Stepford Wives [DVD] [US Import]

If you like the modern style of movie making where everything has to happen at break neck speed with all the vital clues being spelt out in capitals for the benefit of the slower members of the audience, then you won't like this film. It is a quietly disturbing tale that unravels almost imperceptibly until the heroine is, finally and haplessly propelled towards the devastating conclusion. It's what I think of as a slow boil. It creeps up on you and gathers tremendous speed only at the very end - and I think this is the strength of the film, and also the strength of the director in that he wasn't afraid to pace the film in this unusual way. I have to disagree with those reviewers who say that nothing much seems to happen for quite some time, because in Stepford something is always going on, you just have to look out for it. I have watched this movie many times and always see something extra on each viewing. For film fans, this dvd comes with a featurette on the making of the film and includes interviews with the director, Brian Forbes, members of the (excellent) cast and the producer. It seems at the time there was much controversy over an English director making a film that was quintessential Americana, but the conclusion was that he brought a new perspective to the idea of the American dream and had crafted himself a clever and chilling thriller. During his interview Brian Forbes said that he wanted to make a thriller that took place in bright sunlight, and so the story of Stepford largely unfolds the in houses and gardens of sunlit suburbia. This is in direct contrast to the thundering climax of the film that takes part on a stormy and wet night when our heroine confronts her worst nightmares. For me the final 20 minutes of the film are some of the most haunting I have ever watched. The fact that it is almost understated makes it all the more sinister and more likely to have happened and the very final scene is like a kick in the heart. For those who say Stepford is dated and very much of it's time - yes, of course it is - that does not make it any less valid as a great piece of cinematic story-telling. Efforts to remake and update the story (2004) have fallen far short of achieving anything like the power of the original film and butchered the ending completely. The original has not achieved cult status for no reason. Watch it and make your own mind up.

Based on Ira Levin's novel, Stepford Wives is a sci-fi satirical take on small-town America and deals with issues of socially constructed gender roles. Filmed in the 70's and directed by British born Bryan Forbes, it is rather dated now and the discerning contemporary viewer may find it more amusing than sinister. With this in mind plans are in progress to remake it for the 'noughties' with a spoofed-up re-imagining.

However it remains a cult classic for many and the original version is still highly watchable and does have a sinister element to it. From the outset we know that something terrible is going to happen. As the tension mounts, the climatic ending is reached with all the innocence (and absence of special effects) that only an older movie can deliver.

The central character Joanna and her husband Walter, make a rural retreat to the small, leafy suburban town of Stepford believing their lives away from the hustle and bustle of New York will be easier. From the outset of their arrival there is a strange undertone to the town - the men have secret meetings and the women act in a vacant and unnerving manner. In fact they appear to be robotic. Joanna's suspicions about the behaviour of her neighbours lead her to further investigation aided by her friend Charmaine. However when Charmaine goes away for the weekend she too returns as a vacuous drone and Joanne begins to suspect the worst. As Joanna finally learns the truth about Stepford, this knowledge must come at a price.

Ultimately a 1970's perspective on gender roles, it throws up questions of our ideas of perfection and normality. What may be one person's utopia, could be a dystopic nightmare to another. This concept is still highly relevant and the film is well worth a look, preferably before the new version is released.

This is a well made adaptation of the thought provoking, tautly written novella of the same name by Ira Levin, author of "Rosemary's Baby". It was first released in 1975 and became a box office smash.

The story is very simple, but gripping and well written. Joanna Eberhart (Katherine Ross) moves to the seemingly bucolic town of Stepford with her husband, Walter (Peter Masterson), and two children, leaving behind the dangers of big city living. An independent, assertive, intelligent, and creative woman, Joanna epitomizes the newly liberated women of the nineteen seventies. Looking for like souls with whom to become friends, she seeks out some of the other married women of the town, only to find that they are, for the most part, all uniformly addicted to housework, give their husbands complete obeisance, are made up to the gills, and have figures courtesy of more than maidenform.

Joanna manages to find two like minded women such as herself, Bobbie Marlowe (Paula Prentiss) and Charmaine Wimperis (Tina Louise) with whom to pal around. Bobbie, however, has a creepy feeling about the town and the women that seem to dominate the landscape and wants to move out of Stepford at the first possible moment. Then, a series of puzzling events occur, and Joanna becomes convinced that the town's mysterious Men's Association, presided over by the slightly sinister and chauvinistic Dale Coba (Patrick O'Neal), has hatched a sinister plot to change all the wives of Stepford into submissive Barbie dolls. Will Joanna manage to escape the fate of the rest of the Stepford wives? Watch the film and find out.

This film, coming out on the heels of the feminist movement, struck a deep chord at the time of its release. No one can doubt that the women represented by Joanna, Bobbie, and Charmaine are infinitely more interesting than the lady in the kitchen-whore in the bedroom stereotype desired by the Stepford men, who were, for the most part, physically unprepossessing, though successful. Have things changed all that much in terms of what successful men want in their wives? Instead of the submissive, Betty Crocker, little Miss Homemaker, Barbie doll type desired by the men in this film, many successful men today desire young, submissive, trophy wives with boob jobs. So what has really changed in the quarter of a century since this film was released?

Katherine Ross, Paula Prentiss, and Tina Louise all give fine performances. Patrick O'Neal is terrific as the slightly sinister and supercilious President of the Stepford Men's Association. All in all, this is a moderately suspenseful and enjoyable film.