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Small Sacrifices (TV) More at IMDbPro »

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15 reviews in total

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16 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Very well done on all levels., 6 January 2005

Author: triple8 from Conn

I had read the book, and have to say the movie, for the most part, is very similar and is just done very well. Everything from the acting, to the directing etc etc, is superb. This movie is, sadly, a true story. It stands at 4 hours or so but it always keeps your interest. Farrah Fawcett loses herself in her character, and I have to say, I don't see how this movie can be watched, without the watcher coming away with a very healthy respect for Ms. Fawcett.This true life story is so disturbing, the thought has to flash through your mind whether you can sit through a 4 hour drama about it, and although of coarse some scenes are extremely difficult to watch, as you'd expect them to be, this movie is not something you can turn away from once it's on and is both shocking and horrifying.

It is directed and acted on a level as good as major big screen releases and the character development is great as well. There isn't one bad piece of acting in the movie and this Is the best I've ever seen Fawcett.

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11 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
One of Farrah's best performances, 27 June 2003

Author: (sylviastel@aol.com) from United States

I watched Small Sacrifices again just recently after many years. Farrah Fawcett should have got an Emmy for that portrayal of Diane Downs. Her performance in this mini-series is incredible and the fact that the mini-series follows the book closely. Ann Rule's book of this horrible crime leaves you wanting more. So much that I reread the book again. Farrah should be honored for such a fabulous performance. Just watch her in the Burning Bed as a battered wife. Farrah Fawcett headlines Small Sacrifices but everybody else in the film including John Shea who plays the District Attorney and her then real-life lover, Ryan O'Neal, plays Diane Down's married lover who does not want children and would help the police convict his former lover. Ryan, John, and even Gordon Clapp are all wonderful and memorable in their roles. They do not make television mini-series like they used to anymore with cable making the movies for television. If this film was released in the cinema, Farrah would have been nominated for an Oscar for this role. She probably would have won the award!

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9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
The most outrageous crime drama that I have ever seen!, 20 August 2004
Author: cinemakim (kmanleyglen@yahoo.com) from Mount Vernon, New York

Two thumbs up to Farah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal and the ever talented John Shea.

So much for being a dumb blonde - Farah rocked. She took being "unfit" to a whole new level. I thought I had seen the best in her in "Extremities" but she once again showed the "acting world" that she is a force to be reckoned with. Ryan has still got the good looks and the acting to go with it.

John Shea's portrayal of the Prosecutor was RIGHT ON! He exhibited a determination that wasn't his job . . . . it simply was the right thing to do for the protection of the children.

A must have for a movie collector (it needs to be in DVD form also)!

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9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Fawcett is compelling and convincing as a cold-blooded killer..., 5 May 2002

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

After playing TV-movie victims for years, Farrah Fawcett is terrifically good (almost surprisingly so) cast as real-life child-killer Diane Downs, who tried to convince the police she and her kids were victims one night of a car-jacker with a gun. One is tempted to go on and on about Fawcett's multi-layered portrayal of a sociopath, however this is a long movie (four hours with commercials) and Farrah has the burden of it resting on her performance, and she carries it off with gusto; Ryan O'Neal is very strong too, playing the lover who doesn't return her affections. A sad, violent story, but told with an intense, focused energy which makes it completely absorbing and ultimately moving. Farrah does Emmy-worthy work.

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8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
A cut above the rest., 11 May 2002

Author: CindyH

Today, we've been true-crimed to death. Yet, this story was one of the firsts of it's kind and not to mention the best. Akin to Burning Bed, Fawcett rings in an absolute superb performance as she realistically and accurately portrays the sociopath known as Diane Downs. The movie carefully plots the turn of events without over dramatizing. The moving portrayal of Christie Downs (known as Karen Downs in the series) is quite haunting. Many true crime dramas leave me with a taste of ratings-desperation in my mouth. The focus of these are not feelings but instead dramatic effects. This series however was much different. What you find here is Diane's self-centeredness and apparent inability to feel sorrow contrasted with a child who, even without speaking, manages to convey a fear of her mother as well as true love for her in a very tender heart wrenching way. While this description may very well sound overly dramatic it truly isn't. This is just such a well made series. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Farrah's Powerhouse Performance makes this one work..., 22 May 2007

Author: Isaac5855 from United States

Farrah Fawcett's Emmy-nominated performance is the centerpiece of SMALL SACRIFICES, a riveting, ABC mini-series based on the true story of Diane Downs, a cold-blooded woman who was sent to jail for murdering two of her three children. This teleplay presents Downs as the lonely, divorced working mother of three who appears on the outside to be a devoted and loving mother but as no qualms about putting her own needs first when the opportunity presents itself. While working at a post office, Diane begins a romance with one of her co-workers, Lew Lewiston (Ryan O'Neal)and things are going well until Diane learns that Lew doesn't like kids and has no desire to be a stepfather so Diane decides to kill her children. Fortunately, her daughter, somehow survives the brutal shooting and is taken into protective custody not only to protect her from further harm by her mother but to use her to help build a case to convict her mother. Fawcett gives the performance of her career...an icy, heartless bitch who shouts of her innocence throughout the proceedings, even though all evidence points to her and has the nerve to be baffled by the fact that her daughter wants nothing to do with her. O'Neal's role here is more in the way of stunt casting as he was Fawcett's real life romance at the time and is wasted in a thankless role, but there are two solid performances from John Shea and Gordon Clapp as the two police detectives caught in the deadly cat and mouse game of trying to slip Diane up in order to nail her for this horrendous crime. Despite it's almost three-hour length, I found this movie fascinating from start to finish, thanks primarily to a powerhouse performance from Farrah Fawcett who got the role of her career and ran with it.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
An Excellent True Crime movie about a woman who tries to kill her kids to get a man., 2 September 2001

Author: freebird-10 from NYC

Here's TV doing true crime the way it should be done--slowly unfolding plot through character, threading the cops and perps stories together, good courtroom drama--it's spellbinding. Farrah Fawcett is exceptional as Diane Downs, the woman who manages to kill one out of three kids. The two surviving kids are also stand-outs, especially the small daughter who must choose whether or not to testify against the monstrously narcissistic Downs. John Shea is also good as the D.A. A must-see for crime buffs.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
A great film about a sickening crime, 15 October 2006

Author: Mel J from Dundee, Scotland

This is a film based on a story that defies belief that someone, especially a mother, could be so cruel. Based on a true story that occurred in 1983, a wounded Diane Downs claims that she and her children were attacked by an armed man leaving her eight-year-old daughter in a coma, her three-year-old son paralysed and her five-year-old daughter dead. But DA Frank Joziak and Detective Doug Welch aren't convince and build evidence that proves the person who shot the children was Diane herself.

The actors in this film all give great effort in bringing this shocking story to life. Farrah Fawcett is excellent as the pathological liar that is Diane Downs, portraying the role as a woman almost bored with motherhood. John Shea's Joziak was nicely depicted with a sense of warmth, determination and anger for what he knows Downs did while a young Emily Perkins gives a strong performance as the deeply traumatised Karen Downs, the eight-year-old who awakens from a coma with the knowledge of what her mother did.

This film is fascinating on a level that will shock and disgust the viewers as it is reveals just how insidious and self-obsessed Diane Downs is, how she tries to lie her way out of the court case and the reasons for why a mother would commit a monstrous crime upon her own small children. The story is sickening but it is one that should be told, if only to emphasis to people why Downs should never be allowed to be free.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Great Performance by Fawcett, 14 August 2006

Author: whpratt1 from United States

Enjoyed viewing Gordon Clapp,(Detective Doug Welch),"Splendor Falls",'99,)(NYPDBLUE), who starred in this picture and really gave Farrah Fawcett,(Diane Downs),"The Cookout",'04, a very hard time because of things that happened to her very own children. This story is about a Diane Downs who is desperately seeking to find true love in her life and winds up going from one husband to another and plenty of one night stands. Diane claims that her very own father molested her many times and gave her very little attention except for sexual advances. This story goes into great detail about all her affairs and there is a very long trial which Diane has to encounter. Farrah Fawcett gave an outstanding performance and I wish she would perform in many more pictures.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Farrah Fawcett shines in this compelling drama!!!!, 28 January 2007
Author: kennyg264 from United States

Farrah Fawcett plays Diane Downs,a woman who shoots three of her kids in order to be free of them so she can be with a man who simply doesn't want kids. This movie is a two-part movie, Farrah keeps your attention and gives a powerful performance. The movie is based on Ann Rules book. Ryan has a small but interesting role in this film, and John Shea is awesome in this movie as district attorney Frank Joziak, who's interaction with Diane's daughter Karen is troubling and moving at the same time. Diane Downs is convicted and sent to prison where she escapes and is later caught and returned to prison. Her narcissism throughout the whole story is sad, but more pathetic.

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