Robert Harling's off Broadway play based on the death of his real life sister had the good fortune of having him do the screen adaption. In expanding it for the big screen and shooting it in his native Louisiana, Steel Magnolias lost nothing of what he was trying to convey in his one set drama which only involved the six women who are the leads. In fact seeing them interact with other family and friends added well to Steel Magnolias.

Still the root of the play is the conversations among six friends in Dolly Parton's Beauty Parlor in a small Louisiana bayou town. The friends are friendly enemies Olympia Dukakis and Shirley MacLaine and Sally Field and her daughter Julia Roberts. A new hairdresser is hired by Parton as it turns out on the day that Roberts is to be married and that is Darryl Hannah.

Roberts is a diabetic and she takes some very big health risks when she gets pregnant and has a baby boy. These women despite a lot differences and some occasional cattiness are really tight and the health problems of Roberts unites them all.

Steel Magnolias should have received a bit more recognition from the Academy than the nomination Julia Roberts got for Best Supporting Actress. If Steel Magnolias is nothing else it's an ensemble piece and recognizing Roberts over the others was unfair. For this story to work, all of the six females have to be good and all of them are.

This story has everything, laughter, sadness, great joy, and great pathos. Sometimes the six women are putting out several of these emotions at one time.

The best thing I can say about Steel Magnolias is that it is the kind of film you can watch over and over and be moved by it and maybe pick up an emotion you should have felt before in a particular scene. A rare and extraordinary work can do that and Steel Magnolias is a film for the ages.

Shelby Eatenton (Julia Roberts) is getting married to Jackson (Dylan McDermott). Her parents M'Lynn (Sally Field) and Drum (Tom Skerritt) are getting ready. Things revolve around Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton)'s beauty parlor. Truvy takes pity on the bumbling Annelle Dupuy (Daryl Hannah) hiring her. Next door neighbor Ouiser Boudreaux (Shirley MacLaine) is angry at all the fuss. Clairee Belcher (Olympia Dukakis) loves to crack jokes at Ouiser's expense. Shelby is weak with diabetes. She suffers attacks. She shouldn't have children, but some time after the wedding, she announces that she's pregnant.

Sure it's a chick flick. But it's not a frivolous chick flick. There are big emotional melodrama. It's overwrought at times. The impressive cast is able to tame this beast. The best part is that these chicks are good friends. It's a chick flick in the best sense. There are some cute fun moments, some big lines, and some down right sharp jabs. Then there are the big cry moments. It's all there.

I can't praise this movie enough. I've seen it dozens of times, as a play on Broadway, and as a TV pilot with an excellent cast that sadly didn't sell. It is probably one of the most quotable films ever made. The movie was even a major plot device in one of the most popular episodes of "Designing Women", which is ironic considering that much later Delta Burke of "DW" appeared in "SM" on Broadway.

This is an ensemble piece of the highest proportions. If you were to ask any person to name a movie where "ensemble" is the keyword, "Steel Magnolias" would probably rank in the top ten. The major character is Julia Roberts' Shelby, but she is really supporting. It is her life that is the glue that holds all of these people together. Shelby gets married, Shelby has a baby, Shelby gets ill, etc. But it is each of the other characters who put the outside pieces together of this beautifully written Southern poem. Mama M'Linn (Sally Field, whose presence indicates the lead) is a mother hen, gentle and loving in every way, but strong and resistant. (In other words, a Steel Magnolia). When tragedy hits her family, it is her friends who come flocking together to help M'Linn deal with it. They are grouchy Ouiser (Shirley MacLaine at her most eccentric),good-hearted Truvy (the wonderful Dolly Parton, whom "Designing Women" focused their hour long episode around),bashful Annelle (an understated Darryl Hannah) and most outrageously, the cheerfully wisecracking Eve Arden of the group, Clairee (Olympia Dukakis). Unlike the play, men are included, and amongst them are Dylan McDermott as Roberts' hubby to be, Tom Skerritt as Fields' rascal husband and Sam Shepard as Parton's distant spouse.

The men are there, but it is the women that the film concentrates on. There are also a few other women around in smaller roles, most notably Ann Wedgeworth as McDermott's aunt and "Porkys" vet Nancy Parsons (Gym teacher Ms. Ballbricker) as the physically wounded Janice Van Meeter, a victim of a collision with a baseball. "Looks like two pigs fightin' under a blanket", Dukakis quips while watching Parsons dance at a wedding reception. (For the record, Parsons was a fine character actress who had only a few opportunities to shine in films; Like the equally stout Shirley Stoler, she could infuse even her nastiest characters with something memorable.)

Everybody has great moments, but it seems that most people particularly remember Dukakis and MacLaine's teaming. Yes, they definitely steal every magnolia scene they are in. They are the Lucy/Ethel, Laverne/Shirley, Cybil/Mary Anne. At times they are also a Paul Lynde/Charles Nelson Reilly combo. (Yes, those two did work together.) For the TV pilot, it was Polly Bergen and Elaine Stritch, two "Follies" girls makin' with the cracks, and in the Broadway production I saw, it was Frances Sternhagen and Marsha Mason. (I must say that I originally thought of the actors cast in the opposite role in that production, but Ms. Sternhagen was a delightful Clairee who knew how to make each moment she was on stage count. It's ironic to see MacLaine supporting a mother in distress after being the mother in distress in 1983's brilliant "Terms of Endearment". After her triumph as Cher's wise mother in "Moonstruck" and a few years before her outstanding portrayal of Anna Madrigal in "Tales of the City", Dukakis scored this film role which became the final nail in the proof that she was indeed the best not-so-newcomer finding success in middle age even though she was already one of the most respected actresses in the theater. Like her "SM" successor Frances Sternhagen, Dukakis is capable of winning laughs and stealing scenes with just a rise of her eyebrow.

Up against that, how can Parton and Hannah hold up? They do just fine, but I think they were probably resigned to the fact that opposite that pair, they'd be all but forgotten. Indeed, they are excellent. They have equally great lines: Parton's line about one relative not knowing whether to scratch their watch or wind their behind is a gem, as is Hannah's delivery of the simple line about not letting her personal tragedy get in the middle of her doing good hair. Field gets the real chance to bite into the acting apple as she continues to hold in her grief through each of her sadness's until like a volcano, she builds up and explodes. She is excellent and missed out on a third Oscar Nomination. Check out her physical reaction when, after emotionally blowing up, she witnesses Dukakis's response to the whole scene. It's so filled with spontaneity and realism, and it is priceless.

That brings me to Julia Roberts, here a novice in a group full of vets. She scores wonderfully and probably is the least showy. That's probably why the Oscars gave her a nod for Supporting Actress. It's understated and simple, yet filled with humanity, strength, and a quiet acceptance of a fate she can't escape. Stage acting can be big, but successful film acting for the most part meshes all of those qualities together to really touch the heart. While I would choose Dukakis for Supporting Actress, I can see why they nominated Roberts and not the rest of the fine cast.

Bill McCutcheon is amusing as MacLaine's old beau who pops up, and Skerritt is funny as M'Linn's scoundrel husband who loves harassing the grouchy Ouiser. But to wrap things up in this long review, I can state that you don't have to be female, Southern, or gay to really get into these women's passionate friendship. The film is sumptuously filmed and features a beautiful musical score that is as touching as the friendship these ladies share. It is obvious that the tales several of these stars have told about making this film (Parton, MacLaine and Dukakis) that they loved working with each other. They should again.