Talk:Picnic (1955 film)

Plot synopsis
Someone inserted the following, dreadfully written, incoherent and blatantly boostering plot summary. I don't think a synopsis is needed in the article but a cleanly written one would be ok. I've moved the inept prose here is someone wants to fix and re-insert it. The Witch 14:10, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Picnic's 24 hour cycle in the life of a single mother's two girl family is set in a smallish Kansas town. Starting in the morning of Labor Day, Hal, the drifter, meets a kindly old lady resident, a Mrs. Potts, not far from the railroad tracks, on which he had come to town, by freight train from "elswhere". An extremely likable looser, Hal had been a college football star, perhaps 7 years before, and now is looking up his old room mate, Alan, who's father owns the many huge grain elevators that tower over the town's railroad right-of-way. That railroad will be his way to leave the vicinity 24 hours later. All this, after "looking up" his old friend, meeting his friend's "girl", Madge, going to a big community picnic with Madge's younger sister, falling in love with Madge, getting his friend & local police very angry, & and after, presumedly, having spent the night in sensual bliss, asking her to join him for a life together... "Nothing big-time" in Hal's honest words. Her much wiser, but younger, sister advises her to follow him, quote: "For once in your life, Madge, do something smart!".This very "up close & personal" film ends with a James Wong Howe cinematographer's wide, wide 'copter shot of the distant train heading into the flat farmlands with a bus heading the same way. The great score of this iconic film rises triumphantly.

Ugh.

Technicolor?
Someone deleted a reference to Picnic being in Technicolor. The movie has a credit for the Technicolor consultant, however, and is shown in IMDB as in Technicolor. The New York Times review of the DVD agrees. I intend to restore the reference unless there is some objection.

Tex 22:43, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Soundtrack
Though the theme song of the movie, Stoloff's "Moonglow", became popular and well known, nothing seems to be know about the original music in the acclaimed stage version of 1953. Search, even from the Inge Collection in Independence, Kansas, turns up nothing. IBTDB shows "there is no documentation of the the original music". Somebody knows what it was. Put it here.74.230.49.183 18:21, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Citation requests
Someone showered the article with citation requests. This is unhelpful, misleading and perhaps even disruptive. I've rm'd most of them. If there is disputed content, pls bring it here to the talk page first, thanks. Gwen Gale 23:46, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I disagree with you there. The article is *entirely* unreferenced, as it stands. As per WP:V and WP:NOR, the facts in the article should be independently verifiable and should not constitute original research on the part of the contributors. The facts are cited either because they say something happened (such as Novak or Holden's behaviour on set), which should be verified because otherwise you don't know if that's true or just spurious information inserted into the article by a mischevous imp; or because they express some kind of opinion - critical success, audience reaction, the regard of the photography, where without a source then it reads as original research; so instead of saying "critics say" or whatever, quote or link to the actual critics saying it.
 * The above, I think, covers charges of being misleading. As for unhelpful and disruptive, quite the opposite. The citation requests are helpful because they show *exactly* where an article should be improved. Everything I've cited should be able to be sourced from original reviews, critical studies and books, and biographies of the principal cast members. And if it can't be sourced from anywhere, then it shouldn't be in there. Given that the article currently cites no sources at all, I could have put an 'Unreferenced' header on the page instead, but that would've been unhelpful as it wouldn't have shown where the article could be improved, and so could have been seen as disruptive. H. Carver 10:09, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I think we only had different notions about how to handle something like this. The article can use some citations (it was built before we were focused on that). Gwen Gale 12:42, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Original movie poster for the film Picnic.jpg
Image:Original movie poster for the film Picnic.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 04:05, 12 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Done. Gwen Gale (talk) 16:16, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
 * There will be quit a few of these as I am currently working on the backlog of files requesting renaming and correcting all instances of the old file name these ambiguous redirects can be removed. Wouldn't pay too much attention to the old notices :) Calmer   Waters  16:25, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
 * You know, I thought that might be what was behind the template but as it happened, the rationale did need some tidying up :) Gwen Gale (talk) 16:40, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Epoch era (talk) 02:28, 15 October 2012 (UTC)The poster images were too risque for 1955?Epoch era (talk) 02:28, 15 October 2012 (UTC)