Watching Steel Magnolias Through the Eyes of a Writer
1989 Steel Magnolias Movie Poster
Goodness I don’t know who came up with that tagline!
Growing up, one of the advantages of my father’s job was free cable. He was a NYC building super on the Upper East Side, so we lived in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment for free, and had every channel Time Warner offered—HBO, Cinemax, Showtime—you get the point. While I’ve appreciated how many writers talk about the books they loved as kids, I spent entire weekends just watching TV and movies. All. Day. I’m not saying I didn’t read or enjoy going to the library, but watching stories unfold on screen was the groundwork for my love of writing. (The first novels that gave me that little, “well, maybe I can write a book one day” were One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez and House of Spirits by Isabel Allende.)
A movie that stands out from my childhood is Steel Magnolias. I can’t remember when or where I first watched it, but I was probably too young to fully understand the depth of the story. I was only seven years old at the time of its release in the Fall of 1989, and it follows a group of Southern women through their ups and downs, love and grief. My guess is that once it was available on cable, I watched it at least a hundred times, captivated by this group of women, fascinated with a world so different from my own. I wouldn’t get to travel to the South until I was almost 30, had no idea how muggy and hot a Southern summer could be, nor had I ever heard names like Shelby, M’Lynn, and Truvy.
A few weeks ago, I turned the movie on because I was in the mood for a little nostalgia. I had no intention of watching the whole thing. I was exhausted, just wanted to see the beginning, the wedding preparations, the dancing, the humor, listen to the Southern accents and Julia Roberts describe her wedding colors of “blush and bashful” as two very distinct shades of pink. I didn’t expect to get sucked in. But I found myself noticing things I hadn’t before, the order of the scenes suddenly feeling so much more structured, deliberate. I think reading like a writer and watching a film like a writer are similar. I started paying closer attention to the narrative choices. What are they showing? How is this unfolding? The film opens around Easter without telling you its Easter. You know because of the Easter eggs mentioned while everyone is preparing for a wedding. A detail I always kind of ignored. Then it moves to Christmas with lots of color and lights at night, Easter again, summer announced by a July 4th themed birthday, Halloween dark and rainy, a funeral, and ending with Easter. The holidays and seasons marking the passage of time, grounding you in their lives while they experience weddings, birthdays, and funerals.
Of course I’m older, different stage of life and all that, I’m going to see things through a new lens. But it’s the little things that excite and stimulate, and there’s something so satisfying about being able to confirm your findings. Because by the end I thought, was this a play first? This had to have been a play. It was giving that energy, that order, that structure, that form, that sense of restriction, that theatric.
Originally meant to be a short story, Robert Harling wrote the play in ten days in honor of his late sister, Susan, who died in 1985 due to diabetes. The play was produced off-Broadway in 1987, was translated into seventeen languages, and has still had new life well into the 2000s. There was a Lifetime movie version in 2012, starring Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard, Phylicia Rashad to name a few. Harling wrote the screenplay for the original film, and though it’s set in the fictional town of Chinquapin, the movie was filmed in his hometown of Natchitoches.
Did you know Steel Magnolias was inspired by a true story? I can’t help but wonder about how it was received. The movie is funny and heartbreaking, but when it was originally released, some critics complained there weren’t enough strong male figures. I get it, it was 1989. But still. This was the collective opinion in many ways, wasn’t it? Mock “chick flicks.” Can’t take women seriously or movies about women are boring? And one of the things I loved about this movie watching it now was the subtext. The understanding between these women and the men in their lives. The ethos of show don’t tell shining through, the larger than life characters. As a woman in her 40s, I had a whole new appreciation for the female friendships. For the strength of the women, their bonds, their ability to come together in times of crisis. How they laughed, made fun of each other, repaired and moved on. The men struggled with discomfort, while the women leaned into each other. There was this thing I appreciated so much. A thing I didn’t really see as a kid or understand.
As a writer, I have a new, special appreciation for Robert Harling’s ability to create such wonderful characters that make us laugh throughout the film, and cry in the end. Born from Harling’s grief, I suggest checking out the links below. There’s something really beautiful about reading interviews where he expresses how healing it was for his mother to be on set, with her grandson on her lap, watching certain scenes.
*For the sake of brevity, I don’t even get into how spectacular Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, and Daryl Hannah are in their respective roles. If you haven’t seen this movie, watch it and please, let me know what you think!
Sources:
https://ew.com/article/2014/11/15/steel-magnolias-25-anniversary-reviews/
