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Rewatched Ordinary People last night. Sutherland def gives the best performance; even Judd Hirsch (the worst, both the character and his shtick) is OK in his one scene with Don. Hutton is fine and cute, as is Elizabeth McGovern. I can see why Hutton got the part; some of his line readings and physicality reminded me of young Redford.
Some of the editing is nice, especially at the main boring WASP parents party. (I wonder if the funniest line is in the novel, where mom tells grandma that Conrad's shrink is "probably Jewish, maybe just German.")
As for MTM, the movie was sold so much on her SMASHING HER IMAGE that few people noticed that she's a caricature much of the time. Redford cannily uses a couple very brief flashbacks of Beth with her hair down (in love with her husband, and her oldest son) so the audience can say That's Our Mary!
I'm sure someone has written a thesis about how consecutive Oscar winners (this and Kramer vs Kramer) were predicated on father-son bonding enabled by the absence or presence of an indifferent/monstrous mother.
I still have only seen the top 3 finishers in this poll.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 August 2017 16:08 (six years ago) link
eleven months pass...
Quiz Show - what a great movie, great cast full of character actors, Redford doesn't get in the way of the story, that closeup on Ralph Fiennes' face as the question he knows the answer to is read...
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 1 August 2018 18:00 (five years ago) link
three years pass...
one year passes...
It was Urban Cowboy I was thinking of when I wrote that (also 1980, also had something to do with a bull).
― clemenza, Sunday, 4 June 2023 22:40 (one year ago) link
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Urban Cowboy, Raging Bull.
― clemenza, Sunday, 4 June 2023 22:41 (one year ago) link