User reviews

The story in "Message to My Daughter" is very, very maudlin...so I am warning you. If you are depressed, it's NOT a good film to see and it's definitely a film to watch with a box of Kleenex nearby!

When the film begins, young Miranda (Kitty Winn) is driving like she would just as soon die...and she nearly does! She winds up in the hospital and her father (Martin Sheen) is scared but only seems to know how to yell at her. Later, after trying very unsuccessfully to communicate with her about her problems, he offers her a VERY strange gift--a stack of audio recordings her mother made specifically to be given to Miranda when she is older. What is this all about anyway? Well, it seems that Miranda's mom, Janet (Bonnie Bedelia) died when Miranda was only a toddler...and the tapes consist of her mother talking to her, talking about her life and giving her nuggets of wisdom (such as a sex talk, dealing with parents, struggling with wanting to get an abortion, etc.). The plot is a bit contrived and odd, that's for sure! But it IS something will suck you into the film as Miranda goes through a journey of self-discovery.

Overall, this is a very good and very manipulative film...with a theme song that might just annoy the heck out of you. In the 1970s it worked...today...not so much. A great film if you're looking for a good cry. And, quite daring since it deals with abortion...which was hardly ever talked about at the time or even now.

By the way, wouldn't the tapes have been reel to reel since the mother died in 1956? Cassettes weren't invented until 1962. Yet, oddly, it's all on cassettes.

I was so drawn to this then. I remember it so well. Miraculously my search on YouTube with very little information was spot on!! Now I want to Rewatch The Panic in Needle Park. This picture is dated a little. But, when the mother says "My baby!" I was a blubbering mess. ABC TV Movies in those days are GREAT. Reccomendation. Watch The Jericho Mile, with Peter Strauss 1979.

I saw this, at age eleven, when it first aired in 1973. My parents had left us alone for the evening, and I'm certain they would have been quite angry if they'd known we had watched a film involving a potential abortion. Frankly, I can't even imagine a current network TV movie daring to approach this subject in the same way. This film had a lasting impression on me - so much so, that I clipped the TV listing from the paper, and put it in my box of "favorite movies" after I saw it. I just came upon this title again, while performing a cross-reference IMDb search. Now, if I can only find that box with all those TV clippings - I'd love to revisit the films which meant so much to me as a child.

Message To My Daughter is a movie you will only find in the archives of movie making. A creative, thoughtful, and absorbing film with enough meaning to touch even the most disconnected soul. One can only wish that these performances were captured on better quality film and sound recordings. The acting was real and full of genuineness that anyone who lived through those years could relate to. The story is heart wrenching and sad but also carries with it a thread of hope for a happy ending which doesn't disappoint. The idea of a dying mother to leave recordings for her daughter is beautiful and touching. May we all be so thoughtful. 7.3/10.

i've read all of the other reviews but no one mentions martin sheen . i saw this film by chance. it must have been a rebroadcast in 1975 or 1976. and i have never forgotten the magnificent, underplayed performance by martin sheen, exhibiting the quiet strength that is so characteristic of much of his later work. it made me a lifelong fan. and yes, bonnie bedelia was also wonderful (although frankly, until i read the other reviews, i had not remembered it was her, this being so early in her career). a powerful film, that says so much about how little we sometimes know about the people we are closest to, until something surprises us (noting the daughter's comment near the end of the film, speaking of her father).

I saw this movie years ago before i had my first daughter, i have two now that are almost thirty.It touch me so deeply that i swore if i ever had a daughter and knew my time to die was near that this was the most clever way to bond with her. It made me cry a lot. Well the daughters name was Maranda and that's my second daughters name.Over the years i've never heard a name even close other than the miranda rights. My daughter hated the name because no one else had it. But now through the 90's its appearing even in movie stars. So to the writer thank you for writing a movie that i will never forget and I'm 50yrs. young and for helping me name my daughter.I'm searching for a copy so she can see it too. The message was very clear and the movie well written. Its sad that movies these days aren't as powerful in showing true love and this one.

Friendless, belligerent older teen (Kitty Winn) feels alienated from the world, winding up in the hospital after smashing her car into a pole. Her widower father (Martin Sheen) is at his wits' end, but chooses this moment to bestow on his daughter years-old reel-to-reel tapes her mother made for her when mom was young and dying of a terminal illness. Past-and-present ABC-TV movie from director Robert Michael Lewis and writer Rita Lakin seems based on maybe a few good ideas stretched out to 74mns. Their intent appears to be a weeper, but curing the present through the past is a facile idea (and, in that respect, perfect for the tube). Sheen is fine in the flashbacks to 1956, but his "old age" makeup for the present day scenes doesn't work at all (basically, they've just slicked his hair back and added eyeglasses). Lewis works hard to be observant of the world around his protagonist but he simply doesn't have a substantial script to fall back on, so that none of his visual commentary comes to mean much in the end. ** from ****

amazing i saw this film when i was 14 and still remember it today.was very moving and as it was on in the afternoon was quite shocking for the year ,wish i could buy it on DVD.excellent acting from all party's and a real tear jerker,I've always been a film buff and even at a early age i kept a log of films i would like to see again ,unfortunatly I've never seen it aired again,we get American love stories here on TV here every afternoon now(england) and i always check the listings for it,sadly no sign of it yet.any body with imfo please e mail me,batcavehotline@aol.com or if you have any comments about my view,thanks for taking time to read my comment,steve

This is a movie ahead of its time in its portrayal of a troubled young woman who decides not to have an abortion. In her tapes to her daughter, she is real, angry at times, hostile to her own parents. When I saw it years ago on TV I remember a different soundtrack, a John Denver one, with "sunshine on my shoulder" being the theme. I must have mixed up movies. The movie itself left a lasting impression on me, as my mother had died two years before. I bought it the other day. It is dated and rather choppy now. The daughter's character is not fully explored but the mother's is. A good double hanky number.

The first time I saw this movie I was 9 or 10. The movie is much more about the mother whose recounting events on a audio tapes for her daughter. Her daughter listens to the tapes when she is about 17 or 18. I don't want to give too much away, but by the end of the movie you are totally experiencing the multiplicity of emotions that her daughter experiences. I loved every single person in this movie - all of them. If you need a super deep cry, grab this one and a large box of Kleenex. It is moving, touching, and as the other reviewer said, way ahead of its time.

PS - This is not sappy, unrealistic or predictable, either. It's not a "Terms of Endearment" or anything like that, either.

I watched this movie in the '70s and was very moved by it. I think it was ahead of its time in that it addressed the issue of abortion by showing how dangerous it was for young women at the time as the procedure was not regulated. It also showed how judgmental society was at that time. The young woman's parents were more concerned about what their neighbors would say rather than what was happening to their daughter. The 3 main actors played their parts with strength and understatement.

I still remember the poem by Christina Rossetti,the young woman read to her daughter "When I am dead, my dearest . . . "

I saw this movie in 1976 while I was pregnant with my son. I thought I would never stop crying....(actually I haven't) but I remember if I had a girl I was going to name her Miranda...his name is Matthew so that never happened but it made an impact on me. I am going to get if for my 21 year old daughter to watch since she has a one year old now. My daughter was on her way to have an abortion, but did not do it. She decided to keep her child even though there would be a lot of difficulty since her father and I are divorced and I live in another state now. She has not been diagnosed with a terminal illness however leaving a recorded message to our daughters is not a bad idea. As we grow and age and times change basically we all have the same human behaviors and feelings of those who have gone before us, the fears and rejection. There is no greater rejection than abortion even though it is a woman's right to choose.

I was looking for a Martin Sheen movie similar to this, and re-connected to this movie. It's so long ago, but all three characters were (are) moving to me, and very well played. It could very easily have been sappy or preachy, but it played quite well.

I watched this when I was "between", about 22-23, beyond teen-age angst, but not a grown up parent. All three characters spoke to me. Truly one of those "open filming" movies that were shown 1971 approximately, and now they cut or fuzz over, topics or body parts.

I guess I remembered Bonnie Bedelia strongly from this movie, and she had not been in many movies, particularly just after that. If I find a place that owns it, I will let you all know.

I'm watching it as I type.

Bonnie Bedelia. I am always reminded of how beautiful she is and that she looks like Molly Shannon, formerly of Saturday Night Live, I think, anyway.

I had heard of her Oscar nominated performance in "Heart Like A Wheel" a movie about race car driver Shirley Muldowney, and I knew Bedelia was in the Die-hard movies, two of them anyway.

I looked her name up to see what else she might have done that I had seen.

Message to My Daughter, a 1973 telemovie.

About the right time. A quick read of the plot confirmed it. This is what I saw way back then.

I didn't watch all of it, but it seemed incredibly intriguing, and I do remember the abortion attempt, but she changed her mind.

It was the year of Roe v. Wade.

So was this movie pro abortion or anti abortion? 1973 wasn't a tame year for subject matter, but it is astonishing that more isn't heard about this film.