Terms of Endearment. More Hollywood Depiction of Immoral Trash

[DudleySmith]

Terms of Endearment is a comedy drama whose strength lies in finding the balance between the funny and the sad, between moments of deep truth and other moments of high ridiculousness. Can you imagine the director Richard Brooks explaining to backers that this is a comedy about a woman dying of cancer. It was nominated for 11 academy awards and won 5, one of which went to Shirley MacLaine for best actress.

I think Shirley MacLaine best movies were:
Terms of Endearment
The Apartment
Some Came Running
Irma La Douce
Being There
Postcards from the Edge
Children's Hour
Sweet Charity.
Steel Magnolias

I think her best performances came in Terms of Endearment, Some Came Running, The Children's Hour, and Two for the Seesaw. These movies were good but not great. Overall, her best performance came in her best movie which was The Apartment.

I liked most of those. Being There is one of my favorites.

 

[Michelle420]

It was a sad movie and a weird movie.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Shirley Maclaine is an American icon. A Godess.

 

[Flopper]

I liked most of those. Being There is one of my favorites.

Being There is one Peter Sellers best comedies. It got rave reviews, made 30 million at the box on a 7 million dollar budget and got several academy award nominations. It has a great script and a great cast. Although I have seen it several times, it's rarely mention today.

Film critic Roger Ebert awarded a full grade of 4 out of 4 stars in his original print review. Gene Siskel also gave the film a perfect grade of 4 stars, calling it "one of those rare films, a work of such electric comedy that you are more likely to watch it in amazement than to break down and laugh."

It's on Amazon Prime but you have pay about $3 to rent it.

 

[rightwinger]

Being There is one Peter Sellers best comedies. It got rave reviews, made 30 million at the box on a 7 million dollar budget and got several academy award nominations. It has a great script and a great cast. Although I have seen it several times, it's rarely mention today.

Film critic Roger Ebert awarded a full grade of 4 out of 4 stars in his original print review. Gene Siskel also gave the film a perfect grade of 4 stars, calling it "one of those rare films, a work of such electric comedy that you are more likely to watch it in amazement than to break down and laugh."

It's on Amazon Prime but you have pay about $3 to rent it.

I was not a big fan of Peter Sellers comedy styles but he was excellent in Being There

 

[DudleySmith]

I was not a big fan of Peter Sellers comedy styles but he was excellent in Being There

He wasn't 'doing comedy', he was acting, not doing slapstick or delivering punch lines, which was the beauty of his performance in that role. It was deserving of an Oscar. Many comedians are also great actors as well. It is the supporting cast that provides the comedy, which is also a sign of great writing and directing. It is an excellent movie all around.

 

[ClaireH]

Apparently not many people agree with you. "Terms of Endearment" adapted from the Larry McMurtry's 1975 best selling novel was a major box office success bringing in 165 million on a budget of 8 million, nominated for 11 academy awards and winning 5.

I read the book years ago and found it a bit boring. Saw the movie and liked a bit better. I like the cast, Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels, and John Lithgow. Although I think the movie was well done, this is not the kind of story I really like and will not watch it again.

I have never heard a good explanation as to why Nicholson is a sex symbol. I'm not sure he really is. Nicholson has had tremendously popularity with both women and men. As an actor, it's his facial expressions or lack of it that allows him to speak to the audience before even uttering a word. His facial expression tells you he is a little quirky, a little crazy, a little sorry, a little humiliated, a little cranky; a lovable rascal, rebel, or a rake.

Take a look at this scene from "As Good As It Gets".

After the horrible insensitive comment Nicholson makes to Holly Hunter about her son, "it sounds like your son will be dead soon", his expression says it all, I think I said something wrong. After the rebuke from Hunter, his expressions are one of shock, then contrition, and finally humiliation, all without saying a word. This is real acting, using your body, facial expressions, and movement to speak to the audience. The most powerful statement an actor can make to the audience is the unspoken statement.

As Brooks said about Nicholson, "I explained the scene to Nicholson and that we will be doing closeups for his reaction. I didn't coach him at all. He knew just how to reach the audience."

Helen Hunt played the gf role in As Good as it Gets and did great job in a great movie That movie is packed with insightful remarks about life in general.

 

[Flopper]

He wasn't 'doing comedy', he was acting, not doing slapstick or delivering punch lines, which was the beauty of his performance in that role. It was deserving of an Oscar. Many comedians are also great actors as well. It is the supporting cast that provides the comedy, which is also a sign of great writing and directing. It is an excellent movie all around.

During filming, to remain in character, Sellers refused interview requests and kept his distance from the other actors. Sellers considered Chance's walking and voice the character's most important attributes, and in preparing for the role worked alone with a tape recorder or with his wife, to perfect the clear enunciation and flat delivery needed to reveal the childlike mind behind the words.

Good acting is not easy because becoming someone else is not easy. How hard it is depends on the role. Unfortunately, so many of our top stars today develop a successful screen a persona which they play in each role with only small variations to fit the story. For example John Wayne, James Stewart, Gegory Peck, Denzel Washington, Marilyn Monroe, and Sylvester Stallone all have had very successful screen personas and stuck with it through most of their movies.

Other actors look for more challenging roles and never develop a screen persona for example Dustin Hoffman, Peter Sellers, Johnny Depp, Daniel Day-Lewis, Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, and Angelina Jolie. These are actors who pick their roles to challenge there ability to become the character.

 

[Flopper]

Helen Hunt played the gf role in As Good as it Gets and did great job in a great movie That movie is packed with insightful remarks about life in general.

As Good as it Gets is ono of my favorites. Nicholson and Hunt were great.

 

[fncceo]

And then there are the trashy leftwing 'values'. Illicit sex and cheating all the way around.

I long to return to a time when illicit sex and cheating weren't just left-wing values ... they were EVERYONE's values.

 

[fncceo]

As Good as it Gets is ono of my favorites

Going on the record here. That movie sucked ... Jack Nicholson's character was PERFECT in the beginning of that movie.

They destroyed his soul in the name of conformity.

It was more sad than "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

 

[Flopper]

I was not a big fan of Peter Sellers comedy styles but he was excellent in Being There

His acting style did vary a lot from movie to movie and even in the same move such Dr. Strangeglove, where he played 3 roles.

 

[fncceo]

His acting style did vary a lot from movie to movie and even in the same move such Dr. Strangeglove, where he played 3 roles.

He almost player 4 roles in that movie.

He was slated to play Slim Picken's part of the B-52 pilot, but he couldn't manage the Southern accent.

 

[rightwinger]

His acting style did vary a lot from movie to movie and even in the same move such Dr. Strangeglove, where he played 3 roles.

Some people loved Peter Sellers comedy and call him a genius
To me, it was a bunch of silly voices and slapstick

Just didn’t get it

 

[Flopper]

Going on the record here. That movie sucked ... Jack Nicholson's character was PERFECT in the beginning of that movie.

They destroyed his soul in the name of conformity.

It was more sad than "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

View attachment 747354

How so?

 

[DudleySmith]

Hoffman is pretty good. His Rain Man is one of my favorite movies. What a performance.

 

[fncceo]

How so?

In the beginning, Nicholson's character kept to himself, didn't associate with his neighbors, made a good living writing popular novels, and was a card-carrying misogynist. He didn't fit into society and he was OK with it. It was all the other characters in the movie that were offended by his inability to follow the conventions of their society.

By the end of the movie, he ended up being a neutered rom-com protagonist who Helen Hunt is going to leave anyway because he's just too weird.

 

[DudleySmith]

Being There is one Peter Sellers best comedies. It got rave reviews, made 30 million at the box on a 7 million dollar budget and got several academy award nominations. It has a great script and a great cast. Although I have seen it several times, it's rarely mention today.

Film critic Roger Ebert awarded a full grade of 4 out of 4 stars in his original print review. Gene Siskel also gave the film a perfect grade of 4 stars, calling it "one of those rare films, a work of such electric comedy that you are more likely to watch it in amazement than to break down and laugh."

It's on Amazon Prime but you have pay about $3 to rent it.

Do you like The Party? It was the first Sellers movie I saw that wasn't an Inspector Clouseau movie. I liked the Clouseau character as well.

Jerry Lewis was also a better than average actor, going by his role in Wise Guy.

 

[Flopper]

In the beginning, Nicholson's character kept to himself, didn't associate with his neighbors, made a good living writing popular novels, and was a card-carrying misogynist. He didn't fit into society and he was OK with it. It was all the other characters in the movie that were offended by his inability to follow the conventions of their society.

By the end of the movie, he ended up being a neutered rom-com protagonist who Helen Hunt is going to leave anyway because he's just too weird.

It was the reactions of Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear to Nicholson that made the movie a comedy. Otherwise it was just a character study of an obsessives compulsive.

 

[Flopper]

Hoffman is pretty good. His Rain Man is one of my favorite movies. What a performance.

I think Hoffman is one of the greatest actors of our time. He has created so many different great characters in his movies.
"Ratso" Rizzo the sickly pimp and conman in Midnight Cowboy
The high school graduate in The Graduate
The comedian Lenny Bruce in Lenny
The out work actor Michael Dorsey/the soap opera star, Dorothy Michaels in Tootsie
Indian Chief in Little Big Man
Louis Dega, forger, conman, and convict in Papillon
Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men
Mumbles in Dick Tracey
Captain Hook in Hook
Charles Frohman in Finding Neverland
The autistic kid, Raymond in Rainman
Stanley Motss in Wag the Dog
Benard Jaffie in I Heart Huckabees