Saga of the well-meaning teenager gone awry during those turbulent political years 1965-1972. In flashbacks to her girlhood, Sissy Spacek's Katherine, the daughter of wealthy Capitalists, is revealed to be a political hothead from the start (she was never an innocence lost). As she describes to us her reasons for becoming a radical (in an unpretentious, direct-to-the-camera way), we see Katherine move from the Society Column to the Most Wanted pages...and a living, breathing character begins to take shape. Smart, perceptive made-for-television drama with yet another remarkable performance from young Spacek; also good, Henry Winkler as a non-conformist love-interest and Emmy-nominated Art Carney as Katherine's father. Jeremy Paul Kagan directed (he also directed Winkler in 1977's "Heroes") and his work is stark and focused. At the finale, when Kagan shows us that unoccupied stool, we've come away with a lot more than a glimpse into the radical mind--we're aware of a promising life misbegotten.
29 Reviews
A Pawn in the War Game
wes-connors14 September 2010
"Inspired by true events, 'Katherine' documents the conversion (in flashback style) of a sensitive '60s activist to radical extremist. Played with great sensitivity, and foreshadowing the great roles that would come to characterize her career, Sissy Spacek delivers a nuanced and ultimately tragic performance as the title's lead. Spacek is ably supported in this drama by legendary actors Art Carney and Jane Wyatt as her parents, and Henry Winkler as a fellow activist and supportive boyfriend," according to the DVD sleeve.
Writer/director Jeremy Kagan's "ABC Sunday Night Movie" seems to have been loosely based on "Weather Underground" member Diana Oughton's life, and also followed the big media story involving "Symbionese Liberation Army" recruit Patty Hearst. At the time, the American TV viewing public would have been familiar with the stories involving young women who gave up affluent socialite status to join revolutionary militia groups. With everyone wondering "Why?", "Katherine" provides an answer.
Ms. Spacek's glasses and wigs look like props sitting on her head, even when meant to look real. Still, Spacek is a fine actress, and worth watching. Taking a "Happy Days" break, Mr. Winkler always shines in these 1970s roles; he is so unlike his "Fonzie" character. Mr. Carney, experiencing a career resurgence, was predictably Emmy-nominated for an "Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special". Television veterans Ms. Wyatt (once the mother on "Father Knows Best") and Julie Kavner (then little sister to "Rhoda") also appear. The song hits are not the original recordings.
***** Katherine (10/5/75) Jeremy Kagan ~ Sissy Spacek, Henry Winkler, Art Carney, Jane Wyatt
Writer/director Jeremy Kagan's "ABC Sunday Night Movie" seems to have been loosely based on "Weather Underground" member Diana Oughton's life, and also followed the big media story involving "Symbionese Liberation Army" recruit Patty Hearst. At the time, the American TV viewing public would have been familiar with the stories involving young women who gave up affluent socialite status to join revolutionary militia groups. With everyone wondering "Why?", "Katherine" provides an answer.
Ms. Spacek's glasses and wigs look like props sitting on her head, even when meant to look real. Still, Spacek is a fine actress, and worth watching. Taking a "Happy Days" break, Mr. Winkler always shines in these 1970s roles; he is so unlike his "Fonzie" character. Mr. Carney, experiencing a career resurgence, was predictably Emmy-nominated for an "Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special". Television veterans Ms. Wyatt (once the mother on "Father Knows Best") and Julie Kavner (then little sister to "Rhoda") also appear. The song hits are not the original recordings.
***** Katherine (10/5/75) Jeremy Kagan ~ Sissy Spacek, Henry Winkler, Art Carney, Jane Wyatt
fictionalized but well done
Bry-24 November 2003
It's been many years since I saw this, but I do recall enough details to know this was not based loosely on the Patti Hearst case, as has been stated, but on Dwight, Illinois's Diana Oughton, who got involved with the Weathermen and was one of three "urban commandos" killed when a bomb they were working on went off in their NYC townhouse, in May of 1970. Diana was the daughter of an important landowning family, and was brought up in the "lap of luxury", such as it can be in rural Illinois, who became socially conscious while teaching school in Guatemala, circa 1962, then joined the SDS and its Weathermen offshoot in the late 60's.
Given that this is fictionalized, the performances are wonderful and the writing and direction (given that it's a TV movie) are above average.
Given that this is fictionalized, the performances are wonderful and the writing and direction (given that it's a TV movie) are above average.
Revolution with Warts
inspectors716 December 2005
For a 70's TV movie, this is strong stuff. Katherine tells the story of a pampered, UMC, boomer-princess who gets the virus of guilt when she is confronted with injustices in the third world and, you guessed it, turns Marxist.
I sound flippant here, but you can just guess the depths of depravity Sissy Spacek's Katherine--within the bounds of TV sensibilities--goes in her radicalized zeal to tear down the capitalist, fascist, materialistic, racist, showered and shaved system. And yet, when she is confronted with her lover's (Henry Winkler) using of revolutionary principles to justify his banging other girls, you can see her losing her last shred of sanity, her desire to someday have marriage to enjoy and family to care for. The transformation of Katherine from seeker of justice to angry, depraved killer is heartbreaking.
Spacek shows the sort of talent that has made her such a seriously good actress, Winkler is a journeyman actor himself (and you learn to hate him as his idealism morphs into something darker), Art Carney and Jane Wyatt are excellent as Katherine's good Democrat parents who enable her radicalization by funding their daughter as she dives deeper into the underground, and the rest of the supporting cast enriches the story.
The only drag on Katherine is the fact that it is a TV Movie (although the version I saw had a few moments of violence, drugs, and semi-nudity added; presumably for a theatrical release in Europe?). The film just doesn't have enough time to completely tell the story of the radicalized 60's and early 70's. Even though it's told in flashbacks and documentarian interviews (and the interviews with Spacek are so chillingly peaceful, you suspect there's something really bad coming), the time constraints truncate the story. You're left with an almost-told story, not a complete one.
Yet, the strength of the performances and the topicality of the story keep Katherine alive, watchable, and ultimately, crushingly sad.
I sound flippant here, but you can just guess the depths of depravity Sissy Spacek's Katherine--within the bounds of TV sensibilities--goes in her radicalized zeal to tear down the capitalist, fascist, materialistic, racist, showered and shaved system. And yet, when she is confronted with her lover's (Henry Winkler) using of revolutionary principles to justify his banging other girls, you can see her losing her last shred of sanity, her desire to someday have marriage to enjoy and family to care for. The transformation of Katherine from seeker of justice to angry, depraved killer is heartbreaking.
Spacek shows the sort of talent that has made her such a seriously good actress, Winkler is a journeyman actor himself (and you learn to hate him as his idealism morphs into something darker), Art Carney and Jane Wyatt are excellent as Katherine's good Democrat parents who enable her radicalization by funding their daughter as she dives deeper into the underground, and the rest of the supporting cast enriches the story.
The only drag on Katherine is the fact that it is a TV Movie (although the version I saw had a few moments of violence, drugs, and semi-nudity added; presumably for a theatrical release in Europe?). The film just doesn't have enough time to completely tell the story of the radicalized 60's and early 70's. Even though it's told in flashbacks and documentarian interviews (and the interviews with Spacek are so chillingly peaceful, you suspect there's something really bad coming), the time constraints truncate the story. You're left with an almost-told story, not a complete one.
Yet, the strength of the performances and the topicality of the story keep Katherine alive, watchable, and ultimately, crushingly sad.
By 1975 this seemed like the distant past...
AlsExGal27 May 2016
...even though this film is talking about events from roughly 1964-1970. So at the time this aired, nothing being shown here was more than ten years in the past. However, American culture had changed so fast that it really seemed like you were looking at an era that was just a blip on a very old radar, yet that brief era brought lasting change. Some people think this film was based on the story of Patty Hearst, but it was actually a very loose account of someone of similar age and life experience to Diana Oughton , who was one of the Weathermen, a domestic terrorist group.
The production boasts a top notch cast, including two veterans - Art Carney and Jane Wyatt as Katherine's upper class parents, an up and coming Sissy Spacek as Katherine, the sassy prep school student turned schoolteacher turned protester and ultimately turned violent revolutionary. Riding the crest of a wave of popularity at that time, Henry Winkler stars as Katherine's long time boyfriend, Bob, who in the end acts like most boyfriends in any era of time, except Bob uses revolutionary excuses to explain why he decides eventually to ghost on Katherine, not just that he is getting bored with her - that would be so bourgeoisie! You know, even though Henry Winker was as famous in the 70s as Bogey was in the 40s, that bushy haircut and mustache they planted on him made him completely unrecognizable to me at the time.
This is really well done as Katherine in present day - about 1970 - is talking about the evolution of her viewpoints. And you think from her very plain clothing and the stool she is sitting on she is probably in prison - I'll let you watch and find out what is really going on. At the same time you see her life unfold. After college she goes to South America to teach children and adults. The local landlord - rather like a feudal lord - objects to Katherine teaching the adults to read and has her kicked out of the country. He is afraid the peasants will become educated and revolt. Back in the states she teaches underprivileged African American kids at an alternative school. That's where she meets Bob. The white power structure strikes back by claiming the school is breaking zoning laws, but the black power movement also weighs in, telling Bob and Katherine that white people should never teach black kids, because it will take the hate out of them and "hate is the strongest weapon we have". So slowly Katherine reaches the conclusion that neither education nor peaceful protest will ever fix anything and takes up arms against "institutions of power". She seems to have forgotten that average Joes who have nothing to do with the power structure she wishes to destroy could get hurt in her revolution.
And then there are mom and dad. They are well off, the film never talks about exactly what Katherine's dad does for a living, and even Katherine has to admit her parents are good people, even though she often describes them as living off of other people's oppression. You can tell they want to help and understand their daughter, but she is just on a different wavelength from them. Tea and cookies are not going to fix this. Likewise Katherine's sister and best college friend take on the traditional 60's role of wife and mother and don't get her either.
I'll let you see how this all turns out, but I thought it was quite powerful, and I was only seventeen at the time it aired. I was somewhat disappointed when I discussed this film with my friends the next day and the only thing they got out of it was how pretty Katherine was at the beginning of the film and how used up she looked at the end. But it was the 70s, the Vietnam war was over, nobody's boyfriend was going to get drafted, and this just seemed like a story from a place long ago and far away to a bunch of teens in 1975.
I'm glad we don't have American young people blowing up buildings and robbing banks or kidnapping heiresses anymore, but it would be nice if they cared about more than the next Marvel comic movie and reality TV, if they weren't all just so passively resigned to their fates and hypnotized by their phones. There must be a happy medium.
The production boasts a top notch cast, including two veterans - Art Carney and Jane Wyatt as Katherine's upper class parents, an up and coming Sissy Spacek as Katherine, the sassy prep school student turned schoolteacher turned protester and ultimately turned violent revolutionary. Riding the crest of a wave of popularity at that time, Henry Winkler stars as Katherine's long time boyfriend, Bob, who in the end acts like most boyfriends in any era of time, except Bob uses revolutionary excuses to explain why he decides eventually to ghost on Katherine, not just that he is getting bored with her - that would be so bourgeoisie! You know, even though Henry Winker was as famous in the 70s as Bogey was in the 40s, that bushy haircut and mustache they planted on him made him completely unrecognizable to me at the time.
This is really well done as Katherine in present day - about 1970 - is talking about the evolution of her viewpoints. And you think from her very plain clothing and the stool she is sitting on she is probably in prison - I'll let you watch and find out what is really going on. At the same time you see her life unfold. After college she goes to South America to teach children and adults. The local landlord - rather like a feudal lord - objects to Katherine teaching the adults to read and has her kicked out of the country. He is afraid the peasants will become educated and revolt. Back in the states she teaches underprivileged African American kids at an alternative school. That's where she meets Bob. The white power structure strikes back by claiming the school is breaking zoning laws, but the black power movement also weighs in, telling Bob and Katherine that white people should never teach black kids, because it will take the hate out of them and "hate is the strongest weapon we have". So slowly Katherine reaches the conclusion that neither education nor peaceful protest will ever fix anything and takes up arms against "institutions of power". She seems to have forgotten that average Joes who have nothing to do with the power structure she wishes to destroy could get hurt in her revolution.
And then there are mom and dad. They are well off, the film never talks about exactly what Katherine's dad does for a living, and even Katherine has to admit her parents are good people, even though she often describes them as living off of other people's oppression. You can tell they want to help and understand their daughter, but she is just on a different wavelength from them. Tea and cookies are not going to fix this. Likewise Katherine's sister and best college friend take on the traditional 60's role of wife and mother and don't get her either.
I'll let you see how this all turns out, but I thought it was quite powerful, and I was only seventeen at the time it aired. I was somewhat disappointed when I discussed this film with my friends the next day and the only thing they got out of it was how pretty Katherine was at the beginning of the film and how used up she looked at the end. But it was the 70s, the Vietnam war was over, nobody's boyfriend was going to get drafted, and this just seemed like a story from a place long ago and far away to a bunch of teens in 1975.
I'm glad we don't have American young people blowing up buildings and robbing banks or kidnapping heiresses anymore, but it would be nice if they cared about more than the next Marvel comic movie and reality TV, if they weren't all just so passively resigned to their fates and hypnotized by their phones. There must be a happy medium.
Katherine still relevant especially for today
psargia19 January 2006
Though a low budget TV movie of the 1970's, Katherine hits a nerve today because it sends a message to a complacent society that has gotten caught up in pop culture and comfort food that injustices are committed everyday by our government with most of us barely noticing. It's a good film for young people who are beginning to grapple with the world around them to learn that things aren't as good as they always seemed in their cocoon of upbringing and schooling. And it is a wake-up call, like a lot of today's new indie films (Syriana, Goodnight and Good Luck and The Constant Gardner) for the rest of us who live for the next episode of The Sopranos or Desperate Housewives between days at work. Despite some drawbacks of the production, Sissy Spacek's impassioned performance effectively sends the movie's message home.
Underground...and on TV
JasparLamarCrabb18 May 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Jeremy Kagan directed this very low key drama starring Sissy Spacek in the title role as a child of wealth turned "revolutionary" circa 1970. It's a sad and really bleak time capsule capturing an era when young people naively thought they could really change the world, resorting to violence once they realize their peaceful demonstrations are doing nothing. The war in Vietnam, racism, class wars...it's all here. Spacek is riveting, if not perfect. As her boyfriend and fellow radical, Henry Winkler is shockingly good. Art Carney and Jane Wyatt are Spacek's parents and they're proud of her despite her misguided actions. A really good movie.
Good plot, good acting, but something is missing
Killakai12 January 2008
Strengths: The acting is good, the characters seem real and make sense and you get to see Katherine develop through her experiences. Very real plot, could easily be an autobiography of one of the weathermen members. They explain why she believes as she does, they don't gloss over her beliefs, she is hardcore, and much of the things that are said in the movie seem like thats how they really happened for many who lived in that era.
Weaknesses: The way the story was told made it bad to me. The talking to the camera interviews especially bothered me. Thats not how you tell a story, you show who she was, by showing her in action. The movie did a good job of showing you who she was by her dialogue and actions, but blew it by having various family members and herself tell you who she is, and why she is the way she is. That is bad story telling.
Overall i think it was worth watching, i think it captures that era pretty well, and shows enough about her politics to make it an interesting conversatoin piece. But the replay value is very low, imo, and the score is horrible.
Weaknesses: The way the story was told made it bad to me. The talking to the camera interviews especially bothered me. Thats not how you tell a story, you show who she was, by showing her in action. The movie did a good job of showing you who she was by her dialogue and actions, but blew it by having various family members and herself tell you who she is, and why she is the way she is. That is bad story telling.
Overall i think it was worth watching, i think it captures that era pretty well, and shows enough about her politics to make it an interesting conversatoin piece. But the replay value is very low, imo, and the score is horrible.
Terrific acting, direction and score
rollo_tomaso19 May 2001
Loosely based on the Patti Hearst saga, this all-too-true account of the times and the conflicting feelings stands well on its own merits. Masterful work by Spacek and Winkler as the well-meaning but misguided rebels. The scene where Art Carney and Spacek dance is so compelling, it always makes me cry; the music is perfectly used; and all the supporting performances are raw, truthful, and insightful. Viewed through present lenses, this may seem overdone, but having lived through those times, it is write on the money and lovingly directed. At the time creative directors were able to say in TV-movies what the film studios would not allow especially with regard to Vietnam and teen unrest -- quite the opposite of today. My score in the context of its period is 10/10.
Surprisingly Effective Docudrama!
Sylviastel24 January 2011
Art Carney and Jane Wyatt are perfectly cast as the upscale Denver parents of Katherine Alman, a renegade revolutionary in the 1960s. She had a life of privilege but gave it all up to make the world a better place. In this film, she is played by the wonderful Sissy Spacek. Henry Winkler plays her boyfriend who is equally liberal in the film. Julie Kavner plays her college friend. There are others in the film. It's an okay film even though I had technical difficulties towards the end which I think left us hanging for more. According to the internet, it's loosely based on the life of Diana Oughton. Anyway, the film goes back and forth over Katherine's life in a beautiful estate in Denver, Colorado where she was raised with a horse, tennis court, and pool by loving and supportive parents to her college days. After college, she went to Peru where she taught to children and adults but she seen as a threat to the system. She returns to the United States where she teaches African American children in the South where she meets Henry Winkler's character. The movie returns to how she must conduct a final mission. It's chilling but the end is cut short. We never really know what her final mission is but we know who she was.
The Story of a Radical Activist During a Time of Protest in America
Uriah4322 March 2021
Although this film begins in 1972, the story itself essentially starts in the early 60's with a naïve college student by the name of "Katherine Alman" (Sissy Spacek) volunteering to go to Peru to help educate young children. Although her wealthy father "Thornton Alman" (Art Carney) and mother "Emily Alman" (Jane Wyatt) are against this decision their attempts to dissuade her simply fall on deaf ears as she is committed to helping her fellow man. Once there, however, she begins to see poverty up close and blames the American government for supporting the corrupt government which allows it to perpetuate. Then after being expelled from that country she and her new boyfriend "Bob Kline" (Henry Winkler) go to one of the Southern states and witness racism first hand as well. From that point on the two of them become more radical until they no longer resemble the people they were just a couple of years before. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an okay film which contained good performances by both Sissy Spacek and Art Carney. That said, the problem I had with it was that the ending was rather predictable due in large part to the opening scenes which depicted Katherine in the past tense. Likewise, no doubt due to time-constraints, the film breezed through key events and didn't quite capture the intensity of the era as well as it could have either. In any case, while I don't consider this to be a great movie by any means, it passed the time fairly well and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
good movie for a TV movie
Tayfun_Yilmaz9 October 2006
i watched it on local TV,the movie about young people who want to change US in 60's and, although it is a TV movie,there are good screenplay and acting, especially Sissy Spacek's acting, once i have seen her as much young, the movie are really good flashback, it explains the freedom events in US by young people who want to change everything and protest Vietnam war, they try to make a revolution in US and show US citizens the real face of US political leaders in 60's such as Nixon,if you like TV movies and movies about youngness actions in 60's years in US, this movie are one of the best that can be made in 70's
This *is* available on DVD
doktorf29 May 2005
although not a very full featured one. I got it at a bargain shop for $1.00. I bet that you would be hard pressed to find it at a higher price. It is not a particularly good transfer, but still better than most VHS. It is published by Digiview Productions (www.digiviewus.com).
I liked this film. It was thoughtful, unpretentious and well acted. I must admit that I had forgotten what a great beauty Sissy Spacek was in her youth and what a terrific actress she was from almost the very beginning.
I guess this was right around the time Henry Winkler was playing Fonzie and some of those mannerisms come out in his performance.
I liked this film. It was thoughtful, unpretentious and well acted. I must admit that I had forgotten what a great beauty Sissy Spacek was in her youth and what a terrific actress she was from almost the very beginning.
I guess this was right around the time Henry Winkler was playing Fonzie and some of those mannerisms come out in his performance.
Save your time
saramgia20 February 2018
The cast is outstanding, and the acting is good but not as good as the cast's capabilities due to the bad script. It's a glimpse at the ignorance of the time--the lack of understanding we had regarding the brainwashing of Patti Hearst and the Manson women. I never thought it was a good movie, but I recognize its errors more now than I did 40 years ago. Some movies should be forgotten. This is one of them.
Was there ever a great movie about the '60s?
m_rappaport-112 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
The man known as Wavy Gravy once said that if you remember the '60s, you weren't there, and it's easy to see that most of the movies done about that era had little or no idea about what it all really meant.
There was Anthony Quinn and Ann-Margret's ridiculous "RPM" (Revolutions Per Minute) and the borderline OK "Strawberry Statement." Arthur Penn's "Four Friends" came close, but it was this Sissy Spacek made-for-TV movie, originally called "Katherine: Portrait of a Terrorist," that really seemed to tell the story.
No, it wasn't Patty Hearst. If anything, the movie was based on Diana Oughton, the Weather Underground member who died while making a bomb. Spacek was only 24 or 25 when it was made, and she was really known only for "Badlands" at that time. Once we saw her in this, it was obvious she was going to be a great actress. Also, she never looked more beautiful than in this movie.
It's sort of available in DVD. I found it in a bargain bin for $1.
Well worth the time.
There was Anthony Quinn and Ann-Margret's ridiculous "RPM" (Revolutions Per Minute) and the borderline OK "Strawberry Statement." Arthur Penn's "Four Friends" came close, but it was this Sissy Spacek made-for-TV movie, originally called "Katherine: Portrait of a Terrorist," that really seemed to tell the story.
No, it wasn't Patty Hearst. If anything, the movie was based on Diana Oughton, the Weather Underground member who died while making a bomb. Spacek was only 24 or 25 when it was made, and she was really known only for "Badlands" at that time. Once we saw her in this, it was obvious she was going to be a great actress. Also, she never looked more beautiful than in this movie.
It's sort of available in DVD. I found it in a bargain bin for $1.
Well worth the time.
Strong Performances but that's it
lnslicer-8374112 May 2020
I know this was based on Diana Oughton, not Hearst. I know this because I knew Diana and her family. Jim Oughton (dad) was a good friend to my father. I've been to their home, ate at their restaurant (long since closed). Mr. Oughton even gave me a horse which my dad said no to.
This isn't a bad film but when you know the people, it's a bit shallow. Art Carney is excellent in delivering the lines given him but Mr. Oughton was more generous and willing to help people with problems. He worked hard to help people with alcoholism. He had an easy laugh and while someone mentioned that being rich in Dwight Illinois isn't much, I assure you, this was a supremely privileged family.
I don't know. I realize this is a movie and stories need to bend but the real people were so much more interesting. It still makes me cry to know that Diana was only identified in that horrid explosion by fragments of her jaw and teeth.
This isn't a bad film but when you know the people, it's a bit shallow. Art Carney is excellent in delivering the lines given him but Mr. Oughton was more generous and willing to help people with problems. He worked hard to help people with alcoholism. He had an easy laugh and while someone mentioned that being rich in Dwight Illinois isn't much, I assure you, this was a supremely privileged family.
I don't know. I realize this is a movie and stories need to bend but the real people were so much more interesting. It still makes me cry to know that Diana was only identified in that horrid explosion by fragments of her jaw and teeth.
Made for TV, but the acting is very good
jeremy311 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
This is a 70s look at the lives of radicals during the 60s. You really got to know the main characters. I especially liked Art Carney and Henry Winkler. Art Carney showed that he was not only a great comedian, but a pretty passable actor. Carney plays the good hearted father, who has made wealth and fortune in his life. However, he is not aware that his very giving of all this fortune to his daughter, at her age (late teens/early 20s) means that she feels lack of ownership for her own fate. Carney plays a father who loves his daughter, but can't understand why she acts the way she does.
Winkler is excellent as a radical, who had so much charisma and earthiness, that you could see him as one of these radicals turned Wall Street banker in the 1980s. You don't know what is driving his rage, except that it might be his Jewishness in the 70s still makes him feel like an outsider. He is sad, because he had a good heart. He impressed the father (Carney) of his lover (Spacek) with his intelligence and coolness. He didn't want to lose the baby from his pregnant girlfriend.
However, when the 60s turned into the nasty early 70s, he is overwhelmed by the arguments of the paranoid, extremist. One woman impresses him with her fierceness in a radical meeting. From there it is all downhill. He becomes an insane monster, who has lost his humanity.
You feel that Katherine (Spacek) is typical of some Baby Boomers raised in wealthy families. She is, at first, the loyal daughter. However, she soon finds out and fears that the wealth that her father attained has nothing to do with her. She can't live up to her wealth, so she rebels and becomes the opposite.
There are hard lessons. She goes to South America to help out, but soon discovers that even the wealthy there have strong resentment about the intrusion of Europeans and Americans in their affairs. She tries to help out a black school in the South, but finds out that the people on both sides of the racial divide have their own agendas. She is a young woman lost in a World where she knows not what she really is and what she stands for.
Winkler is excellent as a radical, who had so much charisma and earthiness, that you could see him as one of these radicals turned Wall Street banker in the 1980s. You don't know what is driving his rage, except that it might be his Jewishness in the 70s still makes him feel like an outsider. He is sad, because he had a good heart. He impressed the father (Carney) of his lover (Spacek) with his intelligence and coolness. He didn't want to lose the baby from his pregnant girlfriend.
However, when the 60s turned into the nasty early 70s, he is overwhelmed by the arguments of the paranoid, extremist. One woman impresses him with her fierceness in a radical meeting. From there it is all downhill. He becomes an insane monster, who has lost his humanity.
You feel that Katherine (Spacek) is typical of some Baby Boomers raised in wealthy families. She is, at first, the loyal daughter. However, she soon finds out and fears that the wealth that her father attained has nothing to do with her. She can't live up to her wealth, so she rebels and becomes the opposite.
There are hard lessons. She goes to South America to help out, but soon discovers that even the wealthy there have strong resentment about the intrusion of Europeans and Americans in their affairs. She tries to help out a black school in the South, but finds out that the people on both sides of the racial divide have their own agendas. She is a young woman lost in a World where she knows not what she really is and what she stands for.
The logical end of loony liberalism
Wuchakk11 October 2017
RELEASED TO TV IN 1975 and written & directed by Jeremy Kagan, "Katherine" is a docudrama loosely based on Diana Oughton, who sprung from an affluent Illinois family and went off to university in the early 60s, but gave up graduate school to teach poor farm workers how to read & write in Guatemala for a couple of years in the mid-60s. Back at graduate school in the states in 1966, she eventually decided to work full time for the Children's Community School, an alternative means of education, where she met and fell in love with CCS teacher Bill Ayers. During these years she morphed from liberal to loony liberal radical, eventually joining the so-called Weather Underground. She died in 1970 at the premature age of 28 due to an accidental nail bomb explosion, which was intended for a dance of non-commissioned officers and their loved ones at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Sissy Spacek effectively plays the fictitious title character (aka Oughton). She was 25 during filming and never looked better (speaking as someone who never thought she was particularly attractive, but she certainly has a nice figure). Sissy was a formidable rising star at the time after "Badlands" (1973), but she wouldn't truly break out until the year after "Katherine" with "Carrie" (1976). Henry Winkler plays the Ayers character while taking a break from Happy Days. Imagine The Fonz as a college liberal in the '60s and you'll have a pretty good picture of his performance. Art Carney and Jane Wyatt are also on hand as Katherine's parents.
When this movie debuted on television in October '75, Oughton's crest fall five years prior was still fairly fresh in the minds of North Americans; and the strange Patty Hearst saga of 1974-75 was only then winding down with Patty's arrest the previous month. The public was naturally wondering how intelligent young American women could give up wealthy socialite standing to embrace poverty and join nutty revolutionary groups. "Katherine" is a minor hidden gem that effectually shows how. The movie wisely takes the middle road between far left and far right. It helps us to sympathize with Katherine's mindset while plainly showing that it's a doomed path.
Forget its TV origins, this is a good realistic drama about life in America during the turbulent 60s & early 70s. The movie showcases the political and social craziness of those times and how it changed youths, for better or worse. It's akin to 1980's "A Small Circle of Friends" and 2000's underrated "The 70s." The soundtrack features several hits from the 60s, but they're not the original songs by the original artists, obviously to save money and prevent licensing problems.
THE MOVIE RUNS 97 minutes and was shot in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Tucson & Old Tucson, Arizona. ADDITIONAL CAST: Julie Kavner and Jenny Sullivan appear as Katherine's best friend and sister respectively. Catlin Adams is also on hand.
GRADE: B+
Sissy Spacek effectively plays the fictitious title character (aka Oughton). She was 25 during filming and never looked better (speaking as someone who never thought she was particularly attractive, but she certainly has a nice figure). Sissy was a formidable rising star at the time after "Badlands" (1973), but she wouldn't truly break out until the year after "Katherine" with "Carrie" (1976). Henry Winkler plays the Ayers character while taking a break from Happy Days. Imagine The Fonz as a college liberal in the '60s and you'll have a pretty good picture of his performance. Art Carney and Jane Wyatt are also on hand as Katherine's parents.
When this movie debuted on television in October '75, Oughton's crest fall five years prior was still fairly fresh in the minds of North Americans; and the strange Patty Hearst saga of 1974-75 was only then winding down with Patty's arrest the previous month. The public was naturally wondering how intelligent young American women could give up wealthy socialite standing to embrace poverty and join nutty revolutionary groups. "Katherine" is a minor hidden gem that effectually shows how. The movie wisely takes the middle road between far left and far right. It helps us to sympathize with Katherine's mindset while plainly showing that it's a doomed path.
Forget its TV origins, this is a good realistic drama about life in America during the turbulent 60s & early 70s. The movie showcases the political and social craziness of those times and how it changed youths, for better or worse. It's akin to 1980's "A Small Circle of Friends" and 2000's underrated "The 70s." The soundtrack features several hits from the 60s, but they're not the original songs by the original artists, obviously to save money and prevent licensing problems.
THE MOVIE RUNS 97 minutes and was shot in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Tucson & Old Tucson, Arizona. ADDITIONAL CAST: Julie Kavner and Jenny Sullivan appear as Katherine's best friend and sister respectively. Catlin Adams is also on hand.
GRADE: B+
I always give 5 stars for average, virtually never 10
miller-steve10 August 2021
I saw this only once--when it was on TV in 1975. I was 20 years old. It left a powerful impact on me. I hadn't yet heard of Sissy Spacek or Henry Winkler. I deeply "identified" with Katherine as the movie began. I kept thinking "Yes, she's doing the right thing!" Then in the end... I felt the way a balloon must feel when it's popped. I realized the error of her ways--and mine. I realized I too could've been sucked right into all that. I've never, ever forgotten this story. Someday I'll try to get my granddaughters to watch it with me.
Mad bomber goes on rampage
helpless_dancer16 January 2001
Spacek plays the part of a girl who lets her emotions and liberal attitudes turn her into a maniac bomber. Her warped mind convinced her that killing and destroying was the answer to a better world. Much of the film was done with Spacek and Winkler sitting on a chair talking to the audience about their views of the world and how to make it a different place. Very good film dealing with the observations of a pair of diehard maniacs.
Think before you protest
nomorefog27 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This is a thoughtful and entertaining television movie starring Sissy Spacek and Henry Winkler who play a pair of left wing radicals who are eventually caught up in the Chicago riots at the democratic national convention in 1968. What has gone on before concerns the nature of political commitment, and the powerlessness of idealism when it's become besieged by all sides. It's an interesting and non-exploitative examination of what made political activists in the sixties tick, since many of them did in real life come from comfortable and privileged backgrounds, as Spacek's character does in this film.
Katherine leaves her comfortable middle class existence to become a member of the Peace Corp and is shocked by the primitive conditions she sees around her. When she speaks out, she lands herself in trouble with the local authorities as well as her superiors who have no intention of changing the status quo for fear of exacerbating an already delicate political situation. Katherine returns home and decides to go to college in spite of family pressure to get married. Whilst at college she falls in with some leftist primary school teachers (!) who have to become more shall we say, assertive in an effort to defend themselves from police harassment. The film examines how peaceful young people who started out as law abiding protesters became radicalised, and eventually turned to violence in order to achieve their aims and how the left broke into two blocs, one which remained peaceful and the other which believed that violence was the best way to change a corrupt system.
The result of Katherine and her husband becoming radicals who believe in forcible change, is that they are marginalised, despised and cut off from their families. Katherine becomes pregnant and has an abortion, a metaphor for the broken hopes of the radicals, once the Vietnam war has ended. Having said that, Katherine is not a depressing film, it is observant and has a real feeling for the period and the characters who are portrayed honestly and without the usual Hollywood cynicism or patronising attitude. Hollywood was known at the time for avoiding political content in their movies like the plague, and nothing much has changed. It's a film that holds your interest because of its unique subject matter and straight forward treatment of the material. It is a moving portrayal of youthful idealism and the dangers of attacking the status quo to the point where the status quo will itself rise up and defend itself, with devastating force, and tragic results.
This is an intellectually stimulating movie originally made for television.
Katherine leaves her comfortable middle class existence to become a member of the Peace Corp and is shocked by the primitive conditions she sees around her. When she speaks out, she lands herself in trouble with the local authorities as well as her superiors who have no intention of changing the status quo for fear of exacerbating an already delicate political situation. Katherine returns home and decides to go to college in spite of family pressure to get married. Whilst at college she falls in with some leftist primary school teachers (!) who have to become more shall we say, assertive in an effort to defend themselves from police harassment. The film examines how peaceful young people who started out as law abiding protesters became radicalised, and eventually turned to violence in order to achieve their aims and how the left broke into two blocs, one which remained peaceful and the other which believed that violence was the best way to change a corrupt system.
The result of Katherine and her husband becoming radicals who believe in forcible change, is that they are marginalised, despised and cut off from their families. Katherine becomes pregnant and has an abortion, a metaphor for the broken hopes of the radicals, once the Vietnam war has ended. Having said that, Katherine is not a depressing film, it is observant and has a real feeling for the period and the characters who are portrayed honestly and without the usual Hollywood cynicism or patronising attitude. Hollywood was known at the time for avoiding political content in their movies like the plague, and nothing much has changed. It's a film that holds your interest because of its unique subject matter and straight forward treatment of the material. It is a moving portrayal of youthful idealism and the dangers of attacking the status quo to the point where the status quo will itself rise up and defend itself, with devastating force, and tragic results.
This is an intellectually stimulating movie originally made for television.
Good movie about the 60's. Great acting by Spacek.
dualkubota25 January 2006
Sissy Spacek plays the part of a Peace Corps type who fought her own war on poverty, which she thinks is caused by rich people. So she joined a group of neo-Robin Hoods who wanted to steal from the rich and give to the poor in the same fashion that Mao and Stalin did, only in America. This famous late-60's revolution, that never happened because everybody was too stoned, is great for movie making, but how many times do we have to hear about the greedy capitalist pigs anyway? In 2006, it looks like a time capsule to a time when everybody was confused. The whole radical white college student thing of the late 60's, which had no purpose, was just a copy-cat movement based on the black civil rights movement of the early 60's, which had a purpose. These white kids in the 60's had all the civil rights already, so they had nothing to protest about, but they protested anyway because they were just doing it to be cool, and because they were stoned. Her boyfriend Henry Winkler is another liberal civil rights wanna-be that couldn't be, cause he had too many civil rights to start with, being a rich white kid like Sissy. I don't think Winkler makes a good hippie because he's an over-actor. He tries too hard to be a hippie, most hippies back then didn't act like this, they talked slower and acted more stoned, Winkler acts like an overexcited Fonzie with long hair, and he doesn't act stoned enough. Hey Cunningham! Spacek, on the other hand, is fantastic, and very believable, in the title role. The character she plays is dead on like the hippies I knew back then. Perfect. She would fit right in with the radicals of the times. Her boyfriend (Fonzie with hair) would not have fit in, he's a clown.
THE NATION IS GOING BACKWARDS
anitalansing-40-58191524 February 2021
The movie reflected how the United States and the rest of the world are barreling towards. Instead of going forward toward justice and equality, the nation is speeding towards tearing away the few pennies that impoverished people have, and pure hatred and anger and rage towards those who are not WASPs. The focus of Americans is on competing on who is the wealthiest and who owns the biggest yachts or has the most property. It's like playing a big game of monopoly. Gather the most wealth, ignore or tear down the disenfranchised. Greed is good. Imperialism is the only thing wealthy Americans know - place a knee to the neck of people of color. Are you a multi-millionaire, no I'm a billionaire. Does a person really need that much money? The acting was sufficient and the storyline worked, but it's the same old story since the Egyptians built the pyramids on the backs of its slaves. You are insignificant, you are not important. Shut up and build.
A so moving story
searchanddestroy-131 January 2016
I had heard of Patty Hearst, the billionaire's daughter who sympathized with her abductors in the seventies, but never of this revolutionary girl, from a wealthy family, who fought to freedom, justice and equality among people, against racism and war in Vietnam during the same period. I was very touched by this story, really, Sissi Spacek was a great actress, and this role was perfect for her, she is so convincing here. I can understand why so many rich young people from this era fought against their parents's good fortune and the American, capitalist government. Those kids who had so much money to organize meetings against war. Those youngsters were actually bored with their lives, their problems free existences, those young people who searched for a meaning in their lives. They needed a goal to really exist, because without these fights, they were simply bored to death. If they had been sent in the Pacific twenty years earlier, they probably have been ignorant of those same ideas. Those young folks belonged to the post WW2 baby boom and were not from the same line. The sequence where Spacek' s character is rejected by the Black activist to whom she offers her help is so painful, so poignant to watch. This girl was not naive, she was on the contrary very realistic. I think the world needs more people like her. Those men and women are rare because beyond corruption and greed, beyond hate and cruelty. I love TV movies for this reason, they are so close to reality, more than most - not all, I insist - of the cinema, big screen features, which search for wide audiences in seek of amusement, Entertainment and big spectacular effects. But let's be fair, many movies for the big screen are Worth too on this field of social realism, but only maybe less than the TV industry may offer us.
There's something in this
BandSAboutMovies22 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Katherine is based on Diana Oughton of the Weather Underground, a radical who died in 1970 when a bomb she was building accidentally exploded and Patty Hearst, who was kidnapped by and then joined the Symbionese Liberation Army the same year this movie aired on ABC.
Director and writer Jeremy Kagan also made Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8, The Journey of Natty Gann and Big Man on Campus. He also directed Roswell: The UFO Conspiracy, a TV movie about the people that were near the crash.
Katherine is filled with actors who weren't stars yet. Sissy Spacek was a year away from Carrie, Henry Winkler was not yet the Fonz and Julie Kavner was years from being Marge Simpson (although she was on Rhoda).
Katherine (Spacek) falls in love with Bob Kline (Winkler) and runs from the upper class life her parents Emily (Jane Wyatt) and Thornton (Art Carney) live in and becomes part of the Weathermen wing of Students for a Democratic Society. So much of the story is told by Katherine facing the camera and talking directly to the camera. It's pretty interesting how that makes you feel for her as this movie never makes her seem misguided which is a pretty brave idea for a TV movie in 1975 much less something made these days.
Director and writer Jeremy Kagan also made Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8, The Journey of Natty Gann and Big Man on Campus. He also directed Roswell: The UFO Conspiracy, a TV movie about the people that were near the crash.
Katherine is filled with actors who weren't stars yet. Sissy Spacek was a year away from Carrie, Henry Winkler was not yet the Fonz and Julie Kavner was years from being Marge Simpson (although she was on Rhoda).
Katherine (Spacek) falls in love with Bob Kline (Winkler) and runs from the upper class life her parents Emily (Jane Wyatt) and Thornton (Art Carney) live in and becomes part of the Weathermen wing of Students for a Democratic Society. So much of the story is told by Katherine facing the camera and talking directly to the camera. It's pretty interesting how that makes you feel for her as this movie never makes her seem misguided which is a pretty brave idea for a TV movie in 1975 much less something made these days.
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