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The Subject Was Roses More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 13 reviews in total |
41 out of 50 people found the following review useful:
What Aspect of Life is Going to Beat Us Up Today!!, 11 May 2003
Author:
dataconflossmoor from United States
Coming back from World War II, Martin Sheen is greeted by his parents as they really are and not the adult pretenses they orchestrated to bring up a child...It is a crash course in growing up, between fighting in the war and now being an adult and seeing things for what they truly are..His parents (Patricia Neal and Jack Albertson) fought all their lives to be one notch better than most people who experienced the Depression, they are proud of their summer home and their apartment in New York City...They detest the term "Shanty Irish" because it serves as a resentful motivation due to what it represents. The parents realize the price they paid for assimilation into American culture!! Both of them gave up in life a long time ago, and they will remain cynical in their outlook in life because they are tired of disappointments winning out!!...Suddenly disillusionment is as visible as the kitchen wallpaper!!! The roses Martin Sheen bring home to his mother (supposedly from his father) symbolize an uplifting emotion that never prevailed in the Cleary household!! (The parent's love and marital bond was constantly in question!!!) This coupled with the fifty dollars in quarters that Patricia Neal had been saving all of her adult life which she decides to take and spend in one weekend, creates a spark for a family always bludgeoned by mediocrity...The patronizing demeanor to the mother, the placatory concessions to the father, and the wry and sanctimonious disenchantment with the son, indicates an anger all three of them have for the fact that the entire household situation has dramatically changed without warning!! Martin Sheen has now become thoroughly aware of the fact that his parents' happiness has abrupt and desultory conclusions!! The important bond at the end of the movie is the fact that they all love each other, and all three of them are willing to prove this to each other the hard way!!..What they truly had ambitions for will never happen, even probably for the son (Martin Sheen) because failure in terms of egotistical accomplishment in this household is handwriting on the wall. Adulthood is not about success nor sophistication, it is about acceptance..This movie is a superb character portrayal...It encompasses a 360 degree perspective on what family members go through to fully understand one another, this includes a very distasteful compromising forgiveness by way of accepting the frustration of unanswered questions and deliberate unexplainable shortcomings!! Human inadequacies of this nature are often times neglected in a movie because the characters in a lot of movies are totally flat!!. "The Subject was Roses" was a film which was tremendously bolstered by well accomplished actors who thoroughly comprehended their roles, thus doing an excellent job of depicting a situation that deals with emotional failure being the norm, rather than the exception to the rule!!! EXCELLENT!!!...I GIVE IT A 10!!!!
20 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
See it for the writing and performances..., 3 September 2004
Author:
jk8n from Virginia
I saw this film at 3am on Bravo and couldn't turn it off. For some reason both the play and the film adaptation never came across my radar. What a wonderful surprise to discover this gem. It is a fine example, like "The Odd Couple," of how to stage a Broadway play for the big screen. Though I haven't seen the play to make a comparison, the director is faithful to the pacing and staging of a play, while using the camera skillfully to enhance the meaning and drama. And the performances! All three actors were stellar; they owned these characters. They were exceptionally nuanced; not once did they play over the top or to the balcony, where other actors might have been tempted to chew the scenery to show the depth of the emotional drama of this play. Though filmed in 1968, it doesn't feel a bit dated, it holds up beautifully as a relevant, poignant and very meaningful drama of an American family.
19 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
Bouquets for the Weary, 12 January 2002
Author:
southpatcher from South Carolina
Martin Sheen returns home from the war to the New York apartment of his parents Patricia Neal and Jack Albertson. The return of the soldier brings to the head unspoken hurts and slights that have flamed within this family circle for years. Neal's first role after recovering from several strokes finds her shaky yet determined as the long-suffering wife/mother, while Jack Albertson is full of spit and vinegar as the husband/father who longs to be king of his 2-bedroom castle. Sheen finds himself used as a weapon by each of the parents against each other, yet he sees that deeper than the sparring and disappointments is a deep love between Neal and Albertson. There is a truly moving section of the film, when Neal leaves the family for a day with no explanation and wanders along the beach while the soundtrack plays Judy Collins' haunting "Who Knows Where the Time Goes". I saw this film for the first time last year on TCM, and it has become one of my favorites, due primarily to the emotional performances of Neal, Albertson, and Sheen.
12 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
1968 Film Remains Relevant, 21 January 2006
Author:
jblake1243 from Boston area
This film version of Frank Gilroy's unforgettable play should be
considered a classic. Patricia Neal, Jack Albertson & Martin Sheen
deliver outstanding performances as the parents & young adult son in an
Irish-American, lower middle class family living in the Bronx at the
end of World War 2.
The story centers on the son, Timmy, who has just returned home from
the Army after fighting in combat as an infantryman in Europe. He
returns to a home in which the relationship of his parents is
undergoing strain, due primarily to discreet but nevertheless damaging
extra marital affairs occasionally indulged in by the father, who is a
kind of loquacious, traveling salesman type who meets lots of people in
his work. The mother is played as a suffering in silence housewife who,
although she loves her husband, has been deeply hurt by his
infidelities.
Timmy, now changed by the war & his experiences away from home must
come to terms with things as they now are. He loves both of his parents
deeply but comes to realize that in order to live his life fully he
will have to leave his parent's house which is now no longer what it
used to be for him. His parents, while dealing with their own problems,
want Timmy to stay but on another level realize that he has to leave.
You will have to watch to see how things are resolved.
12 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Painful observations about a dysfunctional family trio..., 20 January 2004
Author:
Neil Doyle from U.S.A.
A very young MARTIN SHEEN plays a soldier returning from the war and the
small apartment he shares with his parents (PATRICIA NEAL and JACK
ALBERTSON). Neal is excellent as the drab housewife, somewhat embittered
over her strained relationship with a husband who has never recovered from
the Depression blues. Sheen finds himself caught again in the tension
between his bickering parents and the film is essentially a coming of age
tale for the young man who has to cope with what seems an overwhelming
domestic problem.
Nothing is really resolved in the course of the story, but it's a realistic
slice of life and is played earnestly and skillfully by its three main
characters.
It was Patricia Neal's first film after overcoming a long illness associated
with her stroke. She looks the picture of a weary housewife burdened by the
sorrows of a crumbling marriage and deserved her Oscar
nomination.
12 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Intense Character Study., 6 May 2002
Author:
tfrizzell from United States
Parents Patricia Neal (Oscar-nominated) and Jack Albertson (Oscar-winning) welcome back son Martin Sheen from World War II and the event leads to emotional fireworks for all involved in this intense and sometimes difficult-to-sit-through drama from 1968. Albertson has ruled with an iron-fist for years and basically done whatever he has wanted to do, while Neal has been stuck in a loveless and heartless marriage. Sheen has always been somewhat unaware of all that had transpired due to being physically sick for much of his youth. Sheen brings roses to his mother and say they are from Albertson and this small, kind gesture starts an almost unending string of events that will affect all three of the key players and in the end happiness is not a certainty by a long-shot. The film is an intense character study in the tradition of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". Albertson, known for comedy and sometimes uninspired performances, gives the performance of his lifetime and easily one of the best performances of the 1960s. 4 stars out of 5.
7 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Flowery with unnatural prose, but worth a look for the acting..., 6 August 2006
Author:
moonspinner55 from redlands, ca
Frank Gilroy adapted his Broadway triumph for the screen, apparently freezing every original line and action into place until the results nearly resemble an assembly-line production. Jack Albertson won a Supporting Actor Oscar for recreating his stage role of sad, anxious father welcoming son Martin Sheen home from the war after three years. Talky, melodramatic, but superbly-acted family reunion featuring lovely Patricia Neal as Sheen's mother (her first role after recuperating from a series of strokes). Gilroy's dialogue doesn't always flow naturally, and some of the give-and-take is puzzling and/or awkward (something a looser direction might have avoided), but the characters are interesting and the film is involving and occasionally moving. **1/2 from ****
7 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Coming Home...., 20 March 2002
Author:
michelle hayworth from New York City
A powerful adaptation of Frank D. Gilroy's Pulitzer Prize-winning
play.
Timmy Cleary has just returned home to the Bronx after fighting in World
War
II. It doesn't take long, however, before he finds himself in the middle
of
his parents' bickering.
His mother and father, Nettie and John, are stuck in an unhappy marriage
that only seems to get worse with the passage of time. John has never
rebounded from the Depression, when his business failed, and, as a result,
the couple has only barely scraped by over the years.
But being away at war has made Timmy grow up and, for the first time, he
starts coming to terms with his troubled parents...
4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
The Clearys From The Bronx, 20 January 2009
Author:
bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
I'm supposing that when you deal with a three character play, expanded
to five for the screen, everyone is a lead. It's strange to me that
Jack Albertson was not considered for Best Actor as he has as much if
not more screen time than Patricia Neal. And certainly Martin Sheen as
their son equals their time in The Subject Was Roses.
The Subject Was Roses was a Pulitzer Prize winning play that ran for
832 performances on Broadway starting in 1965. Albertson and Sheen
recreate the roles they did on stage and Patricia Neal replaces Irene
Dailey from the Broadway cast. Albertson won a Tony Award for Best
Actor yet he only one for Best Supporting Actor for the film. Go
figure.
Albertson and Neal are Mr.&Mrs. Cleary who have a red letter day in
their lives in 1945. Their son Tim played by Martin Sheen has come home
from World War II. He's been gone for several years, probably the
duration of the American involvement in World War II.
Absence has made Sheen see his parents in a whole new light. As it
turns out they're not the happiest of people. Albertson's totally
consumed with business and making a success for himself. He's so self
absorbed that he treats Neal like a doormat. And in his cultural
background the woman merely acquiesces to the men.
I remember years ago a woman I knew was of Irish background and was
involved politically as the female Republican State Committeewoman of
her district. She was nice and popular and knew her place. When her
male counterpart was getting together with some cronies to pull a power
play in the party in her county of Kings, she wasn't crazy about it.
When asked about whether she approved or not she wasn't sure, but since
THE MEN are in favor of it, she would acquiesce.
Patricia Neal stopped acquiescing after a few ugly arguments with
Albertson and Sheen. Her big act of defiance was to take $50.00 worth
of accumulated change, get on a bus and have a big fling just getting
out and about for several hours. For her that was tantamount to a
declaration of independence.
The Subject Was Roses set in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx which is
still an Irish enclave there, though not anything like it was in 1946
is author Frank D. Gilroy's bittersweet memories of the place. I'd love
to know who the models for his characters were, hopefully not him and
his own parents.
The only other nomination was Patricia Neal for Best Actress which
makes Albertson in the Supporting Category equally strange. 1968 was
the year of the tie between Katharine Hepburn for The Lion In Winter
and Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl.
Maybe Albertson was right to be considered in the Supporting Category
purely in terms of winning. Still he and Neal are a matched team of
marrieds facing a most uncertain future when Sheen leaves the nest. The
Subject Was Roses was a nice slice of Bronx life circa 1946 and holds
up well today.
8 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Defining a dysfunctional family., 19 March 1999
Author:
Film Dog from Shawnee, KS
Basically a stage play set to film, Roses showcases some real acting talent.
The talent referred to belongs to Jack Albertson (who one the Oscar for
Best Actor), Patricia Neal, and a young Martin Sheen. Aside from two minor
roles, these are the only actors in the play/film. So are they good enough
to hold your attention? You bet. This film just clips right along.
Reminiscent of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", Roses is about the cold
relationship between a husband, his wife, and, to a lesser degree, their
son. There is no laughter, no touching, no warmth. There is plenty of
anger, denial, and despair. These people are pretty much total
dysfunctional. Do their conflicts end up being resolved? You tell
me.
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