Given the choice between the theater and a movie, I will always choose a movie. (Although, I must say that I enjoyed Wicked.) I don't hate plays and I appreciate the art form, I just don't like the combination of a fixed set and demonstrative acting. Having said that, I've always been intrigued by movies which are based on plays. How does one take a story which takes place on a stage and set it in a world where the camera can take the audience to multiple locations? It's difficult to imagine some of these movies ever being plays, while others are obviously transplanted from the stage. Steel Magnolias falls somewhere in between the two.

Steel Magnolias takes place in a small town in Louisiana. The film opens on the eve of Shelby's (Julia Roberts) wedding. She and her mother, M'Lynn (Sally Field) visit Truvy's (Dolly Parton) beauty parlor to get their hair done. There, they see Clairee (Olympia Dukakis) and Ouiser (Shirley MacLaine), and gossip ensues. They also meet Annelle (Daryl Hannah), the awkward young woman whom Truvy has just hired. During their conversations, we learn that Shelby and her fiance, Jackson (Dylan McDermott), have had their issues and that Shelby is a diabetic. The film then visits different places in time, exploring the lives of these women. We see happy times and very sad times, but we always see how they stick together and support one another.

As movie fans, we love to focus on films with complicated plots and lots of action. And while those movies are awesome, sometimes a movie with a simple story and interesting characters will suffice. Steel Magnolias presents us with a colorful group of women and we watch them through a series of vignettes. The film isn't concerned with plot twists (although, there is one), but rather it focuses on the lives of these women and how they react to the good times and the bad times. Although the chapters revolve around events in Shelby's life, there is no true main character, as we learn about the trials and tribulations each of these ladies faces.

The original play was set just in Truvy's beauty shop, but the film has opened this up to include other locations (a carnival, a church, a hospital). However, many of the key scenes are still set in the shop and the bulk of the movie is focused on the dialogue from the play by Robert Harling (who also wrote the screenplay). The film is full of memorable lines, both funny and moving. The movie shows that when women get together, they talk about a variety of things. Of course, there is gossip, but they also speak of life and love. The dialogue presented here gets a bit wordy and folksy at times (especially where Dolly Parton is concerned and one can't help but wonder if her lines were actually in the script), but much of it rings true. The women don't pull any punches when talking about others or themselves and this frank nature helps to knock some of the fairy dust off of what could have been a run of the mill chick flick. I also like the way that the film portrays Southerners. We see them as people who have a true passion for life and care for another. While the movie is set in a small town, no one here is shown as being illiterate or racist, which is a nice change of pace.

Steel Magnolias is no great piece of cinematic work (journeyman director Herbert Ross lets the dialogue rule the film), but it's a solid movie which tells a good, uncluttered story. As one would expect from this cast, the acting here is first rate with Field showing a nice range of emotion and MacLaine stealing every scene which she's in. The only thing I truly didn't like about the movie was the epilogue. Yes, I understood it's quite literal "hope springs eternal" message, but it felt very unnecessary. It can be argued that the audience needed something after the very emotional third act, but instead of feeling like an ending to this film, it feels like the beginning of another movie...and then the credits just begin. But, this awkward finale aside, Steel Magnolias has stood the test of time due in no small part to the general amount of sass on-display here.

Steel Magnolias gives us far too much detail about an armadillo cake on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Twilight Time. (As with the other releases from this boutique company, this is limited 3000 copies.) The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 30 Mbps. This is one of those odd transfers which is a mixed bag. Some scenes are very sharp and clear, while others are soft and show some grain. Overall, the good outweighs the bad, but those softer shots certainly stand out. The colors look very good and the image is never overly dark or bright, and never looks washed out. The image shows an acceptable amount of depth and never looks flat. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 3.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. While the dialogue is always clear and audible and the music sounds fine, the audio is flat and has no real presence. The only place where the audio stands out are the few scenes in which the rear channels seem to duplicate teh front channels.

The Steel Magnolias Blu-ray Disc only contains two extra features. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Herbert Ross. The other extra is an isolated audio track featuring the score by Georges Delerue, which is presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.