Woodyanders Review of Born Innocent

Born Innocent (1974 TV Movie)

A gritty and hard-hitting 70's made-for-TV classic

[9/10 · 30 March 2007]

Sullen and forlorn 14-year-old incorrigible runaway Chris Parker (a touching and terrific performance by Linda Blair) gets declared a ward of the state. She's placed in a juvenile reform school where she not only begins to feel even more dejected and alienated because of the cold bureaucratic system, but also runs afoul of nasty, disturbed Denny (chillingly played by Janit Baldwin) and dumpy, aggressive lesbian Moco (the equally scary Nora Heflin). Director Donald Wrye, working from a gritty and uncompromisingly realistic script by Gerald Di Pego, relates the grimly plausible and compelling story in an admirably straightforward and nonexploitative manner. The uniformly fine acting from a top-notch cast qualifies as another substantial asset: Joanna Miles as concerned, caring counselor Barbara Clark, Allyn Ann McLerie as strict, but compassionate house mother Emma Lasko, Richard Jaeckel as Chris' stern, volatile, overbearing father, Kim Hunter as Chris' neurotic, ineffectual mother, Mitch Vogel as Chris' supportive, but unhelpful brother Tom, Tina Andrews as the friendly, spunky Josie, and Sandra Ego as the depressed, suicidal, pregnant Janet. Fred Karlin's beautifully moody'n'melancholy score and David M. Walsh's plain, yet polished cinematography are likewise solid and impressive. But what truly gives this hard-hitting made-for-TV drama its considerable impact and poignancy is the welcome and commendable sense of restraint, conviction and raw honesty evident throughout. The potentially lurid plot stays on a steady and tasteful course (although the infamous plunger rape scene is indeed quite shocking and disturbing, its thankfully more suggested than shown), sharply revealing plenty of bleak truths about troubled teens in the process and culminating in a hauntingly downbeat ending. A real powerhouse.