The People (1972)

An almost never seen made-for-TV movie dating from the early 1970's, 'The People' hints at some of the prevailing post-hippy idealism that was soon to be eclipsed by the rise of punk culture.I was a young - and therefore still idealistic - person at the time and recollect finding its quaintly sentimental take on the descendants of a persecuted alien race trapped on Earth quite absorbing. I enjoyed it very much at the time and have never seen it since. Today, with the burden of years and their incumbent cynicism and more critical evaluation I might take a different view. But then again...I recently watched a similarly-vintaged and themed 'Day Of The Dolphin' starring George C Scott, which I also hadn't seen for over thirty years, and still enjoyed that. So I'll stick with my '7' rating until I see it again.I came across a short story titled 'Pottage' upon which this movie appeared to have been based. But I've lost that too. Such is life.There was some decent low-budget SF doing the rounds in the late 60's/early 70's.

If you ignore the connection to the Zenna Henderson stories, than this movie is an interesting example of a late 60's/early 70's atmospheric mood movie. It's all lingering shots of pretty young women moving through forest glades. People standing around in stilted poses, stiff dialogue, angst driven over/under acting. It's so slow and lethargic that there is none of the tension of the original story. The screen play is more interested in atmosphere and local color than a plot driven story. (Thank you Lucas and Spielberg for bringing back pacing and plot.) It's a shame they mangled the story the way they did, it wasn't necessary. Borrowing freely from other stories in the People series, they needlessly confused the clarity that Henderson created in her books. Kim Darby is miscast as the teacher, who should be a burned out but a spunky pragmatist who knew what she was dealing with, a Karen Allen type. Darby's overly sensitive interpretation is too hippy dippy to be true to Henderson's clear eyed approach to social alienation. Isn't it time for someone to take another crack at Henderson's People series. A nice Sci-Fi series maybe. After all, her stories are still pretty timeless.

I saw this movie when I was about 12 yrs. old and always loved it, always remembered it. I forgot that William Shatner was in it, but I do remember it was "Miri" from Star Trek who was the teacher. I'm so glad, thanks to google, that I was able to track this down. I will always remember the scene in the woods, where the children play the harmonica, and they start rising into the trees, flying happily, and free. What an image! For a "movie of the week" I couldn't understand why it impressed me so much, so of course now that I see Coppola involved with it, it all makes sense. He's the director of my favorite film, "The Godfather." I'm sure that when I view "The People" again, as an experienced 43 yr. old, I'll see different things and probably be more discriminating, now that I'm more on republican, conservative side of things, as I was in my teens, when I loved all things hippie. But the main story was so cool, and I would love to see it again. Kim Darby has such a hauntingly beautiful, gentle voice and manner, and good ol' Cpt. Kirk was such a fox, back in those days! Also, as I recall, the harmonica song was very pretty.

There's something "good" about a really bad '70's TV movie! In the vein of Barbara Eden's "The Stranger Within" and Kim Darby's "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark", "The People" is unintentionally laughable. I first saw this film when it aired on television and was astounded to find a copy on video in my local library this week! I forced my poor husband to watch this treasure with me and he grudgingly gave it a rating of 2!!! I'm still laughing! Well, thanks for listening. Now, let's see if we can find a copy of George Kennedy's prize "Rabid".