Thu 18 Apr 2019
MY TV DIARY February 1981: Part I.
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , TV Diary[5] Comments
Introduction: I have discovered something I did some 38 years ago and had totally forgotten about. A sizable chunk of Fatal Kiss #17, my DAPA-Em zine at the time, consisted of a diary of everything I watched on TV during the month of February 1981. This included movies watched on HBO as well as ordinary network shows. And naturally I’ve decided to share everything with you, warts (perhaps) and all. What will follow on this blog over time are not likely to be full-fledged reviews, but as I say, commentary written many years ago by me in diary format.
February 1.
STARTING OVER. (1979) Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen. [Movie watched on HBO.]
Moderately interesting. As I understand it, Reynolds thought he should have won an Oscar for his performance in this movie, or should have been nominated, or something. He plays a confused sort of guy who can’t make up his mind between is ex-wife (Bergen) who as the movie starts is in the process of divorcing him, or his new girl friend (Clayburgh).
He and his ex-wife still get along together — in bed — but only for a little while. His girl friend is sensitive about her relationships with divorced men, and rightfully so.
In all truth, Reynolds shows a little more acting ability than has been required of him in most of the parts he plays, but I still think he’s playing himself again. Nothing wrong with that. John Wayne did it for years.
Rated R, apparently for the occasionally foul language (“Tommy, she said the ‘F’ word!), and for the see-through blouse Candice Bergen wears at one point, as she’s trying to win Burt back.
April 18th, 2019 at 6:59 am
No Burt, no Award for you. Clayburgh (Lead Actress) and Bergen (Supporting Actress) were nominated but lost – respectively, to Sally Field for NORMA RAE and Meryl Streep for KRAMER VERSUS KRAMER.
I think it is pretty much forgettable and forgotten at this late date.
April 18th, 2019 at 8:11 am
I like Burt Reynolds. How could anyone not? Someday future historians will look back on our Civilization and comment: “Burt Reynolds never won an Oscar? How cold they overlook talent and sensitivity like that?”
Then they’ll be smacked on the head by flying cars whose drivers are making porno-vids.
April 18th, 2019 at 8:37 am
It’s a good movie. James L. Brooks, who wrote it, thought Reynolds was miscast, and he may have been right. I think Burt is very good in it, but he is probably too handsome and too charming to believably play a lonely guy who spends evenings at a support group for divorced men. Charles Grodin would have been perfect for it.
April 18th, 2019 at 3:00 pm
What I remember about this one was that it rescued Candice Bergen’s career – by proving that she was funny.
Before this, Bergen was stuck in super-serious “drayma”, where she often found herself on the wrong end of the crying towel.
Once she got to demonstrate her singing (?) voice, Bergen showed what her friends had known for years – that she could be very funny about herself.
It was a short step from here to Murphy Brown – and the rest is history.
Oh, yeah, Burt was OK too …
April 19th, 2019 at 12:25 pm
Thanks for the comments everyone. You all seem to remember this movie a lot more than I do, which isn’t all that strange, since I don’t remember it at all, not a single scene.