ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Robert J. Maxwell I understand a number of people enjoyed this but I found it long and a little boring. It's a story of family intrigue, a kind of interactional drama, in northeast Texas. Robert Mitchum is the head honcho in this small town, given to such manly pursuits as shooting animals and bedding the wives of other men. He's highly respected. Except by the men whose trust he's betrayed, one of whom offs him appropriately.His wife is Eleanor Parker, who dislikes him, has kept her bedroom door locked, and taken over the raising of their child, George Hamilton, as tan as ever and sounding like Tony Perkins. Hamilton's bedroom is "a boy's room", with rocks, a butterfly collection, and books. BOOKS! When Hamilton is seventeen, Mitchum decides it's time to make a man out of him. He takes the young man to HIS room, filled with the apparatus of killing and adorned with the heads of dead animals he's killed. Mitchum also has an good-natured illegitimate son, George Peppard, with whom he hangs around but doesn't treat especially kindly. Peppard lives in a hut with dogs.I can believe that this is the way life was led by a wealthy family in northeastern Texas in the 1950s, but the production values are cheap and the story sprawls and sprawls. If I wanted to see another sprawling story about a rich family in Texas, I'd watch "Giant" again. If I wanted to watch a superbly done story of a moderately wealthy Texas family, I'd go back to "Hud." The characters' conflicts are realistically portrayed. They teeter on the edge of stereotypy without quite falling into the trap. But it's hard to like much about Mitchum. His idea of being manly, aside from the hunting and fishing, is to shout his lines. He's best when he holds it back and only allows it to peep out once in a while.

SHAWFAN There's something very Greek about this compelling story as one generation visits its sins upon its offspring. Though some of your reviewers pointed out that the Rafe/Peppard character does not appear in the original novel for the life of me I can't figure out what the story would have been like without him. The development of his character and his gradual integration into his father's affection and respect is certainly one of the film's mainstays and very attractive features. If there was no Rafe character in the novel then I can only conclude that the movie script writers improved the story greatly.I found the emotional relations between the different pairs of characters endlessly fascinating and gripping: Mitchum/Parker and their icy 18 years of separation; Theron/Rafe and their finding each other as brothers; Parker/Hamilton as the over-protective mama and her boy; Theron/Libby and their sensitive and beautifully scripted love scenes followed by their heartbreaking estrangement as Theron chooses his mother over his true love; Rafe/Libby and their equally brilliantly scripted encounters one after the other from Rafe's quiet admiration of Libby at the car washing scene to Libby's unburdening of her soul to Rafe in the restaurant and their final happiness in marriage; Mitchum/Libby's father as the one's cold dismissal of the other is eventually returned by the father's revenge and his assassination of the one he thought had shamed his family. The beautiful and emotional moments just keep coming at you one after another.Everyone's acting was brilliant, Kaper's score was understated and beautiful, Minelli's directorial pace superb, and the scripting outstanding. Having never heard of this movie before but having sat enthralled throughout its almost three hours I thought this one one of the finest movies I have ever seen.

moonspinner55 Southeast Texas game-hunter, a married man with a reputation for womanizing, wants to get a hunting rifle into the hands of his son, whom he fears is becoming a mama's boy; meanwhile, a young, swaggering associate of the hunter teaches the mild-mannered lad about girls. In the earliest portions of "Home from the Hill", director Vincente Minnelli nearly reconstructs a rural variation on "Tea and Sympathy" (which he also directed); after a muddled, melodramatic opening, the film becomes less a coming-of-age story than a tale of family secrets revealed, and the second-half of the picture is surprisingly serious and bracing (though rendered in typically glossy M-G-M fashion). George Peppard and George Hamilton are both excellent, far outshining the unhappy adults (Robert Mitchum--miscast--and Eleanor Parker, who keeps fiddling with her costumes as if she were a maiden lady). Peppard, in particular, has some wonderful physical bits of business, convincingly playing a small-town bachelor stud toying with the idea of growing up. Minnelli allows the dialogue-heavy plot to unfold carefully, slowly, but those who stick with it will find a rewarding drama of honor and responsibility. Constance Ford is terrific in small role as a bar floozy, and Everett Sloane gives a highly sympathetic turn as a businessman with family troubles of his own. **1/2 from ****

J Scott Strawn Just before the counterculture emerged and the anti-hero took hold, Hollywood was still trying to make grand, sweeping, star-studded epics. From this period in the in the very early sixties arose "Home from the Hill." An entertaining and quite engrossing film (even at its almost three hour running time) that just misses being an epic by a smidge.Even though Robert Mitchum gets top billing, it is the "Georges" (Peppard and Hamilton) that get the screen time and it is nice to see both shine. Peppard is great, reminding one of a young Steve McQueen, and shows the promise he possessed prior to falling into schlock films like "The Blue Max" and retreating into the small screen. Hamilton is a revelation. He also shows good acting chops and makes one wonder how he became such a media caricature of himself. Mitchum, well, is Mitchum. Nothing wrong with that, but at times it seems as if he's just going through the motions. Eleanor Parker holds her own, but the women in this film are just window dressing as this movie is really boys about becoming a men.For a man who directed his share of musicals, Vincente Minnelli's direction is a bit static and his staging is at times quite awkward. For instance, the scene where the household discovers Mitchum's character has been shot takes place in the corner of the room, behind a chair. The odd camera angle is from the other side of the room and except for a small push-in, there is no camera movement. Details and character reactions cannot be discerned, the scene just cries out for a close-up of or some type of cut. Perhaps Minnelli just wanted the audience to focus on the seriousness of the entire scene. Or Perhaps growing up with the quick edits of the MTV Generation, I'm expecting too much, probably both.At times the story and the acting can be a bit mawkish, but that was the era. This is still a grand, old, sweeping Hollywood film, a BIG FILM, like they used to make, almost an epic. Going into it with that state of mind you will find yourself immersed in the film and the characters and nearly three hours will have passed before you know it.