Sweet Hostage (1975)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Sadly Over-hyped

Absolutely Fantastic

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The 1970s brought a number of things: disco, disaster movies, and the rise of televangelists. But the Me Decade also brought about a revolution in prime time. Not only did series like "All in the Family" and "Sanford and Son" debut, but movies started getting made for TV. One of these was "Sweet Hostage", based on Nathaniel Benchley's "Welcome to Xanadu". Martin Sheen plays an escaped mental patient who kidnaps a farm girl (Linda Blair), and the two of them develop a relationship. Their roles are reversed from what you might expect: he's a worldly guy while she can barely read and has no prospects in life. To be certain, he often corrects her grammar.It was interesting seeing Linda Blair in a role very different from the one with which she's most associated. At a Wizard World convention last year I got her autograph. She's a really nice person. Martin Sheen had just played a delinquent in Terrence Malick's "Badlands", so this wasn't a totally new role for him. Both do a great job with the characters. I really liked the scene where Sheen's character and the Indian do the Vulcan salute; that scene now feels like a tribute to Leonard Nimoy.Nathaniel Benchley was the father of "Jaws" author Peter Benchley, and it turns out that Nathaniel Benchley's father was also a noted author. The director, Lee Philips, had directed a completely different kind of TV movie the previous year: "The Stranger Within", starring Barbara Eden as a woman who inexplicably becomes pregnant and then starts behaving very strangely (it had to be the only movie in which Barbara Eden looks terrifying).All in all, I thought that this was a good movie. I wish that more movies got filmed in New Mexico. I really liked it when I spent spring break there in 2002. And above all, please remember to use correct grammar ("if I had done X yesterday", NOT "if I did X yesterday" or "if I would have done X yesterday").

I actually did not see this movie in 1975 but happened on it years later. That seems like a miracle now considering it certainly is never shown on T.V. anymore. I really got lucky then because for some reason I decided at the last minute to record it. Not knowing at the time how much I would love it, I had recorded it on an old tape on a raggedy VCR. To try and watch it now is really a strain, and I've tried everywhere to find another copy. Even a couple of years ago I showed my young teenage daughter the movie and now it continues to be one of her favorites. Sheen's dialogue in the movie was spellbounding and he performed it so from the heart...it is really hard to put this performance into words. I was so happy to find that there are actually other people out there who also love and appreciate this great film. I love it!!!!!!!

The line between captor and savior grows faint when an escaped mental patient drags an illiterate farm girl from her drudgery to an idyllic mountain refuge and sets his mind to teaching her how to be a lady. A made-for-TV drama based on Nathaniel Benchley's novel "Welcome to Xanadu."Another exciting movie featuring Linda, she is the greatest actress of all-time, her acting as her body is better than ever in this film. From this point, all the film of Miss Blair are masterpieces.

Martin Sheen gives a rich, rewarding performance in this memorable, underrated television drama. It's rare to find a film simply and honestly built on the budding relationship between just two main characters. Sheen's escaped mental patient and Linda Blair's kidnapped farm girl talk, fight, come to a mutual understanding, and finally become lovers. Sheen spouts poetry to tomboyish Blair, but he grows on her, and she to him. The scenes where they discuss the meaning of words like "symmetry" and "phosphorescence" is charmingly played, and Blair is right in tune with Sheen's reckless, showy abandon. This ABC-TV production, based on Nathaniel Benchley's book "Welcome to Xanadu", is let down a bit by the low budget (as well as by the romantic theme song which plays at the beginning and nearly gives away the plot!), but it has two terrific lead performances and a loose, brisk direction by Lee Philips. "Sweet Hostage" is mighty sweet indeed.