It was fashionable to knock Robert
Redford's film of "Ordinary People" almost from the moment it won the
Oscar as the year's Best Picture almost as a kind of backlash for the
snubbing of "Raging Bull" and Martin Scorsese and yet this was, and still
is, one of the great movies about psychiatry, the way we handle grief
and, above all, that phenomenon known as the American WASP. Or maybe
people couldn't reconcile that a movie this fine could have been made by
Robert Redford. If that is the case reflect on the fact that as an
actor Redford was at his best playing the WASP hero of "The Way We Were".
It's
also a superbly well-acted picture. Timothy Hutton won a richly
deserved Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the
troubled boy whose guilt at the death of his older brother has lead him
to attempt suicide. As his parents Redford cast actors who were perfect
for their roles rather than actors who might have proved a bigger
box-office draw. Cast against type Mary Tyler Moore is extraordinary as
the mother with ice water in her veins. It was a very brave piece of
acting from someone better known as a much loved television personality
and it should have won her the Oscar, (she lost to the infinitely more
likeable Sissy Spacek in "Coalminer's Daughter"). As the soft-hearted and caring father Donald Sutherland was never better though he went unrecognized by the Academy. In smaller parts Judd Hirsch, (the psychiatrist), and Elizabeth McGovern and Dinah Manoff, (the two girls in Hutton's life), are all outstanding. Like all great films this has stood the test of time. Maybe it cut too deeply into the American psyche to have proved truly popular, certainly amongst Americans. I thought it was a masterpiece in 1980 and I still do.
It was fashionable to knock Robert
Redford's film of "Ordinary People" almost from the moment it won the
Oscar as the year's Best Picture almost as a kind of backlash for the
snubbing of "Raging Bull" and Martin Scorsese and yet this was, and still
is, one of the great movies about psychiatry, the way we handle grief
and, above all, that phenomenon known as the American WASP. Or maybe
people couldn't reconcile that a movie this fine could have been made by
Robert Redford. If that is the case reflect on the fact that as an
actor Redford was at his best playing the WASP hero of "The Way We Were".
It's
also a superbly well-acted picture. Timothy Hutton won a richly
deserved Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the
troubled boy whose guilt at the death of his older brother has lead him
to attempt suicide. As his parents Redford cast actors who were perfect
for their roles rather than actors who might have proved a bigger
box-office draw. Cast against type Mary Tyler Moore is extraordinary as
the mother with ice water in her veins. It was a very brave piece of
acting from someone better known as a much loved television personality
and it should have won her the Oscar, (she lost to the infinitely more
likeable Sissy Spacek in "Coalminer's Daughter"). As the soft-hearted and caring father Donald Sutherland was never better though he went unrecognized by the Academy. In smaller parts Judd Hirsch, (the psychiatrist), and Elizabeth McGovern and Dinah Manoff, (the two girls in Hutton's life), are all outstanding. Like all great films this has stood the test of time. Maybe it cut too deeply into the American psyche to have proved truly popular, certainly amongst Americans. I thought it was a masterpiece in 1980 and I still do.
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