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.
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.