I used to go to the movies with my Grandfather all the time. He loved movies and between he and my mother, I was seeing movies that I shouldn't have seen well before I was a teenager. In 1983, I was 13 years old. One Saturday night, my grandfather and I went to Ronnies 6 Cine to see a new movie called TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. Neither of us knew anything about it but Papa said that he read it was going to be a real contender for the Academy Award for Best Picture, so we went. Sitting in that cinema watching TERMS OF ENDEARMENT for the first time with a packed audience in 1983 is a memory that has stuck with me. Even 30 years later, I can place myself sitting next to my grandfather listening to people laugh, sigh, and ultimately weep. In the car on the way home, Papa said "Tell your parents everyday you love them, Buddy." I think a combination of the movie itself along with the experience shared with my beloved Grandfather has kept TERMS OF ENDEARMENT close to my heart all these years. Last night, I decided to watch a DVD from my vast collection and somehow zeroed in on TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. It had been several years since seeing it and I thought it might be like revisiting an old friend. So I got in bed with the dogs and popped in the DVD. Maybe it's my age, maybe it's my place in life, maybe it's the recent loss of my mother, but watching this movie last night was a new experience for me as though I had never seen it before. It's one of those rare films that gets better and richer with each passing year. The screenplay and direction by James L. Brooks are both about as good as it gets, pardon the pun to another Brooks triumph. These characters are so human and so fleshed out that when the end credits begin to roll, I feel as though I have suddenly been yanked away from good friends. The tumultuous story of Aurora Greenway and her daughter Emma is honest, realistic, brutal, and in the end heartbreaking. These women are portrayed by Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. I think as time goes on and film historians look at this film, both of these performances will be remembered as two of the "great" ones. I don't think either Actress makes a false move. Shirley MacLaine won her Oscar as Aurora and she truly is brilliant. Aurora is a hard character to love. She is bitter bordering on cold, terse with looks and brutal with words. But yet somehow Ms MacLaine never gives you a moment's doubt that nothing is more important to her than her daughter. The scene in the hospital with Aurora demanding that the nursing staff pay attention to her sick daughter is the one that is always shown when this film is highlighted in Ms MacLaine's resume, but to me there are other even more powerful moments. Aurora's farewell to Emma as Emma and her husband move out of Texas, her reactions to her first encounter with Garrett Breedlove, the repulsive astronaut next door played by Jack Nicholson, and her finest moment is an uncomfortable dinner with her son-in-law at the hospital. It is a bravura performance that ensured MacLaine her Academy Award against such heavyweights as Meryl Streep (SILKWOOD), Jane Alexander (TESTAMENT), Julie Walters (EDUCATING RITA) and Debra Winger herself for her portrayal of Emma. Ms Winger is extraordinary and it realistically should have been a tie for Best Actress between she and MacLaine. Neither is better than the other and neither could have done it without the other. Debra Winger makes every moment count. Her scenes in the hospital room with her children are nothing short of triumphant. A masterclass in acting. Jack Nicholson won his second Oscar for his supporting role as Breedlove, the astronaut. He begins as the fool next door and slowly makes his way into the bed and also the heart of Aurora. It's a beautiful performance and also a brave one. The seduction scene in Aurora's bedroom is both shocking and hilarious. The supporting cast includes John Lithgow (also nominated for an Oscar for his performance), Danny DeVito, and Jeff Daniels who SHOULD have been nominated for his performance as Flap Horton, Emma's philandering husband. Shirley MacLaine describes in her Hollywood autobiography what it was like making TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. She called it a highly stressful and chaotic shoot. She nearly walked off the picture at one point. MacLaine and Winger didn't get along at all, which probably added to the dynamic on film between Aurora and Emma. She claims that there is close to 45 minutes of "cut" scenes that added to the film in some sort of Director's Cut would make the film even more fleshed out than it already is. Where is THAT Blu-Ray, I ask you? Watching the movie last night, I didn't weep. I didn't even cry. I just sat there silently blown away by a film that I have seen several times and was amazed to see how it holds up. Absolutely one of the great pictures of the 80's and absolutely one of the best movies of the past century in Hollywood. The sequel THE EVENING STAR is not a good film. The only reason to see it is to wrap up Aurora's story. Although THE EVENING STAR does contain a magnificent performance from Marion Ross as Rosy, Aurora's maid and best friend. I think it's time for me to read the novel TERMS OF ENDEARMENT by Larry McMurtry. I never have because I heard that it was quite different from the film to the point of McMurtry refusing to acknowledge that a movie even exists. But if nothing else, it will give me more time in the company of Aurora and Emma. Great place to be.
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