Brette Pruitt

This is more psychoanalysis than movie. The stunning voice of Joan Baez and her commendable social activism are darkly overshadowed by the movie's emphasis on her once-troubled mind. Baez talks little about her music and activism. At length, she talks instead of depression, anxiety attacks and alleged sexual abuse by her father. Then the audience is further burdened by having to listen to parts of session tapes with her psychiatrist. It's easy to suspect that she might have been ensnared into the "false memory syndrome" that therapists overused in the 1980s, making some patients believe they had been sexually abused, when they had not. Nevertheless, the darkness she felt inside has been transformed into beautiful music, writing and art. We'd like to think of actors and musicians being as enjoyable in private as they are on the stage, but Baez, like many other performers, tends to be privately somewhat dull and self centered. Because of this movie, some will be inclined to less enamored of the singer than of her beautiful singing voice.

One of the finest series ever written for television. Brilliant writing and good acting do justice to the civil rights movement.

The movie was not just a bomb but a stink bomb. The main character was poorly drawn and the plot was full of holes. I stuck with it, hoping to be rewarded in the end. But that was not to be.