| Ordinary People | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Redford |
| Screenplay by | Alvin Sargent |
| Based on | Ordinary People byJudith Guest |
| Produced by | Ronald L. Schwary |
| Starring | Donald Sutherland Mary Tyler Moore Judd Hirsch Timothy Hutton |
| Cinematography | John Bailey |
| Edited by | Jeff Kanew |
| Music by | Marvin Hamlisch |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6.2 million[1] |
| Box office | $90 million |
Ordinary People is a 1980 American drama film, thefirst feature directed byRobert Redford. The screenplay byAlvin Sargent is based on the1976 novel byJudith Guest. The film follows the disintegration of a wealthy family inLake Forest, Illinois, after one son dies in an accident and the other attempts to die by suicide. It starsDonald Sutherland,Mary Tyler Moore,Judd Hirsch, andTimothy Hutton.
Released to theaters byParamount Pictures on September 19, 1980,Ordinary People met commercial and critical success. The film grossed $90 million on a $6.2 million budget. Reviewers praised Redford's direction, Sargent's screenplay, and the performances of the cast. The film was chosen by theNational Board of Review as one of thetop ten films of 1980, and garnered six nominations at the53rd Academy Awards, winning four:Best Picture,Best Director,Best Adapted Screenplay, andBest Supporting Actor for Hutton (theyoungest recipient at age 20).[2] In addition, the film won five awards at the38th Golden Globe Awards:Best Motion Picture – Drama,Best Director,Best Actress (Moore), andBest Supporting Actor &New Star of the Year – Actor (Hutton).
The Jarretts are an upper-middle-class family inLake Forest, a wealthy suburb north ofChicago. They are trying to return to normal life after experiencing the accidental death of their older teenage son, Buck, and the attempted suicide of their younger and surviving son, Conrad. Conrad has recently returned home after spending four months in apsychiatric hospital. He feels alienated from his friends and family and seeks help from a psychiatrist, Dr. Tyrone Berger, who discovers that Conrad was involved in the sailing accident that killed Buck. Conrad is now dealing withpost-traumatic stress disorder and is seeking help to cope with his emotions.
Conrad's father, Calvin, attempts to connect with his surviving son and understand his wife, while Conrad's mother, Beth, denies her loss, hoping to maintain her composure and restore her family to what it once was. She appears to have favored her older son and has grown cold toward Conrad due to his suicide attempt. Beth is determined to maintain the appearance of perfection and normality, and her efforts only serve to alienate Conrad further. Conrad works with Dr. Berger and begins to learn how to deal with his emotions rather than control them. He starts dating a fellow student, Jeannine, who helps him regain a sense of optimism. However, Conrad still struggles to communicate and establish normal relationships with his parents and schoolmates.
Beth and Conrad often argue while Calvin tries to referee, generally taking Conrad's side for fear of pushing him over the edge again. Tensions escalate near Christmas when Conrad becomes furious at Beth for not wanting to take a photo with him, swearing at her in front of his grandparents. Afterwards, Beth discovers Conrad has been lying about his after-school whereabouts. This leads to a heated confrontation between Conrad and Beth in which Conrad points out that Beth never visited him in the hospital; Conrad argues that if Buck had been hospitalized in his place, she would have gone to see him, to which Beth curtly replies that Buck would never have been in the hospital in the first place. Beth and Calvin take a trip to see Beth's brother Ward inHouston, where Calvin presses Beth about her evasive attitude.
Conrad suffers a setback when he learns that Karen, a friend from the psychiatric hospital, hastaken her own life. A cathartic breakthrough session in the middle of the night with Dr. Berger allows Conrad to stop blaming himself for Buck's death and accept his mother's frailties. However, when Conrad tries to show affection, Beth is unresponsive, leading Calvin to emotionally confront her one last time. He questions their love and asks whether she is capable of truly loving anyone. Stunned, Beth packs her bags and goes back to Houston. Calvin and Conrad are left to come to terms with their new family situation, affirming their father–son love.
Gene Hackman was originally cast as Calvin Jarrett but then later dropped out when he and the studio could not come to a financial agreement.[3]
A then-unknownMichael J. Fox, who had just moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, auditioned for the role of Conrad Jarrett but reportedly did not impress Redford, who flossed his teeth during Fox's audition.[4][5]
Natalie Wood was also considered for the role of Beth.[dead link]
The film was a box-office success, grossing $54.8 million in the United States and Canada[6] and approximately $36 million overseas[7] for a worldwide gross of $90 million.
Ordinary People received critical acclaim. OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 90%, based on 105 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Robert Redford proves himself a filmmaker of uncommonemotional intelligence withOrdinary People, an auspicious debut that deftly observes the fractioning of a family unit through a quartet of superb performances."[8] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.[9]
Roger Ebert gave it a full four stars and praised how the film's setting "is seen with an understated matter-of-factness. There are no cheap shots against suburban lifestyles or affluence or mannerisms: The problems of the people in this movie aren't caused by their milieu, but grow out of themselves. ... That's what sets the film apart from the sophisticated suburban soap opera it could easily have become."[10] He later named it the fifth best film of the year 1980; while colleagueGene Siskel ranked it the second best film of 1980.[11]
Writing forThe New York Times,Vincent Canby called it "a moving, intelligent and funny film about disasters that are commonplace to everyone except the people who experience them."[12]
The film marked a career breakout for Mary Tyler Moore from the personalities of her other two famous roles: Laura Petrie onThe Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Richards onThe Mary Tyler Moore Show. Moore's nuanced portrayal of the mother to Hutton's character was highly acclaimed, and earned her aBest Actress nomination.[13] Donald Sutherland's performance as the father was also well received and earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Despite his co-stars receiving nominations, Sutherland was overlooked for an Academy Award, whichEntertainment Weekly has described as one of the biggest acting snubs in the history of the awards.[14]
Judd Hirsch's portrayal of Dr. Berger was a departure from his work on the sitcomTaxi, and drew praise from many in the psychiatric community as one of the rare times their profession is shown in a positive light in film.[15] Hirsch was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor, losing out to co-star Hutton. Additionally,Ordinary People launched the career ofElizabeth McGovern who played Hutton's character's love interest, and who received special permission to film while attendingJuilliard.
The film's prominent usage ofPachelbel's Canon, which had been relatively obscure for centuries, helped to usher the piece into mainstream popular culture.[16]
Julia L. Hall, a journalist who has written extensively aboutnarcissistic personality disorder, wrote in 2017 upon Moore's death that she "portrays her character's narcissism to a tee in turn after turn."[17] She praised Moore for taking such a career risk so soon after having played such a memorable and likable character on television, "scaffolding gaping emptiness with a persona of perfection, supported by denial, blame, rejection, and rage."[17]
The film was nominated for sixAcademy Awards (winning four), including theBest Picture,Best Director,Best Adapted Screenplay, andBest Supporting Actor (for Hutton) in his first film role.[13]
Ordinary People was released onDVD in 2001.[28] It was released onBlu-ray in March 2022, featuring a4K restoration of the film.[29]
