Many people have savaged this film over the years, but like 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' I have to watch 'Raintree County' every time it is on TCM.Considering the tragic accident that happened to Cliff during the filming, I am always in wonder that director Edward Dmytryk was able to make a film that holds together so well. The acting, cinematography and the writing are excellent. Even in the scenes where you can tell Cliff is in pain, his acting is great. Taylor, as always, is her excellent self.True, the film is long, but don't let that scare you. This film is worth the time to sit down and watch.

Copyright 1957 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. New York opening simultaneously at Loew's State and the Plaza: 20 December 1957. U.S. release: December 1957. U.K. general release: 7 September 1958. Australian release: 5 April 1958. Sydney opening at the Liberty. At the London trade showing the film ran 185 minutes, but when released it clocked in at 166 minutes, plus 6 minutes of interval music.SYNOPSIS: The movie opens with a high-school graduation in pre-Civil War Indiana, and we meet John (Montgomery Clift), a dreamy type who spouts some piffle about a symbol of wish fulfillment called "The Raintree" ("It opens all locks, it heals all wounds," etc.). Thereafter Clift moves through everything with a lack of conviction or interest in any of the proceedings that, coming from an actor of his proved gifts, is appalling. He is loved by a goody-two-shoes named Nell, played by Eva Marie Saint on a monotonous note of petulant jealousy. At a subsequent celebration, Clift is embroiled in a foot race against local hot-shot "Flash" Perkins (Lee Marvin). It is here that Elizabeth Taylor makes her brief, wordless entrance. Looking radiantly beautiful, she discreetly vamps Clift and then exits into a photographer's studio. There she reveals herself as an amiable, predatory Southern belle. She emerges from the studio to crown Clift the winner in the race, and to vamp him some more. Thereafter you can forget about Clift, Miss Saint, the Raintree, and everyone and everything else in this swollen botch of a film. Elizabeth is the strongest, most clearly delineated character in it, and she commands both her role and the film with presence and authority from first to last. Nominated for the following prestigious Hollywood awards: Best Actress, Elizabeth Taylor (defeated by Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve); Best Art Direction (won by Sayonara); Best Music Scoring (won by The Bridge on the River Kwai); Best Costume Design (won by Les Girls). Number 9 at the domestic box-office for 1958.COMMENT: There's a lot of money up there on the screen and the movie often looks very handsome indeed. Unfortunately all the wonderful period detail and atmosphere is lost whenever Liz Taylor and Monty Clift get together. They are both great solo, but put them in the same scene and the viewer is in for a dull, lackluster time. They seem to be running some sort of inside contest, with Monty determined to be as sullen and withdrawn as possible, while Liz on the other hand explodes with tireless (but oh so tiring on the viewer) hysterics. Fortunately, the support players led by Nigel Patrick and Lee Marvin are a major source of the movie's entertainment.

OMG, that's 3 hours of my life I will never get back!! What a boring, dreary, drawn out piece of crap. All this time I managed to avoid watching this movie but yesterday I decided to give it a try. I was bored out of my mind. The plot was stupid and the acting lazy. The only reason I decided to see it all the way to the end was I wanted to see Deforest Kelley. Even that didn't dull my pain. The only kind thing I can say about the movie was the costumes were very nice. I'm 100% sure this is one movie I won't watch again.

People keep asking me, often in a huff, "why do you think older films are automatically better than newer films". Indeed, nearly every older film I've reviewed gets at least a passing grade versus, the odd movie that I catch in theaters. I figure a good half of those are simply not worth your time no matter how much subconscious or unrealized buyers remorse you have. Yet such criticism I feel is unfounded based on the simple fact that most of the older films I've seen come highly recommended by critics and audiences old enough to remember them. I'm not going to say that all critically lauded or "important" films are great or even good, but when you're fishing from a stream known to have fish, you can't be surprised when catch a few prized trouts.In proving my point, Raintree County is exhibit A when it comes to crappy films made before your parents were old enough to vote. At nearly three hours, this Civil War era drama is as overwrought, underwhelming and bloated as this year's DC Extended Universe flicks. While trying to be that generation's Gone with the Wind (1939), the film only succeeds in sabotaging the legacy of the book it's based off of. I caught this film while watching TCM and in keeping with the analogy of the opening paragraph, I wish I had thrown it back.Raintree County is the story of an idealistic school teacher (Clift) and his decade long romance with high school sweetheart, Susanna a mentally unstable southern belle played by Elizabeth Taylor in full Mommie Dearest (1981) mode. Bred from a well-to-do family in the plantation south, Susanna can't help but fall in love with Clift's rather plain John Shawnessy and shuttles up to Raintree County in Indiana just before he onset of the war. Feeling displaced, she leaves with their son in tow to stay with her family in Georgia. The war starts, John joins the Union Army to find his family, Susanna is institutionalized, someone gets cancer, the butler did it and the dog saves the day. Okay those last three things don't really happen but that's the kind of molasses thick melodrama you can expect from this musty relic.As a historical figure director Edward Dmytryk is infamous for being one of the Hollywood Ten that refused to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare. As a director however, he reached his professional high-point with The Caine Mutiny (1954) which had the same languid sepia feel that feels like the film negatives were drenched in urine. Camera-wise Raintree is ham-fisted and full of the same sweeping brush strokes that made Gone with the Wind so iconic. Yet in the hands of Dmytryk and veteran cinematographer Robert Surtees, it just feels like a carbon copy of a carbon copy of a carbon copy.Elizabeth Taylor does a commendable job hanging on to the little human bits that keep Susanna just north of realistic. Yet when we get to the final act it becomes obvious that her performance is playing to the cheap seats for Oscar glory. Montgomery Clift is as dead as a door nail in this lugubrious mess and Lee Marvin's portrayal as John's friend Flash is one-note and broad. The only real stand out really is Nigel Patrick whose roguish school master seems to have come out of a Neil Simon play just to slap the cardboard around.Raintree County is a perfect example of an old film that should be forgotten despite its caliber as Oscar-bait before there was such a thing. It's listless, boring, over-broad, airless and unfocused. It's as if someone took an old-timey hot air balloon and made it a movie. Sure it glistens in the sunlight thanks to it's costume jewelry encrusted moorings but it's also painfully slow and not worth looking at for too long.