Manthast
Absolutely amazing
TaryBiggBall
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Ogosmith
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Roy Hart
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
screenman
An almost never seen made-for-TV movie dating from the early 1970's, 'The People' hints at some of the prevailing post-hippy idealism that was soon to be eclipsed by the rise of punk culture.I was a young - and therefore still idealistic - person at the time and recollect finding its quaintly sentimental take on the descendants of a persecuted alien race trapped on Earth quite absorbing. I enjoyed it very much at the time and have never seen it since. Today, with the burden of years and their incumbent cynicism and more critical evaluation I might take a different view. But then again...I recently watched a similarly-vintaged and themed 'Day Of The Dolphin' starring George C Scott, which I also hadn't seen for over thirty years, and still enjoyed that. So I'll stick with my '7' rating until I see it again.I came across a short story titled 'Pottage' upon which this movie appeared to have been based. But I've lost that too. Such is life.There was some decent low-budget SF doing the rounds in the late 60's/early 70's.
dja2000
After spending more than a year tracking this movie down, I finally found one on ebay.Yes, it's disappointing to anyone who's read the books and it is based more on the story Pottage and certainly not the entire book. Francher doesn't belong in Bendo and neither does Bethie. The film takes elements from a few of Zenna's stories and creates a tale from them to fit a typical 70's TV movie.It's ok but not what any devotee of Zenna Hendersons work would expect but if, like me, you have taken the People to heart, then this is a nice movie to add to your collection.
John Costello
I saw this when it first came out (I was at an SF Con at the time) and then later in a re-run. Considering the budget constraints of 1970s TV Sci-Fi movies, they did an impressive amount of story telling, mixing two of the first 'People' stories to re-cast the tale for non-fans. The cast gives good performances (Shatner is not the ham he usually is), the 'special effects' are limited to wires and a series of crayon drawn pictures which tell the background very effectively. This is actually the second 'People' filming -- Science Fiction Theater ripped off the same story for one of its episodes. Zenna Henderson's People stories were collected by NESFA Press and can be found at Amazon.com and elsewhere.
Hinda
There's something "good" about a really bad '70's TV movie! In the vein of Barbara Eden's "The Stranger Within" and Kim Darby's "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark", "The People" is unintentionally laughable. I first saw this film when it aired on television and was astounded to find a copy on video in my local library this week! I forced my poor husband to watch this treasure with me and he grudgingly gave it a rating of 2!!! I'm still laughing! Well, thanks for listening. Now, let's see if we can find a copy of George Kennedy's prize "Rabid".
