Ordinary People (1980)

Review:

I’m glad I let Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” gestate for a few days in my head before writing this review. I think I had an unfair bias that was dispelled with some time and consideration. My initial interest in the “Ordinary People” was piqued by the fact that it won best picture in 1980 over Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull.” This was the same sort of fascination that inspired me to see John Ford’s “How Green Was My Valley” (1941), the film that won best picture over “Citizen Kane.” Both “Citizen Kane” and “Raging Bull” are widely considered to be better films than the ones that beat them out for best picture, and such was the origin of my bias against “Ordinary People.”

I came into the movie and for the first half of the film, all I really could think was “This is not as good as Raging Bull.” I thought it represented just another entry in a rising trend in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which was the socially conscious domestic drama. The socially conscious domestic drama (my own cumbersome term) has its origins going back at least as far as “Rebel Without a Cause” but likely even further. They are the films that try to take a hard and realistic look at how families function and fail. “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955) was a noble attempt to look at teenage displacement and alienation, but it does not stand the test of time. Today it looks innocent and rather hokey. With the renaissance of American film in the late 1960s there started a trend with films like “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) and “The Graduate” (1967) to attempt to make statements not only about characters but about reality itself. These films tried to dispel the hocus pocus and melodrama of cinema and show something that felt more authentic to the audience. This gave rise to films such as “Easy Rider” (1969), “Midnight Cowboy” (1969) “Five Easy Pieces” (1970), and “Taxi Driver” (1976). But all of those films dealt with the fringes of society, the near socio-paths who can, in some light, be elevated to saints. After a time it is my belief that directors decided the typical family unit should be the focus of films that strive for unflinching reality and so we have the rise of films like “Ordinary People,” who’s title, I think is to ironically suggest that even in the white upper-middle class family unit, there is nothing that approaches normalcy.

The story is tragic. The Jarrett family’s oldest son Buck was killed in a sailing accident, leaving behind Calvin (Donald Sutherland) the shattered father, Beth (Mary Tyler Moore) the emotionally remote mother, and Conrad (Timothy Hutton) the younger brother who has recently tried to commit suicide. This is a family that is trying with all its energy and might to restore some semblance of unity, or at least balance, into their household.

Conrad is the focus of the film. He attempted suicide for reasons that become clearer as the film progresses but at the start of the movie he is a mystery. We sense that he is unstable, perhaps hanging on by a thread. He decides to go see a psychiatrist, Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch). From his sessions with Dr. Berger and from witnessing Conrad’s family interactions we begin to understand how Buck’s death has forced each family member into a different type of isolation. Conrad suffers from a survivor’s guilt, Calvin cannot bring himself to express openly how he feels, and Beth has shut off any sense of motherly love.

The film is finely crafted and the dialogue is astute and gripping. A few times, the story treads close to becoming more of a lifetime movie, but it wisely and quickly shies away from the heart warming routes. Director Robert Redford here proves he understands the craft of great filmmaking. While there is nothing too distinctive about the directing, it stands strongly on its own legs, investing more in the power of the story than in creative shots.

The thing that stuck with me about “Ordinary People” in the days after I watched it was the ending. I won’t say what it is. I’ll only say the ending could have easily been a cop out and instead Redford and screenwriter Alvin Sargent provide a challenging finish. Its something you don’t see too often in the movies – the right ending.

Rating:

On a scale of one to Casablanca this film is a “Deer Hunter” (1978)

Rationalization:

I can’t stress the part about having the right ending enough. Yes, this is not a perfect film and certainly “Raging Bull” is better, but the end is so perfect. Frankly, life does not always turn out neatly under benevolent circumstances. In many ways “Ordinary People” reminded me of “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979) and “Terms of Endearment” (1983) and I would also include those films as socially conscious domestic dramas (I think “Terms of Endearment” is the best example of these films). Anyways, “Ordinary People” is good drama that aptly questions whether family love is unconditional. Like with other great films, it does not come out with the easy answers.