1st watched 6/18/2007 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Andrew V. McLaglen): Severely confusing women's lib "kind of" movie with Doris Day playing Josie who loses her abusive husband and then decides to do things her own way without a man and raise sheep in cow country so that she can raise her son on her own. The setting appears to be the late 1800's before Wyoming was a state in the union. The problem is the film-makers aren't sure how far they want this all to go. Maybe it wasn't the right time for a feminist movie(the late 60's) -- maybe we had to wait until the Norma Rae's etc.. later on. Day is OK in the role, but the movie throws too many attempts at Lucy-like situation comedy routines despite the serious subject matter. Peter Graves plays a guy trying to get into Josie's life even though he doesn't care for the women's lib thing. He eventually gets behind her ( sort of) and he ends up saving the day from the evil George Kennedy character. This is kind of a "1/2 women's lib" movie, and "1/2 we still need our men" film and that's where the confusion lies. It also has a kind of Disney(let's feel good when it's all over) feel to it that wreaks. OK, I guess I didn't like this movie, but it wasn't all bad. Day's persona was the best part of the movie, but as far as the movie it was pretty meaningless and silly.
Review of The Ballad of Josie
The Ballad of Josie
(1967)
Severely confusing women's lib "kind of" movie...
19 June 2007
Warning: Spoilers