Bluegrass

"Bluegrass" is a TV movie shown in two parts. Although the plot is about the horsebreeding business, at heart it's a soap opera. Now I am NOT putting down soaps...a lot of people love them. But the plot is pure soap...and some might not like that.

In the opening scene, teenage Maude is nearly raped by the one-dimensional baddie, Lowell Shipleigh. Shipleigh comes from a well connected family...his father is a judge...so nothing comes of the attempted rape. At the same time, her father's barn is burned down...he gets depressed and kills himself.

Years pass. Now Maude (Cheryl Ladd) has returned. She wants to establish a great horse breeding farm...but the old baddie Shipleigh is back and now he (Wayne Rogers) is a judge and he has a HUGE chip on his shoulder. Throughout the film, he does his darnedest to make sure Maude fails. What's next? Watch the film.

This is a slickly made and nice looking soap. The acting is fine, the settings are lovely and people who love horses will be happy. My only complaint is that like a soap, the characters are often too one-dimensional and predictable. But this is the genre...and lovers of soaps will no doubt not care and enjoy the film. Overall, I thought it was very nice and watchable but I cannot understand the review that gave it a 1 nor the ones that gave it a 9 or 10. I think both extremes miss the mark.

A few things to note. IMDB lists the film at 4 hours but the copy I saw on YouTube was 3 hours...and I think that was the original run time. Second, in the film they talk about gelding a horse. If you don't know, this means to castrate the animal. Finally, Anthony Andrews stars in the film as an Irishman...which is odd as he has the most English accent I can recall ever hearing! I'm sure Brits and the Irish noticed this!

This is a movie I stumbled across during an afternoon of channel-surfing and immediately came to love. Though the premise initially seems to be a bit of an 80's cliche, the endearing nature of the characters draws you in (especially Brian Kerwin's superb Dancy Cutler - his performance alone makes watching the movie worthwhile). The picture painted of the Thoroughbred industry is also very true-to-life and, most importantly, so are the horses themselves. This only serves to make the relationships between the human characters more credible. (My personal favorite part is the expression on Maude's face when Dancy tells her he can get "anything" in foal.) I sum this up as a movie with something for everyone - great characters, romance, struggle, triumph, and great scenery.

"Bluegrass" is probably one of my favourite tv movie : romance, suspense, good guys and bad guys ... the recipe of "Dallas". Cheryl Ladd (Maud Adams)is playing a convincing horse breeder who must fight against her evil neighbour, played by Wayne Rogers, the very hateful Lowell Cheeplea. Brian Kerwin, playing Dancy Cutler, is the nicest character of the entire show : an ex-alcoholic who tries to fight his demons and win the heart of the beautifull Maud. "Bluegrass" is a tv movie for all the saga lovers, it's like ... you know, the sun during a sunday afternoon ...

I'll spare you eye strain, as the header says it all. It's certainly a common tale, especially if you're accustomed.to being involved in horse breeding and racing and also if you've been divorced and had an alcoholic suicidal father and you run into a twenty something would be horse trainer whose main goal is mounting the owner of the horse farm, who's a magnet for every immoral stray, and what takes away from all of the ongoing sideshows, as if the three ring action lacks the excitement that you hunger and thirst for especially with characters who pawn and fawn over each other to fill their inner hunger and with a title like "Bluegrass" you'd really expect more appropriate music! Well, that's my riff!

This movie is very well acted and is throughly enjoyable. It is an interesting comment on the thoroughbred industry and was well acted and very convincing. I wish it would come out on video as I would love to own it.