Comments on: Grey Gardens

By: Namey McNameson

Namey McNameson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 05:17:00 +0000

Looks like Hulu has it

By: Odin Noogrodamus

Odin Noogrodamus — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 05:06:00 +0000

you should be able to watch it on youtube…

By: Beverly

Beverly — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:54:23 +0000

I would not say that the Beales’ were mentally ill. Just a little dysfunctional. They made the best of a bad situation…Little Edie kept that old woman going by aggravating her. And big Edie irritated her daughter enough to keep her mind off her troubles (at times). Jerry Torre took their minds off their problems and they entertained and encouraged him. What a great documentary…I watch it often and wish I lived next door to them when they were alive….Well I’ll just have to wait to see them in heaven.

By: Alice

Alice — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:27:45 +0000

I agree with Kate. I found these two wonderful characters to be happy with their lot in life. None of us are completely happy with our situations but the Edie’s were quite content and happier than most people I believe. I didn’t get a depressed feeling from either one of them. I just love the Beales.

By: Ronda

Ronda — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 06:26:54 +0000

This caught my attention while reading many books about the Bouvier families, JFK etc… As sad as the situation was I do see mental instability in both and coming from a family w such stature, it blows my mind that someone did not step up to the plate and help. Coming from a middle class family, I have learned that those that have less seem to want to give more. Had this been my Auntie, cousin or any other family member I would have not turned a blind eye to them, especially if I had the means to help them. I do see Love in that old home amongst the hoarding and filth. As it saddens me to watch this and somewhat w a level of embarrasment, acceptance for who they were and what they had become really cant be judged. This Mother and Daughter are at peace now…

By: Beth

Beth — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 22:59:22 +0000

I wouldn’t exactly call the Edies ‘happy’. More like living in a state of denial which morphed into depression and eventually acceptance and fear of change. A lot of people live their lives going through these stages, even tho it may not manifest in such outwardly obvious problems. I’d say initially it was the mother who was selfish and emotionally manipulative, likely all through her children’s lives. That’s why Little Edie’s brothers never felt confident enough to put their foot down or take on the problem. And it’s hardly the responsibility of the community; but it becomes a community problem when your neighbours are too irresponsible to look after themselves. This irresponsibility and denial turned into what seems like mental illness to me, or at the very least, depression – the cat-collection thing even has a name in psychology. Big Edie was undoubtedly a product of her generation and priviledged background. Women of her era from well-to-do families were never expected to think responsibly or to take care of others – they had servants for that. So she didn’t have the life skills to live a poor life. And she didn’t teach her daughter the skills she didn’t have herself. But they were both smart enough to know what was happening, likely long before it got to an impossible situation. That’s when most people decide they need to grow up. That no one is going to do it FOR you – it’s up to you. Perhaps if you know you have a relative with more money than the gods, you figure you can just wait it out. And guess what, it worked. Jackie O. didn’t really have a choice but to give them money, being in the public eye, unless she was willing to take critism, so she bent to the pressure and bailed them out. But really, how slimey is that, letting yourself get into such a state that you give other people no choice but to bail you out?

By: dawn

dawn — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:00:22 +0000

Grrrr I have downloaded…stopped and restarted my computer and the movie keeps stopping, saying buffering!! I am able to watch anything else I want online…why not this? :(

By: Tanya

Tanya — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:45:44 +0000

This movie goes to show that you need to follow your dreams. If Eddie Sr’s husband embrased her signing and allowed it then I doubt this would’ve happened to them. I too had an aunt that had to stay and take care of her mother. She never married and when my Grandmother died, she didn’t have anyone. No friends, children or immediate family. Although, they were clean freaks but reminded me of those two.

By: kate

kate — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:38:58 +0000

neither of them seem terribly unhappy to me. they sing and drink and smoke and lay about in the sun…yes, the house is filthy, but they could clean and they don’t. yes, they are undoubtedly mentally ill, but i just don’t see how everyone thinks this is sad. i found it quite entertaining.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:00:47 +0000

I’d like to point out to LR that Little Edie wanted to move out of Grey Gardens and out of state like her brothers suggested. But her mother adamantly refused to let her sons sell the property. The property was in the mothers name so the daughter was kind of stuck since she didn’t want to go out and work. Like her father said she was more then capable of doing secretarial work. It was the mother using very bad judgment not the daughter. Big Eddie loved her home and thought there was no other place better then that. You have to understand if you love something it’s hard to give up even if it would be the best thing. If it would have been me I wouldn’t have had to think twice about selling. Little Edie should have put up more of a fit and maybe her mom would have given in. I guess Big Eddie just wasn’t looking down the line at the impossibility of their situation. She’s lived on $150. per month for 10 years and then for another over 20 years (I think) the $150 wasn’t near enough for even basic bills like groceries, utilities and the upkeep of the house and property.

By: LR

LR — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:53:07 +0000

A really interesting documentary. Sure there were many unanswered questions or details or segments left out but it was still an interesting documentary. What I hate, is when certain people in the world are offered better living arrangements/potentially better lives; they stubbornly refuse; inevitably making their lives even more difficult, harsh, sad and poor. I’ve learned that many of the people like these two women that refuse better living arrangements, usually have mental issues as well and that’s the main reason they make such bad decisions regarding their well being. I saw the film as well starring Drew Barrymore. It was a typical Hollywood bio but it did fill in a few unanswered questions/important details the documentary makers left out.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:12:58 +0000

To goober, you have to click download for the player. But then you must close all your windows except the little one showing the ___.exe I think it is. Then you have to click that for the player to install. You might have to restart your computer for it to work. Anyways I hope I helped you. I hope you’ll be able to watch this wonderful Grey Gardens documentary. I’ve only watched a little of it so far; I’m going to watch it all the way through but probably not in one night. I think it’s kind of long.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:06:13 +0000

Hi all! It’s been quite some time ago I watched the movie “Grey Gardens” on HBO I think it was. Sometime after that I watched maybe 5 videos of the documentary on youtube before it unfortunately got removed from youtube. I was thrilled to find it on this site. I just fell so “in love” with this story. I could personally relate to this story especially the relationship bet the mother and the daughter. Before you make judgmental comments especially about the mother you must try to have a deeper understanding of the mother. She wasn’t awful. And I’m not sure you should call them mentally ill either. They do not seem severely mentally ill anyways. They certainly do not appear dangerous as most mentally ill people are probably not. I think both of them seem like pretty cool people. They seem very nice and down-to-earth. I would have liked to have met them though they were before my time. More so the mother then the daughter. The mother passed away in the seventies I think and the daughter passed away in the 90′s if I’m correct. I was happy that Little Edie was finally able to escape that Grey Garden’s prison, get to live some different places and have a happier life. I suppose it’s not hard to believe that the neighborhood folk in the area didn’t offer to help them. I have to wonder why none of the local churches did anything once news had gotten out of their poor circumstances. At long last their relative finally came to help them. Better late then never. The newspapers said she (Jacqueline) turned a blind eye to it. But why was that I wonder. (?) Why do people just not care about the misfortune of others. It’s beyond sad that no one came to their rescue until within a couple years of Big Eddie’s passing. They had only $150 per month to live on for 30 years or more. Well it would be like 20 years or more for Little Edie. Anyhow I found (still find) the story intriguing.

By: bella

bella — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:16:48 +0000

I don’t see why people blame the mother. I see two equally mentally ill women.

Sad.

By: e

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:43:33 +0000

what an awful mother