Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301607926
Format: Color
ISBN: 6301607929
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Release Date: 1994-06-24
Running Time: 115
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1956-02-16

William Holden is the hunky drifter who rides the rails into a small Midwest town with dreams of landing a "respectable" job with his rich college buddy (Cliff Robertson). Kim Novak is the small-town beauty queen engaged to Robertson who falls for the cocky dreamer, as do repressed schoolmarm spinster Rosalind Russell and Novak's tomboyish kid sister Susan Strasberg. Their unleashed passions reach a crescendo at the Labor Day picnic.

Joshua Logan directed William Inge's play on Broadway and carried it to Hollywood, earning Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director in his screen-directing debut. Holden is years too old for the role but oozes sex appeal and makes a swoony stud when he takes his shirt off (or when, better yet, it's ripped from his back by a boozing Russell), and Novak is a lovely lost girl yearning for something she can't quite grasp. Arthur O'Connell earned an Oscar nomination as Russell's tippling boyfriend. The film was a huge popular and critical hit, but Logan's stiff and strident direction hasn't dated well. He makes his points in big capital letters--subtlety was never his strong point--and loses the natural beauty of the Kansas locations when he takes the climactic picnic scenes into an obviously artificial soundstage. Picnic remains a loved American classic, largely for Holden's tough-guy vulnerability and James Wong Howe's brilliant widescreen color photography. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Rating:
Summary: Erotic without the Sleeze
Comment: The dance scene played to moonglow must be the ultimate depiction of sexual attraction between a man and woman Hollywood every did.

The depiction of small town America in summer is priceless.

A classic in many ways......enjoy it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Widescreen!
Comment: Picnic is a fabulous movie, but do not buy this DVD version as it is in standard screen format - not the original widescreen (like the VHS tape version). The standard screen does not do justice to this movie at all. I don't understand why the VHS (which I have) is widescreen and the much newer DVD (which I bought from Amazon) is standard screen. I should have read the description more carefully.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Widescreen now available
Comment: Both Borders and Barnes and Noble now carry a widescreen version of Picnic:

http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/Picnic/William-Holden/e/043396828797/?itm=4

Widescreen on one side, fullscreen on the other. It says "Columbia Classics" across the top of the package.

I wish Amazon would carry this version, as I don't want to open a new account at one of those other places just for one item.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: picnic
Comment: I ordered this film on DVD last week, and was very excited that I had finally purchased it on DVD. Sat down to watch it, and was horrified that it was butchered (i.e. the full screen, pan-and-scan thing). I went online today to see if I had accidentally chosen the wrong format, and found to my shock that this version is the only one out there.

I have to give it at least 3 stars, because the movie is so damned good. But this is a lousy transfer. I find it hard to believe that at this late date in the DVD game, a new, improved, widescreen, digitally enhanced version has not been made. How could such a classic film be ignored like this? I strongly urge the powers that be to do this classic film justice - with maybe a "making-of" special, while some of the folks involved in its production are still alive, to add insight.

Please, PLEASE come out with a better version, and soon!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Too Stagey
Comment: Picnic is the story of a drifter (William Holden), an ex-football hero who has never had trouble with women. He feels doomed to repeat his father's life, a life of alcoholism and jail. When he stumbles upon an old college friend, things seem to be looking up, that is until he meets his friend's girlfriend (Kim Novak). The sexual tension is outrageous between them and they don't do a good job at covering it up. Naturally, this spells problems for the drifter and the girl who desires to be something more than just a pretty face.

Unfortunately, this movie just doesn't hit the spot. The acting is melodramatic across the board, a fault of the director, I suspect. The women suddenly throw themselves onto beds for a good long cry or they exaggeratedly turn away from the men they love. It is all too hokey and unrealistic to do the film any justice. Fortunately, the personalities of the actors make this movie worth seeing anyway. Aside from Holden and Novak, Susan Strasberg and Rosalind Russell make memorable appearances in supporting roles. Strasberg is youthful and charming and Russell is overbearing and desperate (appropriately to the character).

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