The Sandpiper (1965) User Reviews

Big Sur Shines in This Story of Illicit Love

[writerasfilmcritic · 6/10 · 30 April 2006]

"The Sandpiper" is not a great movie but it has a certain appeal and is graced by some beautiful seascapes along the rugged Big Sur coastline. The opening sequence, a montage of steep emerald hills and deep blue sea shot from a helicopter, is particularly well done, featuring a deer dashing up one of the oak-covered slopes, building swells breaking on the rocky shore, and one or two fiery red sunsets. Similar scenes continue to bolster the sense of setting throughout the movie. The storyline, although interesting, can't quite live up to the dramatic natural location. The love affair between Richard Burton, a jaded Episcopalian priest and headmaster at a boys school in San Simeon, and Elizabeth Taylor, an alienated artist seeking peace and solitude at an isolated beach house, is reasonably convincing. Yet the priest already has a comely wife in the form of Eva Marie Saint and his motivation for stepping outside their marriage isn't well explained, except that he wants to recapture the idealism of his youth. When a local judge orders that Taylor's troubled son must attend Burton's school, he is almost instantly attracted to her and apparently there is nothing to be done about it.

Set in the mid-sixties, when sexual morays were loosening but we were still in the grip of a churchy moralism, this had to be a controversial film, and I vaguely recall that it was. You can visit the locations used in the movie because some are easily recognizable, such as the store/club/restaurant in Big Sur known as "Nepenthe." And of course, there are the famous stone bridges on Highway One spanning two or three of the rugged chasms. Coursing through the movie, especially during the several seascapes, is the theme "The Shadow of Your Smile." It's a nice movie, if not a great one, and worth seeing more than once.

The Golden Couple of the Sixties

[JamesHitchcock · 6/10 · 19 November 2010]

"The Sandpiper" was the second in a number of films ("The VIPs" was the first) made together by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Their romance, which had begun on the set of "Cleopatra", had both enthralled and scandalised the public, and the studios wanted to make the most of their notoriety. The public perception of Dick and Liz as a glamorous but scandalous couple can only have been increased by the subject-matter of "The Sandpiper". At one time a film about a clergyman engaged in an adulterous affair would have been an unthinkable violation of the Production Code. By 1965, however, the Code, although not quite dead, was no longer in robust health, and a film on this subject, although still highly controversial, was no longer impossible.

Taylor's character, Laura Reynolds, is an unmarried mother who works as an artist and lives with her nine-year-old son Danny in an isolated California beach house. (The film's title derives from an injured sandpiper which she rescues and nurses back to health thereafter and becomes a symbol of freedom). Danny's behaviour, however, has got him into trouble with the law, and a judge orders her to send the boy to a local boarding school. Laura is reluctant to do this; she is a free spirit who distrusts any form of institutionalised education. To make matters worse from her point of view, the school is run by the Episcopalian Church, and she is an atheist whose attitude to religion is one of positive hostility rather than mere indifference. Nevertheless, she realises that she must comply with the judge's order or risk losing custody of her boy.

Burton plays Dr. Edward Hewitt, an Episcopalian priest and headmaster of the school. Although his values are very different from Laura's, Edward is something of an idealist and is becoming disillusioned with his life at the school, feeling that he is neither a priest nor an educator but merely a fund-raiser. (The school is currently engaged in a major fund-raising drive to build a new chapel, something Edward feels is unnecessary). Edward takes a great interest in Danny's progress and finds himself increasingly drawn towards Laura, possibly because she is so different both from him and from his wife Claire. Claire is attractive and supportive of her husband but rather staid and conventional compared to the bohemian Laura. Eventually Edward and Laura begin an affair, even though he is a married man. (This plot line reminded me of Iris Murdoch's novel "The Sandcastle", published a few years before "The Sandpiper", which also dealt with an adulterous affair between a married older schoolmaster at a boarding school and a young female artist).

Danny himself does not play a major role, being more of a plot device than a character in his own right. I felt that this was a weakness, given that one of the themes of the film is two different philosophies of education. Laura's view is that all formal educational establishments, particularly conservative boarding schools like Dr Hewitt's, are undesirable because they exist in order to turn children into conventional conformists. Her own solution, however, home-schooling Danny in a remote part of the world away from any other children and without a father-figure in his life, struck me as being likely to turn him into a self-centred loner, although the film rather shies away from criticising Laura on this point. The opening scenes in which Danny shoots a deer strike a particularly jarring note. It seemed to me highly improbable that a woman like Laura, whose whole philosophy seems to be one of living in harmony with nature, would allow her young son to have a rifle and then, when he uses it to kill an animal out of wanton curiosity, shrug the whole thing off as a harmless youthful escapade.

Elizabeth Taylor looks stunning, but neither she nor Burton are really at their best here. Burton is certainly not as good as he was as the world-weary spy in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", also made in 1965. The relationship between Edward and Laura is not based simply upon sexual attraction, but upon a growing realisation that despite their differences they are kindred spirits. The unbeliever Laura, paradoxically, has more in common with Edward's Christian idealism than does the conventionally pious Claire. The trouble is that one never really senses in Burton's performance the idealistic religious believer hiding behind the mask of the formal and pedantic schoolmaster. Taylor always comes across as slightly too glamorous to be altogether convincing as a proto-hippie.

The film contains some attractive photography of the Californian coastal scenery (although the colours in the indoor scenes are often rather dull) and there is a notable musical score, including the song "The Shadow of Your Smile". As a psychological and emotional drama it has its points of interest, but overall it is a rather dated sixties period-piece, most interesting as a record of that decade's official Golden Couple. 6/10

Sleazy, beautiful and entertaining.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 16 February 2013]

I recommend this film for one huge reason--the location. Although not terribly far from Hollywood, I am very surprised that more films have not been set around Big Sur and Point Lobos (just south of Carmel and Monterey, California), as it's one of the most beautiful places on Earth. See this location in person if you can--I just did and was captivated by its beauty and the film just brought back memories of the place. But,...back to the film itself!

"The Sandpiper" begins with a VERY free-spirited mother (Elizabeth Taylor) being hauled into family court because her young son has had another brush with the law. The problems are not serious but the judge is shocked that Taylor is so unrepentant in the way she raises the kid. She's an atheist, is extremely permissive and home schools the boy with her own blend of unusual teaching. Nowadays or even in the late 60s, this sort of child raising wouldn't have gotten much notice (particularly in California)--but here in 1965 it's a bit scandalous--especially since Taylor's character never married nor does she care about legitimizing the boy. Because of this and the child's actions, he is sent to live at a nearby residential school run by the church. Taylor thinks that the Episcopal priest running the place (Richard Burton) is shocked by all this and immediately dislikes him, but he seems rather patient and caring. However, through the course of the film, the two begin to see each other more and more and it's apparent that soon the two will be hitting the sheets together--even though he's married (to a woman, not just God). What's to come of these two? See the film if you'd like.

Apart from the great location shooting, the film is a mixed bag. Some would clearly be offended by its irreverent plot, others bored (as it's VERY talky at times and the dialog becomes awful at about 80 minutes into the film) and others would love it. Those who like really salacious soaps of the era (such as "Peyton Place" and the like) will probably adore the film--as it is filled with fiery content (not just the affair but an attempted rape) and a good looking couple (well, at least Liz). And, in many ways, these same folks often felt like they were peering into the real life relationship between this couple. As for me, I loved the scenery and laughed at the love story. It seemed contrived and you wondered just how any priest could be that stupid. Plus, the dialog between Liz and Dick on the beach was pretty laughable as was the fight at the 106 minute mark and Dick's sermon towards the end. I see the film as a guilty pleasure you see once...and only once. Then, afterwords, to make penance for this, you should watch a really GOOD film!

By the way, despite the name, San Simeon School is supposed to be in nearby Monterey (just north of Big Sur) and has no relation to the Hearst mansion (San Simeon) a couple hours south. Also, I was impressed by a supporting role by James Edwards. For a black actor, it was a great role--a non-black and non-stereotypical role. For its era, it was ahead of its time.

Liz is sweet if not entirely convincing

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 7/10 · 17 June 2005]

Not only in "Cleopatra" but in her next two films as well, "The V.I.P.s," and "The Sandpiper," Taylor was more the world-famous celebrity and less the conscientious actress than at any other time in her career… The three movies exploit the public's fantasy of what the lovers must be like: tempestuous, as in "Cleopatra;" quarreling, on the verge of separation, as in "The V.I.P.s;" illicit lovers, defying the moral norms, as in "The Sandpiper."

As the ancient Queen of the Nile, as modern day grande dame, or as a hippie artist, Taylor is Taylor, hemmed in by her spectacular fame… The international celebrity, the world's most famous lover, takes over from the burgeoning actress of the Fifties, and Taylor walks through the movies as the fabled beauty she'd become rather than the high-strung Southern belle she had been before Rome…

Playing an unmarried woman who lives with her son exactly the way she wants to live, in harmony with the California coast, Liz Taylor, for once, gets to talk about ideas: her character proclaims the joys of independence and self-expression… Taylor is no Jane Fonda, alight with radical fervor, but the role does express something of herself; it lets us see a side of her that differs from the standard screen Taylor…

Here she's a 'new' woman, free and wise, who teaches a thing or two to a rigid churchman… The film's symbol is the sandpiper with a broken wing which she offers as proof that every creature should be allowed to fly free…

We know too much about her to believe her as a hedonistic artist who would dress so fashionably in such an impossibly expansive beach house... The character's broad humanistic philosophy—her objections to organized religion and to formal schooling, her advocacy of free love and her celebration of the naturalness of physical love—are, oddly enough, at the film's center…

The story that interrupts the characters ongoing declarations about life is the old number of a minister tempted by a beautiful woman… Bombarded by the artist's charms, the man succumbs, only to depart at the end, weighed down by, guilt and vowing to seek the way of repentance and purification…The movie's morality is thus a mingling of the old and the new…

The movie plays it both ways, admiring the woman's freedom and righteous self-justification, but making the clergyman pay dearly for his indulgence in forbidden fruit… It's an old Hollywood romance trying to masquerade as a love story in the modern manner…

Burton's prude is impossible and he plays him in a harsh oratorical manner, as if he's deadening himself to the pain of it all, but Taylor's character almost approaches being a real rebel with ideas… The movie exploits the public image of her as a challenger of conventions, but the role also gives her a chance to sound reasonably articulate about matters other than love… Under Vincente Minnelli's graceful guidance, Liz is sweet if not entirely convincing

Burton is enchanting, Taylor beautiful

[JuguAbraham · 6/10 · 5 July 2002]

Taylor's physical allure is best captured by the wooden sculpture done by Kara for the film. Burton reprises a similar role to his magnificent one of a defrocked priest in "Night of Iguana"--only here he is not eventually defrocked. Burton is superb at showing internal turmoil and it is a shame that so many good performances, many of which were nominated for an Oscar (7 in all), were all bypassed by the Academy.

Minnelli must have cast Burton for the role after Huston's success with Burton in "Iguana". Taylor's agnostic rebellious life and Burton's religious moral life explode on contact and tower over all the other actors in this movie. Though Minnelli is respected for his direction, this effort of his will not be considered a major work.

Eva Marie Saint's role is elegant but not developed beyond the obvious--where are her sons mentioned in the dialogues? What's her relationship with them? Minnelli obviously took interest in the main plot, not the subplots--which is strange for an accomplished director.

The screenplay at times is very strong, e.g., with Burton's clever intonations of his repartees quoting the "Book of Proverbs" and the young child innocently reciting Chaucer in "Olde English". In retrospect the film had good tools: a good script and a good cast. But the tools in the hands of Minnelli did not sculpt a great Kara statue.

The Shadow of Big Sur....

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 26 June 2012]

It's so easy to make fun of this Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton soap opera with a pretty setting and an Oscar Winning song that lasts only 45 seconds in the movie as the cast credits roll at the end. But it's actually quite good and actually better than the film that made them infamous in the first place-"Cleopatra".

Taylor doesn't barge down the Nile in this film, but she has the whole Pacific Ocean to stare at and paint from her lovely home near Monterey, California. All it takes, though, is an injured sandpiper to get the two stars together after Taylor gets over a judge's order remanding her illegitimate son to be enrolled in the exclusive boarding school Burton runs as an Episcopal priest.

As the two get to know each other, they begin to appreciate the warmth hidden inside their individual personalities. Taylor is a naturalist who believes that mankind has no business manipulating young minds as they destroy each other, while Burton has forgotten about the initial ideals of why he became an Episcopal priest in the first place. Their love affair threatens to destroy Burton's marriage to the sweet Eva Marie Saint, while Taylor's free-wheeling lifestyle is constantly getting in the way, threatened by fellow artist Charles Bronson and an old beau, Robert Webber, whom Taylor refers to as a slime.

Thanks to the wonderful scenery (beautifully photographed to capture each sunset the technical crew could capture), the lush score and tight direction by Vincent Minnelli, "The Sandpiper" rises above mediocrity. It may not be a masterpiece, but it avoids the melodrama and braying of future Taylor & Burton pairings. In their next film, they would perfect the art of dysfunctional coupling with the film version of a certain play by Broadway genius Edward Albee.

Dull, talky soap opera. The scenery and music are beautiful, though

[highwaytourist · 5/10 · 23 January 2011]

This film was designed to take advantage of public curiosity about the recent marriage of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who were kind of the Bragelina of the 1960's. Their star power were enough to make this picture a hit at the box office. Here, Taylor plays a free-spirited beatnik artist and single mother. She lives on the beach in a glamorous "shack" and makes a living as an artist while raising her son. Very touching. Her son, played by Morgan Mason, gets into trouble and winds up being sent to a religious boarding school. The school is run by the Reverend Richard Burton, along with his pretty and supportive but staid wife, Eva Marie Saint. Well, Burton is going through a mid-life crisis and it comes to fruition when he first meets Taylor and is taken by her heavy make-up and "look at my breasts" wardrobes. So he visits her home to help her keep tabs on her son's progress at school and meets some of her beatnik friends, including Charles Bronson, absurdly cast as a hippie sculptor. What happens then? Well, after taking forever to set up the story, Taylor and Burton fall in love and have an affair, to the surprise of no one. In the process, we are treated to the majestic Big Sur beaches and beautiful music, including the Oscar-winning theme song "The Shadow of Your Smile." In fact, the music and seascapes are more interesting than the story and characters, who just talk everything to death while the story drags on in predictable fashion. This would have been a better coffee table book than motion picture. My recommendation? Watch the opening credits and closing credits, which are by far the best parts of the movie.

This is vintage 60's Hollywood fluff, but it's great fluff.

[Marta · 10/10 · 9 January 1999]

Ok, I admit it. I have a guilty affection for this film. It's silly and shallow, but it's got a great performance by Richard Burton, and a pretty good one by Elizabeth Taylor. It's also gorgeously filmed in Big Sur country, and has an evocative soundtrack. "The Sandpiper" was filmed at the height of the Burton/Taylor mania. Richard plays a minister who runs an exclusive boys academy, and Liz plays the free-thinking artist mother who's son (Morgan Mason, James Mason's son) does some deer hunting out of season. The boy is sentenced to Burton's school to be saved from his mother's beatnik influence, and as the boy settles into life at the boarding school, Liz falls in love with the married minister Burton. They have a torrid affair, afternoons along the surf, etc., until a jealous colleague of Burton's blows the whistle on the pair. Corny, but I still love the movie.

The Soap-Wiper

[RodReels-2 · 6/10 · 9 October 2005]

Richard Burton dials down the angst quotient from his previous year's role as a defrocked priest in "Night of the Iguana", and Elizabeth Taylor begins warming up for her later role as Kate in "Taming of the Shrew". The music and the scenery make the film compelling enough to watch, but the psychological and theological ramblings are strictly for the soap lover. Eva Marie Saint, as the hurt wife, has a few good scenes but not nearly enough to salvage the drama. And it's fun to see a young Charles Bronson in a beatnik role. The whole effort ranks several notches above "The VIP's" and other Burton-Taylor vehicles but all in all, "The Sandpiper" is a long boring day at the beach.

Taylor As a Free-Spirit Hippie Artist Doesn't Make This Sandpiper Fly

[EUyeshima · 3/10 · 16 May 2012]

The enormity of Elizabeth Taylor's breasts in this ridiculous 1965 sudser overshadows (pardon the pun) even the grandeur of Big Sur captured nicely by Milton R. Krasner's expert cinematography. She was at the height of her notoriety as a Hollywood star enflamed by the media for her highly publicized affair with and marriage to Richard Burton, who looks understandably embarrassed as her co-star, probably the least of their big-screen couplings back in the 1960's. Consider that "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" was their next film. Taylor is hilariously miscast as beatnik artist Laura Reynolds, a free-spirit mother to ten-year-old Danny. They live a solitary life in a striking home overlooking the rugged Pacific coast. How she can afford such prime real estate on just her paintings is one of many suspensions of belief the movie asks of the undemanding viewer.

The threadbare plot, written by four screenwriters including the legendary Dalton Trumbo, has Danny being sent to a local Episcopal boarding school for killing a deer out of curiosity. The pompous headmaster is Dr. Edward Hewitt, who feels constantly cheapened by his glad-handing efforts to raise funds to maintain the school and build a new chapel. His repressed wife Claire teaches there, and in no time, Danny starts to enjoy school and the company of the other students. Meanwhile, Laura is initially resentful of Hewitt's academic approach, but of course, given this is Taylor and Burton in their prime, they fall quickly into a torrid love affair. Of course, Hewitt grows guilty for his uncontrollable passion and confesses to his wife. This leads to a rather absurd but inevitable conclusion. The film's director is surprisingly VIncente Minnelli who can't seem to do anything intelligent with the limp script handed to him and lets his two stars flail excessively on screen. With her zaftig figure and designer outfits, Taylor simply looks disengaged, while Burton tries to inject some dignity to a basically unsympathetic character but to no avail.

Poor Eva Marie Saint is left stranded by Claire's frigidity and ignorance. Charles Bronson has a few silly scenes as a sarcastic bohemian sculptor, while Robert Webber has his standard role of a wealthy cad lusting after Laura. Morgan Mason plays Danny insipidly, though interestingly enough, he would grow up to become Reagan's Chief of Protocol and marry Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go's. Much of the dialogue is painfully bad with a lot of counter-culture talk that sounds hopelessly pretentious out of Taylor's mouth, yet for all its flaws, the film is utterly watchable as a trash wallow. The familiar Johnny Mandel song, "The Shadow of Your Smile", comes from this movie and plays over the opening and end credits. The 2006 DVD contains two vintage featurettes: "The Big Sur", narrated by Burton, about the challenges of filming in the area, and "A Statue for The Sandpiper", featuring the artist who carved the redwood statue of the bodacious Taylor, used in the film.

frank and profound thought piece

[anonreviewer · 10/10 · 9 August 2003]

I liked the movie. Sorry, but the dialogue and themes are not shallow; they are profound. It is just that we like to avoid facing such deep concepts. This is a movie that dares put forth the idea of atheism, and so therefore it is much deeper that most other movies. How can most of the fluff that comes out today be compared to The Sandpiper.

Furthermore, the dialogue concerning personal feelings is also profound and touches upon feelings the vast vast majority of movies never approach.

Good movie, but be prepared for deliberately provocative themes.

Taylor and Burton together again.

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 21 July 2021]

It's fun to compare this to the other film where Richard burton plays a minister.... night of the iguana. Here, he is very much the old fashioned establishment, trying to defend his religion.and trying like crazy to stay dedicated to it. In iguana, he leaves (or gets kicked out of) his church right from the beginning, and has his own demons to fight for the next ninety minutes. In this one, Burton was actually married to his antagonist (Liz Taylor), who plays a single mom raising her son as an athiest. It starts out very adversarial, but they come to an understanding, for the sake of her son. They both make compromises that will affect their lives. Co-stars eva saint and charles bronson. The little boy is played by james mason's son, morgan. It's pretty good. Directed by Vincent Minelli; he won the oscar for Gigi.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton romance drama in a beautiful setting

[jacobs-greenwood · 5/10 · 7 December 2016]

Perhaps best known for its Johnny Mandel-Paul Francis Webster Academy Award winning song "The Shadow of Your Smile" and beautiful picture postcard vistas of Big Sur, California, this average Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton romance drama was directed by Vincente Minnelli. It was written by its producer Martin Ransohoff, adapted by Irene & Louis Kamp, and features a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Michael Wilson.

Taylor plays Laura Reynolds, a free spirited atheist (liberated, single mother by choice) artist who hangs out with other hippies while trying to raise her undisciplined nine year old son Danny (Morgan Mason). But through his actions (such as his most recent shooting of a wild deer), Danny has gotten himself in trouble with the authorities such that Judge Thompson (Torin Thatcher) has given his mother no option but to have him enrolled in a San Simeon religious school, run by the Reverend Dr. Edward Hewitt (Burton) and his wife Claire (Eva Marie Saint). Can you tell where this one is headed?

Charles Bronson (!) plays one of Reynolds's fellow Bohemian artist boyfriends who carves her naked torso in wood, Cos Erickson, and James Edwards plays another beatnik, Larry Brant, who works as her agent (e.g. trying to sell Laura's paintings). Robert Webber plays Ward Hendricks, a parishioner in Hewitt's church who has a past with Laura (she was his mistress while he put her through art school) that he wishes could continue. Tom Drake plays Walter Robinson, who works at the San Simeon school and ultimately succeeds Hewitt when he resigns per his affair with Laura and the self loathing he feels for other hypocritical deeds (e.g. he'd effectively become a salesman that was willing to overlook certain unethical financial actions by members of his congregation in order to pay for a new place of worship at the school).

Among the implausibilities are Laura's ability to afford the beach home she lives in and her irrational reason for ending the affair.

Throwing Caution to the Wind

[ags123 · 7/10 · 17 August 2016]

Though the plot of "The Sandpiper" is thin and obvious, the film has enough virtues to make watching it time well spent. Mainly, the chance to wallow in Elizabeth Taylor's beauty, here just about as undone and natural as she ever allowed; Hair blowing in the gentle breeze wafting off the magnificent Big Sur coastline. Richard Burton looks pretty good too, the couple still oozing the magnetism that brought the stars together in the first place. Eva Marie Saint gives expert support in the thankless role of a neglected wife. The scenery is fantastic, the music ('The Shadow of Your Smile") nothing short of sublime, and last but not least, are Herb Rosenthal's gorgeous calligraphic titles.

Absorbing.

[gridoon · 6/10 · 18 December 2000]

The story may be banal, and the dialogue may often seem too studied and affected. But this glossy MGM production still offers some of the pleasures of the "old-fashioned", straightforward moviemaking: first-rate performances by the three leads, good narration, gorgeous cinematography and a refreshingly unhurried pacing. (**1/2)

The Keeper of Treasure's God!!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 4 December 2017]

I just remembering watching this movie in 1984, in that time gave 6/10 now in first time on DVD it refresh my mind on this fine picture, if was directed by the great Vincente Minnelli is worth to see itself, both Taylor and Burton make a convincing performance in their roles, she as unmarried free woman with a son and he as Dr. Reverend who is school director, they get attracted each other ended up a dead end, he realizes that your work is just a keeper of treasure's God when he raised funds to Church in fraudulent way making bad fiscal agreements to take the money, the conflicts existential driven him to start again in a new place alone, strong matters nowadays...

Resume:

First watch: 1984 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5

shallow, schlocky, sappy

[rupie · 4/10 · 7 April 2003]

The production values of this prototypically 60's Hollywood product are very high, a glittering facade for puerile and intellectually shallow content. Free-spirit single mom Elizabeth Taylor seeks to raise her illegitimate son according to her own Bohemian lights, including home-schooling. The child is ordered by authorities to be sent to a strict, private religious school because of his "troublesome" nature (this nascent juvenile delinquent can quote Chaucer from memory, but be that as it may......). Thus we have the setup for the Dionysian bombshell Taylor's encounter with the Appolonian authority figure of Richard Burton, the school's headmaster. During the development of this utterly predictable love affair, Taylor's character is made to utter every tired, threadbare, exhausted nostrum from the heyday of the 60's, when trendy radicalism and burgeoning feminism were au courant. Burton, just like the establishment of the time, has no coherent response, but we are supposed to believe that in some sort of not readily apparent way he has been "changed" by his roll in the hay with La Liz. The whole thing is thin and unconvincing. For me the best moment was when Taylor's kiddo expressed a desire to return to the dreaded hotbed of religious brainwashing to which he had been consigned ("I like it there"). Poor mom! If one can suspend one's critical faculties, the thing can be enjoyed as camp, but as serious moviemaking? Nah.

What a beautiful film...

[bathwind · 10/10 · 18 October 2006]

I absolutely adore this film and cannot wait to get it on DVD. I think that not only the scenery, plot, characters and music make it so lovely, but the strength of the relationship between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton which is so obvious and was happening in real life at the same time. Roll on December, which is when I have been told it is going to be released on to DVD. One of my favourite films and really romantic! Richard Burton is brooding, moody and so strong, and Elizabeth Taylor is such an independent character and yet she loves to be loved too, as long as her wings are not clipped. She is like the sandpiper that she looks after then lets free. A free spirit, just like her son.

real life affect

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 1 September 2017]

Free-spirit Laura Reynolds (Elizabeth Taylor) lives in a beach house with her home-schooled son Danny. After some incidents, a judge orders Danny to attend a religious school run by Dr. Rev. Edward Hewitt (Richard Burton) and his wife teacher Claire (Eva Marie Saint). The Hewitts' stale marriage and professional lives give rise to Edward's affair with Laura.

This is definitely more compelling due to Taylor and Burton's real-life love affair. It's a quiet melodrama. There are some intensity usually between the couple. Otherwise, it's a low simmering romance that could push some buttons due to Hewitt as a religious figure.

Has its moments--but only if you're very patient.

[Clothes-Off · 5/10 · 30 September 2007]

The story in this film is worth telling, but the script seems to take forever to tell it. Lots of explanatory dialogue bogs the film down, and there's really only enough story for maybe a one-hour television drama. One good aspect of it is it would be very easy to make this a one-sided film in which the Big Bad Headmaster (with a Soft Spot) takes away the child of sweet, free-spirited Elizabeth, but Taylor and Burton play their characters in ways that we could sympathize with either of them--or not.

Unfortunately, "or not" is a very distinct possibility. First of all, the boy in question does not exude a persona that's engaging in any way. (And what he does in his first scene certainly does not endear him to the audience.) And secondly, there's nothing really compelling enough about any of the other characters either. (Eva Marie Saint's character would be a possible exception if she had more screen time.) They're just varying degrees of liberal and conservative clichés.

While Vincente Minnelli was really incapable of making a truly awful film, given his talent--and the talent we would see in Taylor and Burton the following year in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?--this can't be seen as anything but a disappointment. But it's not a total failure either. If you're initially interested, Maybe you'll stay with it. If not, you'll be totally bored.

Note: This film gave us the Oscar-winning song, "The Shadow of Your Smile." But none of the characters smile much, so it makes little to no sense when the Studio Singers perform it over the end credits. But it works as a score.

they don't make movies like this any more !

[marilyn5825 · 10/10 · 8 February 2013]

O my goodness ! ! the scenery is AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL, i think i was holding my breath at times... also the passion between Elizabeth and Richard !!! was that acting or (wow) ! some of the lines Elizabeth said really can make one think about true love.,i wonder if they were married at the time when this was filmed., every time Richard looked at her , he looked like he was going to pass out with love., and the director (WOW) directors like Vincent is the reason IM IN LOVE with movies . BUT NOW here is the question ??? does anybody know whose house they used on that cliff in Big Surf to film that ???? did the house belong to MGM or was it a private owner ?

Glossy Minnelli garbage

[Ripshin · 8 October 2005]

Yes, the scenery is beautiful.

Yes, the interior sets filmed in France are faker than fake.

Yes, the film displays the usual Minnelli visual flair.

Yes, it is as bad as you've heard.

Yes, the soundtrack is beautiful.

Yes, Taylor is stunning.

And being that IMDb requires ten lines for a review, I will type this extra long sentence to insure that I do not have to come up with any further comments on this film. Sure, watch it, but expect a typical 60s Minnelli flick.

Pastor and Iconoclast Take Nice Vacation.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 12 May 2012]

I had almost abandoned hope when I read TV guide's review. A straight-laced Episcopelian priest who is headmaster of a boy's school on the California coast (Burton) has a fling with a free-spirited artist (Taylor). The combination of Burton and Taylor alone was enough to scare anybody. "Divorce His, Divorce Hers"? They were having a gay old time of it in the 60s but the viewers were like the only sober guests at the party. Stated flatly, the story itself sounds like a Harlequin romance. But it's not that bad. It has a couple of good things going for it, despite the formulaic plot.

For one thing, the location shooting in and around Big Sur is truly impressive. It was in these southernmost redwood forests that Jack Kerouac had his first case of DTs, but if you're going to have DTs this is the place to have them. Interiors were filmed elsewhere and the set dressers flung themselves into their task recklessly. Taylor's beach house looks like a Hollywood hallucination. Towards the end, Taylor talks to her son about how -- now that her paintings are beginning to sell -- they might soon be able to afford to move out of it, this weathered-wood and crystal-glass palace by the sea. Yes, what a dump. I couldn't afford the insurance on the place and neither could you.

For another thing, there is the catchy theme song by Johnny Mandel, a talented composer. (The lyrics, by Paul Francis Webster, are rubbish.) Mandel did a number of other memorable scores, including "Point Blank." The trumpet that carries the tune under the titles is played by Jack Sheldon, affiliated with West Coast jazz, who partnered with people like Curtis Counce and Gerry Mulligan. Sheldon was an actor of sorts too. He was laid back and invariably spoke and acted as if stoned, whether he was or not. It's a pretty tune and Sheldon draws every melancholy shiver out of it.

The script is a joint product and is more thoughtful and intelligent than it has any particular reason to be. Of course, this is 1965, and the Antinomian Age is beginning -- the Beatles, pop art, Andy Warhol, the loosening of language and the parameters of body exposure in the movies. So we're all rooting for the atheistic Liz Taylor who derides and disregards all consuetudinary rituals. She hosts barbaric dances around the bonfire on the beach. The hell with conformity, as represented by Burton's perceptive but repressed male schoolmarm. Except that Burton is no dope. He's given some excellent lines. Why, asks Liz, should she send her young son to school just in order to learn rules that he'll later rebel against? Burton's reply is that maybe, by providing him with society's rules, it will prevent him from rebelling against hers. That reply points up a paradox. An insistence on "no rules" is itself a rule. The dialog sometimes lifts itself above the humdrum drama beneath it.

The performances are pretty good too. Burton has that rich voice and is sober throughout. Liz Taylor is gorgeous and seems to drape her hefty, half-naked body over the furniture. Charles Bronson -- as a romantic artist! -- produces crummy sculpture, and Taylor's paintings look as if they should have a slogan printed across the bottom: "SOUFFLE DE LA MER. Enjoy The Freedom! At a store nearest you." And it's interesting to see Robert Webber in a nicely conceived performance as something of a cad.

But, ignoring the story and the acting and all that, I don't know how bearable this would have been if, instead of being about two beautiful and smart and rich people on Big Sur, it had been about two middle-aged working-class schlubs in an industrial neighborhood like Kearny, New Jersey. It would have grated.

Liz and Dick and Eva Marie

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 6 June 2006]

Another story about middle-aged anxst. Only this time we have Richard Burton as an Episcopal minister leading a humdrum life as the head of a religious school. He's bored with his marriage too, to Eva Marie Saint.

Into his life comes single mom Elizabeth Taylor who is raising her son Morgan Mason out of wedlock and living in a hippie colony on the California coast. Art imitates life as Liz gets Dick's hormones into exponential overdrive.

A lot of younger members of IMDb could not possibly appreciate all the publicity surrounding Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor from the first reports of an affair on the set of Cleopatra. They were two of the best well known international celebrities anywhere. Of course producers rushed to find stories for them to do. They did a whole number of joint projects.

The Sandpiper was not one of the better ones. It did have an Oscar winning song The Shadow of Your Smile which both Tony Bennett and Johnny Mathis sold a lot of records of. Liz and Dick got a good supporting cast that included Charles Bronson, Robert Webber, Tom Drake and Torin Thatcher.

Thatcher plays a judge and he inadvertently gets the adultery ball rolling when he orders that Liz Taylor stop home schooling young Mason and he orders her to send him to the Episcopal school run by Burton.

We certainly have come full circle. Kids are homeschooled today for religious reasons and judges would get a lot of negative publicity if they ever ordered a kid into a religious school.

Charles Bronson is one of Taylor's artist friends and a militant nonbeliever. He gives atheists a bad name and is constantly giving Burton the needle. Clergy are all too human and the best of them acknowledge that.

Robert Webber in his career played a whole lot of smarmy types. He's on the board at Burton's school and has had his fling with Taylor as well. This is one of his best screen roles and typical for him.

Despite some good moments, The Sandpiper sinks into the level of soap opera. I would recommend seeing Cleopatra, The VIPs, or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf if you want to see Liz and Dick at their best.

"Rain" meets "BUtterfield 8"

[Poseidon-3 · 7 August 2007]

Tops names, in front of and behind the camera, went to work on this colorful, at times beautiful, but muddled and unsatisfying, romantic drama. Taylor plays a freethinking beach bum/artist whose son Mason takes some of her ideas on life a bit too literally and winds up in trouble. He is sent to a parochial school run by man of the cloth Burton and his wife Saint. Sparks fly between Burton and Taylor (then at the height of their extraordinary fame as a real life couple) and soon Burton is torn between the blonde, prim, tall, slender Saint and the brunette, earthy, curvy, sensual Taylor. Burton puts up a rather weak-willed fight, but soon finds himself enveloped in the charms of Taylor until he's exposed and has to face up to what he's done. Burton, who apparently had a fondness at this time for playing priests and the like, gives his role a certain amount of weight and commitment, but he's defeated by a sub-par script and heavy-handed direction. Taylor is all wrong for her role, though she gives it her best shot. She's supposed to be a late 20's beatnik girl from Illinois, but with her accent and manner it's more than a stretch. Speaking of stretch, her clothes in this film are atrocious and seem to get worse every time she appears. Alternating between loud caftans or ponchos, skin-tight clam-diggers and unflattering cinch-waisted dresses with ugly hats, it's a rare occasion when she's allowed to look her best in this film. Buttoned-up Saint whispers the vast majority of her lines (except for her hilarious Method meltdown, which is filmed in a long shot) and is mostly relegated to the sidelines, though she certainly lends the film a touch of class and taste, at least. Bronson (in another amusing casting gaffe) plays a hippie sculptor who takes a dislike to Burton. Webber ably portrays one of Burton's associates who has enjoyed a previous affair with Taylor and who wouldn't mind a reunion. The opening credits for this film are nearly illegible. God save anyone who doesn't have a big screen TV. The scenery of Big Sur is shown off to great advantage, however, and adds immeasurably to the movie. All the ingredients are there for a stylish, involving and striking film, but it falls short. It turns into a tiresome, stagnant string of ruminations and regurgitations about love and man while the title bird keeps fluttering around symbolically (at one point, the sandpiper actually SITS on Taylor's head during a lengthy scene!) The characters rarely behave or proceed the way anyone with half a brain actually would (Taylor and Burton meet in a restaurant in the very locale in which Burton is about to give a fund-raising speech?!) In a startlingly idiotic move, the audience is denied even one scene between Taylor and Saint. This drab story could have used one nice showdown between them. Instead, preposterously, Burton uses his pulpit to process his feelings for the two teary women as they sit at opposite ends of the congregation. It's worth seeing for the scenery, the camp value and to see the Burtons in action during their heyday, but it ultimately has to count as a misfire.