"Bluegrass" is a TV movie shown in two parts. Although the plot is about the horsebreeding business, at heart it's a soap opera. Now I am NOT putting down soaps...a lot of people love them. But the plot is pure soap...and some might not like that.
In the opening scene, teenage Maude is nearly raped by the one-dimensional baddie, Lowell Shipleigh. Shipleigh comes from a well connected family...his father is a judge...so nothing comes of the attempted rape. At the same time, her father's barn is burned down...he gets depressed and kills himself.
Years pass. Now Maude (Cheryl Ladd) has returned. She wants to establish a great horse breeding farm...but the old baddie Shipleigh is back and now he (Wayne Rogers) is a judge and he has a HUGE chip on his shoulder. Throughout the film, he does his darnedest to make sure Maude fails. What's next? Watch the film.
This is a slickly made and nice looking soap. The acting is fine, the settings are lovely and people who love horses will be happy. My only complaint is that like a soap, the characters are often too one-dimensional and predictable. But this is the genre...and lovers of soaps will no doubt not care and enjoy the film. Overall, I thought it was very nice and watchable but I cannot understand the review that gave it a 1 nor the ones that gave it a 9 or 10. I think both extremes miss the mark.
A few things to note. IMDB lists the film at 4 hours but the copy I saw on YouTube was 3 hours...and I think that was the original run time. Second, in the film they talk about gelding a horse. If you don't know, this means to castrate the animal. Finally, Anthony Andrews stars in the film as an Irishman...which is odd as he has the most English accent I can recall ever hearing! I'm sure Brits and the Irish noticed this!
