Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind

Natasha Gregson Wagner has given the world a truly beautiful tribute to her mother, wife, mom, actress, friend Natalie Wood. We are simply strangers who enjoyed and appreciated Natalie Wood's work.I feel we have been allowed to see an honest look into the person through the words and memories of the beautiful daughter she raised. It was open and very forthright, making no attempt to gloss over the difficult parts of any life. Heartwarming to see the close knit, fun, home life Natalie and Robert Wagner worked so hard to give their children, who were so obviously such a central and important part of their lives. It's very much past time the tabloids leave this family in peace. It is obvious Robert Wagner has put his heart and soul into doing the difficult job of raising these girls after Natalie's death. I always enjoyed seeing him interviewed by Robert Osbourne on TCM. Thank you for allowing us to see your memories of your mother Natasha. Very well done indeed.

"Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind" (2020 release; 101 min.) is a documentary about the life and times of Natalie Wood. As the movie opens, we hear in voice-over Natalie's daughter Natasha who was 11 at the time of her mother's death, lamenting that "How she died has overshadowed her work and the person that she was". We then go back in time to Natalie's early years, and how she started in the movies at a very young age (5). Friend of the family Robert Redford comments "To survive in the movie business you have to be tough, but Natalie also had a big heart." Along the way we get clips of Natalie talking about her craft. At this point we are 10 min. into the movie.

Couple of comments: this documentary is from the French director Laurent Bouzereau, best known for his dozens and dozens "making of" documentaries,. More importantly, the movie is produced by Natasha Gregson Wagner, Natalie's oldest daughter. From the interviews with/by Natasha and also her younger sister (Natalie's youngest daughter Courtney who was 7 when Natalie died), it is clear that both have been haunted for years about the early passing of their mother. There is of course some irony in the fact that the movie opens with the very thing that Natasha is complaining about (her death overshadowing Natalie's work and the person she was). Roughly speaking the first half of the movie deals with the person that Natalie was, and the second half presents a closer look at Natalie's incredible Hollywood career. You can sense the love and the respect for Natalie throughout, as one might expect from a film produced by Natalie's daughter, but the movie does also address the tumultuous personal life and relationships that Natalie went through.

"Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind" premiered on HBO earlier this week and is now available on HBO On Demand and other streaming services. If you have any interest in a slice of Hollywood history or are simply a fan of Natalie Wood, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind is a wonderful biography telling the story of Natalie Wood's life in a raw way from the perspectives of multiple people. The film gets into lots of details and aspects of her life. By the end, the audience knows all about who Natalie Wood was.

The film is composed of old video and audio clips of Natalie Wood as well as multiple interviews, some of which are conducted by Wood's daughter, Natasha. The clips follow in somewhat of a chronological order, but the film doesn't start off at the beginning of her life. It covers details and facts about her entire life, but skips around, going to different parts. It focuses on her success as a child, her family's struggles, her love life, and the drama surrounding her death. The documentary also highlights all of her achievements in her film career.

The people featured in the documentary represent Natalie Wood's extensive circle of family and friends. Their interviews tell their perspectives of Natalie and her life. Included are her daughters, the family nanny, her husband and people who worked with her.

I thought it was interesting the way that they decided to skip around to different phases in her life. Normally documentaries pursue a chronological order, starting from the beginning and following through to the end. In contrast, this documentary is really effective in the way it skips around, because it gives the audience a bit of background information before returning to explain some aspect in deeper detail. I liked this because it allowed me to get a general idea first of what Natalie Wood was like and then what she experienced. I could see how people viewed her from the outside and then, the film delves deeper into a closer perspective by her friends and family.

My favorite parts are the home videos of Natalie Wood with her children. These clips make you realize that, even though she was under the pressure of the spotlight all the time and looks perfect, she is a human being with a life too.

The purpose of this documentary is to honor Natalie Wood and show people how great a life she lived. Some people focus more on the tragedy of her death and overlook her legacy in the film industry.

I loved watching and learning more about Natalie Wood's wonderful story. I give Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 10 to 18. Even adults will enjoy learning from this documentary.

Reviewed by Jolleen M., KIDS FIRST! Reporter

"HBO's" latest bio like doc "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind" is one touching, emotional highlight like doc of a legendary superstar who left us to soon. Even though before my time(and the fact that I haven't watched any of her movies) I knew just what a great that Mrs. Wood was. I know more about her untimely and tragic strange mystery like death in 1981, still after watching this doc I feel now more than ever informed and respect her talent, beauty, and grace even more. Done and narrated with interviews provided by her daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner this is one eye opening film of her late mom's love and beauty. As the footage includes never before seen home movies with family and friends and interviews with costars like Robert Redford, and most telling and heart touching is the sit down interview with Natasha's stepdad "Daddy Wagner"(Robert). As it's clear after being married twice to Natalie he never lost his love for her. The film is also telling of Natalie's mommy issues and struggle with her sibling, and it shows how she fought for women's work rights in the studio system from a young age. And footage shows her many loves with famous men, as by the age of 25 she had already been nominated for three Oscars. Thru all of this it's overshadowed by her tragic unexplained mystery like apparent drowning death in 1981 after the Thanksgiving holiday at the young age of 43. Really great loving engrossing documentary that celebrates a beautiful legendary screen queen that left us to soon.

Natalie Wood may not have been as iconic a figure as say Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley as is claimed at one point in this Netflix documentary but she was certainly one of the few child movie stars who went on to enjoy a full and varied career as an adult appearing in several iconic movies. As a child she appeared prominently in "Miracle On 34th Street" and as the kidnapped white girl tracked down by John Wayne in John Ford's classic "The Searchers" although this is unaccountably not mentioned here and then as an adult in major films like "Rebel Without A Cause", "West Side Story" and "Gypsy ". Her life was tragically cut short when she was found drowned after spending an evening on board the family yacht with husband Robert Wagner and then film co-star Christopher Walken which has been the subject of much speculation right down to the present.

This film takes two passes at her life, the first taking about 40 minutes to get to the first mention of her demise and then investigating in detail her somewhat mysterious and some might say suspicious death. It's a pity that these seemingly spurious allegations, led by her obsessed younger sister who claims that Wagner had something to do with it, come to dominate the narrative and running time as Wood's achievements were considerable and worth recounting, no matter how she passed.

The child of Russian immigrant parents, her mother is described as eccentric and demanding, the classic showbiz mom in fact. When she married Wagner, both were in demand as young and photogenic high-profile stars, the Brad and Angelina of their day with their faces on the front of every movie magazine. However the marriage didn't last and both remarried and had daughters with other partners, both remarrying in the process before they got back together in the 70 's, remarrying and this time having a baby girl of their own. This second marriage appears to have been a happy one with Wood revelling in her role as mother to the three girls between her and Wagner, to the extent that she took a career break to bring up their kids, but was just returning to Hollywood in parts befitting her maturiy when she met her end.

I must admit the woman I encountered here, I liked and admired. She was a good actress, certainly beautiful but was also business-smart and apparently a good wife and devoted mother. Her story is told with lots of library interview footage of Wood as well as extensive interviews with all her surviving family members, especially Wagner, although unsurprisingly there's no input at all from the accusatory sister or Walken, apart from a brief historical clip of him denying any involvement in her death. I do think though this was the right course to take with the narrative as it seems clear to me that Wagner felt and still feels genuine remorse and clearly has the support of the three girls in the family and close friends.

With other admiring contributions by notable co-stars such as Robert Redford, Dyan Cannon and Elliott Gould, what emerged was a picture of a well-rounded woman with a strong idea of her own worth and determined to live her life her way.

Just a postscript to say that it's a bit of a shame to hear so many of the participants talking about their reliance on therapy. It seems that the lifestyles of the rich and famous aren't to be envied after all.