Ordinary People

Starring:Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton, M. Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth McGovern, Dinah Manoff, Fredric Lehne, James Sikking, Basil Hoffman, Scott Doebler, Quinn K. Redeker, Mariclare Costello, Meg Mundy, Elizabeth Hubbard, Adam Baldwin, Richard Whiting, Carl DiTomasso, Tim Clarke, Ken Dishner
Director: Robert Redford
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

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Robert Redford made his Oscar-winning directorial debut with this highly acclaimed, poignantly observant drama (based on the novel by Judith Guest) about a well-to-do family's painful adjustment to tragedy. Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland play a seemingly happy couple who lose the older of their two sons to a boating accident; Timothy Hutton plays the surviving teenage son, who blames himself for his brother's death and has attempted suicide to end his pain. They live in a meticulously kept home in an affluent Chicago suburb, never allowing themselves to speak openly of the grief that threatens to tear them apart. Only when the son begins to see a psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch) does the veneer of denial begin to crack, and Ordinary People thenceforth directly examines the broken family ties and the complexity of repressed emotions that have festered under the pretense of coping. Superior performances and an Oscar-winning script by Alvin Sargent make this one of the most uncompromising dramas ever made about the psychology of dysfunctional families. There are moments--particularly related to Mary Tyler Moore's anguished performance as a woman incapable of expressing her deepest emotions--when this film is both intensely involving and heartbreakingly real. No matter how happy and healthy your upbringing was, there's something in this excellent film that everyone can relate to. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

"An Amazing Disturbing Movie".......2007-04-14

I rarely make reviews for movies, but I had to for "Ordinary People". I haven't been this bothered by a film since seeing "Mommie Dearest" 10 years ago. Mary Tyler Moore steals the film as the cold hearted mother who blames her son for her other son's death. What makes the film so excellent is how Mary Tyler Moore pulls off the acting job of a lifetime. I never knew she could play a bitch and she makes it look so believable. The scene when she comes homes and confronts her son after learning he quit the swim team is provocative, and you can see the look of anger in her eyes. The best scene in the film. Timothy Hutton is excellent as the son and he desevedly won the Oscar. Without a doubt an excellent film and one that had "Best Picture" written all over it. It even beat "Raging Bull" that year. Sit back and enjoy one of the most dramatic films ever made even if it is 27 years old. Wonderful art never goes out of style. I will also never look at Mary Tyler Moore the same way again. What a wonderful dramatic actress. The film is in widescreen and comes with the theartrical trailer.

Ordinary People.......2007-04-13

In 1980, Robert Redford made his directorial debut with "Ordinary People." The movie ended up winning Oscars for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Timothy Hutton), and Best Original Screenplay...Today, "Ordinary People" is still regarded as a good film, but the movie it beat for Best Picture ("Raging Bull") is regarded as a classic. "Ordinary People" has explosive acting, realistic family situations, and good direction...But it's not a very entertaining film and wouldn't have a chance against a movie like "Raging Bull" today. Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore play Calvin and Beth, a married couple with a young son named Conrad (Hutton). Their oldest son Buck has recently died and Conrad has recently tried to kill himself. The film follows Conrad as he attempts to adjust back to a normal life, while his parents realize how little they actually care for each other. The film is one of those movies that is very short on plot, but makes up for it with it's powerful performances and they ARE very good. Hutton, who plays more of a lead role in the film, is absolutely fantastic and truly deserved his Oscar. Also Oscar worthy are Sutherland and Moore...Anyway, I don't have much more to say about the film except...It's worth seeing for it's performances, but it's not very entertaining. Keep that in mind.

GRADE: B-

Heart touching story of family tragedy.......2007-01-19

We've worn out our VHS copy and this movie continues to be a favorite for use in family studies classes at our university. I use it in FAMILY IN THE SOCIAL CONTEXT to provide a human framework for how a son's tragic death causes both overt and underlying pain in a family.

Who Else Felt Sorry for the Mother?.......2006-12-20

Movie critic Pauline Kael assesses, "The joker about this movie is that part of the audience weeps for the unloving WASP-witch mother." Well...this is my dilemma too. I know that I'm supposed to feel sorry for Conrad, but Mary Tyler Moore's performance is so poignantly precise that I find myself feeling her pain each step of the way.

One reviewer wrote that fifty people would give you fifty different answers about what this film is about. So true. And one answer is that it is about what losing a child does to a mother. In the abstract, we might say that we would never be like that as parents ourselves. But in reality, many of us can see aspects of our own mothers in Beth. We want to believe that the resources of love are unlimited, but following family tragedy, we find that people run out of sympathy when their own pain is too great.

There are some lines in the book (omitted from the movie) in which the psychiatrist counters Conrad's claim that he didn't try to off himself to hurt his mother--Weren't there also Valium pills in the bathroom cabinet, not just razor blades? He made it as messy as he could. There's a saying that a suicide kills two people. That's what it's for (which is another whole aspect of this story).

Moore's performance is a double-edged sword: She is believably demonstrative to the less needy son and aloof to the more vulnerable. It is a highly personalized portrait: You can SEE this in Moore's personality. In real life, Moore is a diabetic. And at times they need sugar to help them, and at other times sugar is poison. So she herself has to watch how much "sugar" she takes in and gives out so as not to become deathly ill. (Her final scene even seems as if she is having a diabetic seizure as she tries to mouth the words "I love you.")

The Pollyanna in me always hopes that Beth and Calvin are only temporarily separating. But Beth wasn't willing to change tightly controlled way of interacting, and the family unit apparently couldn't survive without a total upheaval. Judith Guest (the author of the novel) has made it clear that Beth isn't coming back--in the book or the film.

Guest has also suggested in an interview that the "exclusion" of women in the end is a small point of contention. In the novel, she explains, it is sort of like Beth is asked to leave. In the film, it is more like she is being told to get out. And this Out-with-the-Female feat is perhaps to the point of perplexity when we have the very actress who played Mary Richards, icon of the TV version of the Feminist Movement. One can only imagine the level of sacrifice Beth has given over the years. The always acerbic TV critic Michael McWilliams surmises in his book TV SIRENS: "Moore's performance in PEOPLE was scathingly exact, but it also endorsed the anti-feminist bias against her character. Here was a wife and mother who kept a perfect home for twenty years, and what does she get in return? Two weepy nerds in crewneck sweaters harassing her for not 'loving' them. If the movie [had] any guts, it would [have] ended with the father and son trying to figure out how to work the washing machine."

This Exclusion of Mother is heartbreaking because one can truly see compassion toward Conrad lying beneath Beth's frosty front. But there are so many blocks up. The moment Buck's name is mentioned, she freezes and can't get beyond. There is a lovely illustration of this in the deck vignette (not in the novel), wherein Beth and Conrad exhibit the characteristics of two different animals who, while affectionate toward each other, speak such different languages that they cannot communicate on even a basic level.

I didn't see Beth as a saint, but I still think the ending was heavy-handed. I like to believe that, after a lengthy vacation, there's still a chance they'll become one big happy family.

Ordinary People.......2006-11-03

I have almost everything Robert Redford has ever done, but I am still looking!! A good movie with real-life issues, and a realistic ending. A great add to my collection!!!

Average customer rating:

Ordinary People
Starring: Jane Alderman , Adam Baldwin , Don Billett , Mariclare Costello , and Scott Doebter
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Average customer rating:

"An Amazing Disturbing Movie"
Ordinary People
Heart touching story of family tragedy
Who Else Felt Sorry for the Mother?
Ordinary People

Ordinary People [Region 2]
Starring: Donald Sutherland , Mary Tyler Moore , Judd Hirsch , Timothy Hutton , and M. Emmet Walsh
Director: Robert Redford
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00005UPOC

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Customer Reviews:

"An Amazing Disturbing Movie".......2007-04-14

Ordinary People.......2007-04-13

Heart touching story of family tragedy.......2007-01-19

Who Else Felt Sorry for the Mother?.......2006-12-20

Ordinary People.......2006-11-03

I have almost everything Robert Redford has ever done, but I am still looking!! A good movie with real-life issues, and a realistic ending. A great add to my collection!!!

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