The so-called "nuclear family" that America had come to idealize as a result of the post-WW II Baby Boom was eventually exposed as an illusion as a result of the many social upheavals of the 1960s, with many young kids either running away from home to hippie communes or finding solace in the potentially deadly world of drugs because parents either didn't understand, or, even more, didn't want to understand, their offspring. Such was the focus of the above-average 1971 TV movie MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING, which did a rather good job of showing the downsides of both the counterculture and the typical American "nuclear family." Sally Field, in a role that broke away from her Gidget/Flying Nun persona of the past, stars as a runaway who returns home from a hippie lifestyle after a year in which she has been bruised and scorned by her hippie lover (the late David Carradine). What she finds when she returns home is nothing short of depressing: her parents (Jackie Cooper; Eleanor Parker) still look upon her actions with scorn and disapproval, and yet they too indulge in their own brand of reckless behavior, using over-the-counter pills and alcohol instead of marijuana and methadone. Even more distressing than her parents' behavior is that Field's younger sister (Lane Bradbury) is headed down the same path as she once was, practically being forced down that path by the parents, who act with relentless hypocrisy, unwilling to understand why their offspring have rebelled the way they have.
Though very emblematic of its time, with certain montage sequences and slightly psychedelic flashbacks, making it obviously dated in some ways, MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING avoids the fate of so many heavy-handed counterculture films by taking an ambivalent approach. The counterculture doesn't exactly get a free pass here, especially given the fact that Carradine's character seems too eerily close to that of Charles Manson, seducing Field and then (tragically) Bradbury in the dark side of hippiedom. Then again, neither does the "nuclear family" structure that Parker and Cooper represent; their ideals are so rigid, and their beliefs and their hypocrisy solidified to such an extent, that they don't see the harm their actions have on their daughters.
Despite a few flaws, MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING is bolstered by a superb dramatic performance by Field, which presages her later roles in pieces like Sybil, Places In The Heart, and Norma Rae, and two period-era acoustic folk-pop songs sung by Linda Ronstadt. The film also boasts very sympathetic director from Joseph Sargent, whose credits include the underrated 1970 science fiction/suspense drama COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT and the taut (and original) 1974 suspense thriller THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE. Even though it can't help avoid being dated in certain ways, MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING still stands as a very critical look at the things that broke so many families apart at the end of the 60s and the start of the 70s.
Though very emblematic of its time, with certain montage sequences and slightly psychedelic flashbacks, making it obviously dated in some ways, MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING avoids the fate of so many heavy-handed counterculture films by taking an ambivalent approach. The counterculture doesn't exactly get a free pass here, especially given the fact that Carradine's character seems too eerily close to that of Charles Manson, seducing Field and then (tragically) Bradbury in the dark side of hippiedom. Then again, neither does the "nuclear family" structure that Parker and Cooper represent; their ideals are so rigid, and their beliefs and their hypocrisy solidified to such an extent, that they don't see the harm their actions have on their daughters.
Despite a few flaws, MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING is bolstered by a superb dramatic performance by Field, which presages her later roles in pieces like Sybil, Places In The Heart, and Norma Rae, and two period-era acoustic folk-pop songs sung by Linda Ronstadt. The film also boasts very sympathetic director from Joseph Sargent, whose credits include the underrated 1970 science fiction/suspense drama COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT and the taut (and original) 1974 suspense thriller THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE. Even though it can't help avoid being dated in certain ways, MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING still stands as a very critical look at the things that broke so many families apart at the end of the 60s and the start of the 70s.