The story is about Lillian Hellman and her lifelong friendship with Julia. Most of the film centers around Julia working to fight the Nazi regime in Germany and Lillian attempting to help smuggle money into Germany to help Julia and the freedom fighters. It includes an all star cast of great actors and actresses, Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Maximilian Schell, Hal Holbrook, and Meryl Streep.
While there has been controversy about how much truth was in this story by Lillian Hellman, the film is very well acted and incredibly stylish. This movie comes at the tail end of a great run of Hollywood changing with the times and producing some really good dramas. But the era of the blockbuster was now officially upon Hollywood with Star Wars also receiving a Best Picture nomination, movies like this pretty much started to disappear over the next three to four years.
One other thing I want to comment on. I'm as political as the next person, well probably more, and every now and then I throw politically commentary in my blogs. And yes, I most likely disagree politically with probably the entire cast of this movie. But at some point you need to separate art from politics and realize that you may disagree with an opinion an actor or actress has and recognize that they are talented. This is a great movie, watch it sometime. You will enjoy it.
I was quite taken with "Julia" when I first saw it years ago. I remember watching newcomer Meryl Streep take command of her very small role and being impressed. Good film.
ReplyDeleteI still have to see this film...it's one of the big ones I have not seen. I do remember the Oscars that year and Vanessa Redgrave's speech. My dad and I always watched the Oscars and this one was a doozy!
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