A remake of Steel Magnolias, this time starring Queen Latifah, Phylicia Rashad, Alfre Woodard, Jill Scott, Adepero Oduye, and Condola Rashad (Phylicia Rashad's real-life daughter). Queen Latifah takes on the role of M'Lynn (Sally Fields), Condola Rashad is Shelby (Julia Roberts), Alfre Woodard as Ousier (Shirley MacLaine), Phylicia Rashad as Clariee (Olympia Dukakis), Jill Scott as Truvy (Dolly Parton), and Adepero Oduye as Annelle Dupuy-Desoto (Daryl Hannah).
The plot was realistic for the time the story has been written. But today women with T1 will most likely deliver healthy babies and have a healthy outcome. Thus the remake will repeat a disheartening story and will just deepen prejudices of the general public instead of educating them. I want to see a success story: mother in close control on a pump with a caring medical team and a healthy baby at the end. A story that is todays reality - of course with much efford and diligence.
Last nite,I did not set the tv to record it. I thought it was coming on the NEXT Sunday. Maybe Lifetime will show it again this week.
Did anbody on Tudiabetes watch it?
God bless,
Brunetta
That's cool that her diabetes wasn't an issue at all. There's a lot of grim diseases out there. I didn't catch it, I zonked out in front of the football game last night.
I just checked, it will be playing at 8 pm tonight on Lifetime. I also watched the movie that came on after that, Abducted: The Carlina White Story, based on a true story of a kidnapped baby. That will be on at 10 pm.
Oops, I just realized people might want to watch it tonight, so I deleted my original post so as not to give away the plot. I will say that the movie was very much in the present day and age, even mentioned Obama, and it was mentioned that diabetic women have successful pregnancies now. I'll leave it at that, it's a good remake IMO.
I am glad it is not a remake but a new take on diabetes. Applause!
I just learned the new version is exactly what I have imagined.
I see that it is due to be on again tonight, so I won't go into details, only to say that it was pretty bad. I don't remember the original one that well to compare, but I'd say it is only a marginal improvement.
Queen Latifah was interviewed on NPR yesterday about Steel Magnolias and how it was her favorite movie ever. http://www.npr.org/2012/10/07/162404612/the-movie-queen-latifah-has...
What really irked me about the original movie was that there was zero chance of me identifying with the girly-girl movie aspect. I saw it with my girlfriend of the time because she wanted to see it but uggggh!!!! So instead like many here I probably identify it as a "diabetes movie" but really it isn't.
At the time some of the scary diabetes-related scenes freaked me out (having been diagnosed just..... 8 or 9 years before and not yet having had a major public hypo episode) but today what really pisses me off about the original movie was what's-her-name-played-by-Julia-Roberts Mom, using the word "special" to describe her diabetes compared to... I'm not sure compared to what. Other diabetics that aren't special? Was special a codeword in her head for diabetes?. God I hate that. If anyone other than my mom ever wants to refer to me as special, I'll show them just how special I am.
If I recall the original movie, the Julia Roberts character points out to her mom that diabetic women have babies all the time. But her mom insists that no, that won't work for her, she's "special". Ugh, I hate that. Is that some code word in Southern vernacular, for, like kidney disease? Or does it mean something else?
I freaking hated the original movie. I still shudder when I hear someone mention the title.
I thought it was really dumb when I saw it, although I thought the hypo scene seemed ok, sort of like the tripping scene in "Dogs in Space." When I found out that it was autobiographical it made me think that maybe, despite the overdone southern corniness, it was an accurate portrayal of the author's view of his sister's demise. Diabetes is serious stuff and I don't think that you can necessary take it too seriously, despite my own playful perspective.
I didn't know it was autobiographical. Do you know when the story takes place? I assumed it was a book, but checked on Amazon just now and it was a play.
I don't think you would like the new version any better. I thought it was awful. You never hear or see her taking positive care of her diabetes. The hypo scene makes her look like a zombie - I expect her to start walking around with her arms stretched out. She is fully conscious but people (who've known her all her life) start freaking out. The mother encourages her to drink what looked like two full water glasses of juice (high city!) (She had apparently forgotten to bring her purse which had her "candy" in it). Nobody tests her blood sugar. Though she's in her early 20s she has serious kidney damage and if I didn't know anything about D I would assume that it a normal symptom of Diabetes. We have no idea if she is well managed or not. Except when she insists she will have a baby, she appears like a whiney spaced out wimp, not a very likeable character at all - she is characterized as a "damaged person who nobody could love". Yuck! Sets diabetes education back a couple decades!
the only thing that seemed at all true to life was the mother being way too controlling and the daughter rebelling, though even that part doesn't show the daughter taking over her care in a proactive way but just stopping her mother from hovering
Not a fan of tearjerkers, so I never saw the first one until I was diagnosed. I ended up watching it out of curiosity. I knew the end would be a downer, but I wanted to see how diabetes would be depicted (and it's so rarely featured in tv or movies). I was totally unprepared for how upset I would be! Still, for some reason I want to see the Lifetime version. Maybe I need a good cry!
I cry at commercials, Rennie, and this movie didn't make me cry, it just annoyed me!
But on thinking about it I realize it is a true story and based on incidents that date to at least the early 80s, so diabetes would have been a different story then, and I'll be interested to hear if people who were diagnosed then or earlier will find it more true to life than I did.
I guess since it was based on true incidents it had to be true to its time, but, especially since it's a remake I think many people will watch it without distinguishing between diabetes in the 70s or 80s and diabetes today. With all the ignorance out there about D I just wince when I see a movie like this on tv. I also didn't think it was a particularly good movie aside from D which was surprising considering the quality of the cast!
I think the 1970s but am not 100% sure. The wikipedia article says Robert Harling's DOB is in 1959 so if his sister was in that ballpark, it'd probably be in there. A friend of mine was T1 in the same era and lost her sight, apparently rather suddenly although her book about it (playfully titled "Long Time No See...", a really good book, I dunno if that was the wildest thing that happened to her or not...) isn't nearly as maudlin and, in fact, is funny as hell.
I also had a T1 friend who lost her sight suddenly, that put an end to her teaching career.