended.