Movie Mythos
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) belongs to the spate of Oscar-winning emotional family dramas of the late 70s/early 80s, such as Ordinary People (1980), On Golden Pond (1981), and Terms of Endearment (1983). I'd never seen any of these in their entirety, so I was interested when this film about a divorce and child custody battle showed up in the mail. And sure, it was really well-acted and well-written, a little overdone in the way of Oscar-winning Hollywood films, all orchestral music soundtrack and traumatic events. I always feel a little manipulated, even as I'm enjoying it. And I did enjoy it, though I sympathized for Meryl Streep's character, who is portrayed as a real selfish witch. I guess that's a testament to her acting, since the film's POV seems to side with the father. I wonder if the feminist overtones to the mother's story (which only comes out in the end courtroom scene) are actually there, or something I'm reading into it? And the ending, I found pretty unbelievable, like something tacked on because they wanted (SPOILER! MOVE TO NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON"T WANT TO KNOW) a "Happy Ending." What? A Happy Ending? Quelle surprise.
Joe has always said that Kramer vs. Kramer had one of his favourite scenes, where Dustin Hoffman is sprinting down the street to music on the soundtrack, when suddenly he runs past a band playing that music, effectively turning it from non-diagetic to diagetic. When Joe saw the actual scene again after so many years, he said the details of the scene were completely different than how he had remembered and described it. "Maybe the scene I remember comes later on," he said. But it didn't.
And then, from the same time period (1980) and also graced with an Oscar for Sissy Spacek's performance, was Coal Miner's Daughter. Surprisingly, I enjoyed this film pretty much without reservation! Most of the credit goes to lovely Miss Sissy as Loretta Lynn, whose performance truly is amazing (she sings her own songs live for the camera, no lipsyncing here), though Tommy Lee Jones as her husband is also pretty darned good. Loretta Lynn's life makes quite a story, and I was in the mood for a good old-fashioned story. What fun, when done right! Right on!