Steel Magnolias

Steel Magnolias
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Herbert Ross
Written by	Robert Harling
Produced by	Ray Stark Andrew Stone Victoria White
Starring	Sally Field Dolly Parton Shirley MacLaine Daryl Hannah Olympia Dukakis Julia Roberts
Music by	Georges Delerue
Production company	Rastar
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date	November 15, 1989 (1989-11-15)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
Box office	$95,904,091

Steel Magnolias is a 1989 American comedy-drama film directed by Herbert Ross that stars Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts.

The film is about the bond among a group of women from a parish in the Natchitoches, Louisiana, area. The movie is based on a 1987 play Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling, which in turn dealt with the playwright's experience with the death of his sister.

The title suggests the main female characters can be as delicate as magnolias, but are as tough as steel. The magnolia specifically references a magnolia tree they are arguing about at the beginning.

Plot

On a spring day in the Chinquapin Parish, a fictional suburb of Natchitoches, Louisiana, a young woman is seen walking down a residential street. She goes into a home-based beauty salon owned by Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton). A recent beauty school graduate, Annelle Dupuy Desoto (Daryl Hannah) has come to answer Truvy's request to the college for a new employee.

Annelle is hired immediately because this happens to be the wedding day of the daughter of Truvy's good friend, M'Lynn Eatenton's (Sally Field). The bride-to-be is Shelby Eatenton Latcherie (Julia Roberts), a diabetic facing a marriage that may not result in children due to her illness, and M'Lynn is her worried, over-protective, but loving mother.

As Shelby's nuptials draw near and the salon fills with gossiping women, Annelle meets not only M'Lynn and Shelby but also the other "magnolias" who patronize Truvy's salon. They include Ouiser Boudreaux (Shirley MacLaine), a grouchy, two-time widow, who always looks on the negative side of life, and Clairee Belcher (Olympia Dukakis), a cheerful widow, who enjoys taking cracks at Ouiser whenever possible.

During an argument with her mother over whether or not she should bear a child, Shelby has a diabetic attack (her blood sugars drop into a state of hypoglycemia). M'Lynn is shown calmly and patiently giving Shelby orange juice and talking her into relaxation, helping to bring her blood sugars back up to a safe range.

M'Lynn and husband Drum (Tom Skeritt) throw a wedding reception for Shelby and groom Jackson (Dylan McDermott). The months pass. At Christmas time, Shelby announces to everyone that she is pregnant. She is thrilled but M'Lynn is worried that Shelby's body can't handle the stress.

Time skips about a year and a half and picks up with everyone celebrating the first birthday of Shelby's son, Jackson Jr. A shadow soon appears as Shelby discovers that her kidneys are beginning to fail as a result of her pregnancy. M'Lynn offers to donate a kidney to her daughter.

The transplant at first seems to be a success, but Shelby collapses into a coma on Halloween and is discovered when Jackson arrives home to find their son crying hysterically. Shelby is taken to the hospital and M'Lynn rushes to her side. The doctors inform the family that Shelby will likely remain comatose indefinitely and Jackson makes the heart-breaking decision to have her taken off life-support. M'Lynn holds Shelby's hand as her daughter passes away. She leaves the funeral arrangements to Drum and Jackson while she rushes off to be with Jack Jr.

At the funeral, M'Lynn is beside herself in grief. After the other mourners leave, she breaks down in hysterics in front of Clairee, Truvy, Annelle and Ouiser, claiming she wants to hit something. Clairee then pulls Ousier forward and goes on a humorous tirade, urging M'Lynn to take her frustration and grief out on her. M'Lynn is speechless at first, but as Clairee continues on, she begins to laugh, and soon the others do as well, with the exception of an incensed Ouiser, who stalks off in rage. Later on at the wake, Clairee apologizes to Ouiser and they reconcile. Meanwhile, M'Lynn, who is feeling better, begins to accept her daughter's death and focuses her energy on helping Jackson to raise his son (her grandson). A pregnant Annelle asks M'Lynn if she could name her own baby after Shelby.

On Easter morning, Annelle goes into labor during an Easter egg hunt. She is rushed to the hospital and another life begins.

Cast

• Sally Field: M'Lynn Eatenton -- A Southern woman who works at the Louisiana Guidance Center, helping troubled people. Mother of Shelby, Jonathan, and Tommy, grandmother to Jackson Latcherie Jr, and wife to Drum. She is heartbroken over Shelby's death but with the help of her friends manages to rejoice and continue her life.
• Dolly Parton: Truvy Jones -- Owner of a beauty parlor, wife to Spud Jones, and mother to Louie Jones. Her wish is for her husband to do something romantic for her and, in the end, he does.
• Shirley MacLaine: Louisa "Weezer" Boudreaux -- An upper middle-class, grouchy but funny and good-hearted woman, whose best friend is Clairee Belcher. She owns a dog, Rhett. She has been married twice to two worthless men, and had three ungrateful children. When her former lover Owen Jenkins reappears, she at first refuses to encourage him; however, by the end they are seen attending a holiday function together.
• Daryl Hannah: Annelle Dupuy Desoto -- A new employee at the beauty parlor. She had a troubled first marriage because her husband left her and was later arrested, but she managed to find new love with Sammy DeSoto, later marrying him and having a baby.
• Olympia Dukakis: Clairee Belcher -- A funny, sweet-hearted wealthy woman. She is close friends with Ouiser and has a teasing, snarky relationship with her. Clairee is an avid football fan and buys the radio station KPPD. She is widowed from her husband Lloyd Belcher, the former mayor.
• Julia Roberts: Shelby Eatenton Latcherie -- Aged 22 at the start, she is daughter of M'Lynn and Drum Eatenton and sister of Jonathan and Tommy Eatenton. She already has the most amazing personality and is wonderful and beautiful. She marries Jackson Latcherie, and despite complications of diabetes, which cause her doctor to advise against it, decides to have a child. After kidney failure and a transplant from her mother, M'lynn, Shelby dies, leaving her baby to be raised by his father and grandmother.
• Tom Skerritt: Drum Eatenton -- M'Lynn's husband, and father to Shelby, Jonathan, and Tommy. He likes to shoot at loud birds in the trees and he enjoys teasing Ouiser and her unruly dog.
• Sam Shepard: Spud Jones -- Truvy's husband. After Shelby's death, he realized how much his wife means to him, and expresses his feelings at the end by establishing a new beauty parlor for her.
• Dylan McDermott: Jackson Latcherie -- Shelby's husband. He is a lawyer and is eager to become a father despite his wife's illness.
• Kevin J. O'Connor: Sammy Desoto -- Annelle's husband. He meets Annelle at Shelby's wedding and immediately falls in love; they marry and have a baby, whom they name after Shelby.
• Bill McCutcheon: Owen Jenkins -- Ouiser's long-ago lover. Recently widowed, he moves back to Louisiana from Ohio and is reunited with Ouiser by Shelby. He sings in the church choir.
• Ann Wedgeworth: Aunt Fern -- Jackson's aunt. She makes an armadillo-shaped groom's cake for Jackson and Shelby's wedding. Drum hacks off "a piece of tail."
• Knowl Johnson: Tommy Eatenton -- Son of Drum and M'Lynn, and brother of Shelby and Jonathan. He plays a prank on his sister by decorating her honeymoon car with condoms.
• Jonathan Ward: Jonathan Eatenton -- Son of Drum and M'Lynn, and brother of Shelby and Tommy.
• Bibi Besch: Belle Marmillion -- A volunteer at the guidance center with M'Lynn, she is the mother of both Marshal and Nancy-Beth Marmillion. Truvy doesn't trust people like her who do their own hair. Belle is shocked when her son Marshal comes out.
• Janine Turner: Nancy-Beth Marmillion -- Daughter of Belle Marmillion and sister of Marshal Marmillion. She is a Miss Christmas Beauty Pagent Winner. She has a secret crush on Jackson Latcherie.

Background

As noted in the Special Features on the Steel Magnolias DVD, the story is based on the death of Robert Harling's younger sister, Susan Harling Robinson, a diabetic. As her best friend and closest sibling, Harling found it difficult to cope with her death. His friends advised him to write about his feelings as a coping method. It began as a short story and evolved into a full-length play due to the complexity of the relationships and emotions that existed within the characters.

Harling felt it important to include the way the characters utilized humor and lighthearted conversations to cope with the seriousness of the underlying situations. Harling wanted the moviegoers to have a true experience of what his family endured during his sister's hospitalization. One of the ways he did this was by employing the nurses, doctors and other hospital staff that worked with his sister as characters in the movie portraying their real-life roles.

The story is set in a fictional Northwestern Louisiana parish, Chinquapin.

Stage play

Main article: Steel Magnolias (play)

The stage play was originally staged Off-Broadway in 1987, and then was produced on Broadway in 2005. All of the action of the play takes place solely on one set — Truvy's beauty salon, which is part of her house. There are only six characters (all female) who appear onstage; a disc jockey's voice is also heard (from a radio in the background) during the play. All the other characters who appear in the film version, such as the males in the ladies' lives, are only referred to in the play's dialogue.

Production

The film was released by Tri-Star Pictures in the United States on November 15, 1989 and grossed more than $83.7 million at the box office. Robert Harling adapted his own play, which was heavily rewritten to incorporate many more characters. It was his first produced screenplay and he also appears in the film as the preacher.

The film starred Dolly Parton as Truvy Jones, Olympia Dukakis as Clairee Belcher, Shirley MacLaine as Louisa "Ouiser" Boudreaux, Sally Field as M'Lynn Eatenton, Julia Roberts as Shelby Eatenton-Latcherie and Daryl Hannah as Annelle Dupuy-Desoto. Roberts received her first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

The location for filming was Natchitoches, Louisiana. Historian Robert DeBlieux, a former mayor of Natchitoches, was the local advisor.

The sets and casting go far beyond the modest means of the original play to include male characters, ensembles and outdoor scenes. The sequence of the action was more tightly linked with major holidays in the film than in the play. Much dialogue was added and several lines in the play were cut or assigned to other characters than originally intended. In addition, Truvy is given only one son instead of two.

Television

CBS commissioned a television pilot in 1990 in hopes of continuing the story as a weekly half-hour sitcom. The story picked up where the film left off and therefore Shelby was not included in the show. The cast featured Cindy Williams as M’Lynn, Sally Kirkland as Truvy, Elaine Stritch as Ouiser, Polly Bergen as Clairee and Sheila McCarthy as Annelle. CBS declined to pick up the series for the 1990 fall season, although the pilot was broadcast on August 17, 1990.

Box office/home media

The movie received a limited release on November 17, 1989, and entered the us box office at number 4, with an opening weekend gross of $5,425,440, when it received a wider release 3 weeks later it had already grossed $15,643,935. The film stayed in the top 10 for 16 weeks and went onto gross $83,759,091 domestically with a further $12,145,000 in the foreign markets to give a worldwide gross of $95,904,091.

The home video was released on [date needed], and the DVD July 25, 2000 this allowed the film to gross a further $40,000,000. The movie's overall gross was $135,904,091.

External links

• Steel Magnolias at IMDb
• Diabetes in the Movies