Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, starring Ellen Burstyn, was directed by Martin Scorsese and released in May of 1974. It's a good flick, and Burstyn took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.
Here's the movie in a nutshell: (there's a spoiler or two here, but the movie is 30 years old, and anyway, it's nothing you can't figure out by reading the back of the box) This lady Alice is married to this guy Don, who is a domineering jerk. He dies and Alice and her 11-year old son, a young snotty jerk, hit the road and try to make it to Monterey, California, where Alice hopes to rekindle her singing career. Along the way, she makes a pitstop or two, briefly hooks up with another guy who ends up being abusive, played by a very young Harvey Keitel, and ends up in Tucson, Arizona. There, she finds true love with Kris Kristofferson and gets a job as a waitress at Mel's Diner, working with a sassy lady named Flo and a nutjob named Vera. If the last part sounds familiar, it's because this movie was the inspiration for the tv show Alice. More on that later...
The tagline for the movie was "A movie for anyone who has ever dreamed of a second chance", and that pretty much sums it up. Alice begins the movie in a pretty bad spot, being totally subservient to a husband who is emotionally unavailable and very short tempered. She spends most of the movie chasing the dream of a singing career in Monterey, shown in an idyllic childhood scene at the beginning of the film, and after some hard times and bad luck (and a bit of advice from Flo), she ends up feeling pretty good about herself and life in general. She doesn't give up her dream, but she does stop running away from her problems, and starts a new life with a pretty cool guy.
The writing in this movie is top notch. None of the dialogue or situations felt forced, and all of the characters were very believable. They felt like people I've worked with, went to school with and am related to. That being said, I found Alice to be a bit of a drama queen at times, and her son was a snot-nosed brat. But were they real? Oh hell yeah... Every performance was perfect.
The main reason I rented the movie was that I grew up with fond memories of the CBS televison series Alice, which ran from 1976 to 1985. Kris Kristofferson's character wasn't in the tv show, but in an interesting turn of events, Vic Tayback played Mel in both the movie and the series, and Nancy McKeon's brother Phillip was Alice's son. I've seen the show recently, and frankly, it doesn't really live up to my memories... it's a lot like Monterey was to Alice, just a childhood dream that can never really be relived. One thing that does hold up is the theme song. Download it if you can, or pick up one of those tv theme compilations - it's one of the best tv themes from the golden age of tv theme songs, second only to the end credits from The Incredible Hulk.
Lastly, I'll leave you with another bit of bizarre trivia. The character of Flo was eventually spun off into her own tv show and replaced by Diane Ladd, who played Flo in the movie! Ladd played Belle, who didn't last long, and was replaced by yet another southern waitress named Jolene, who often mentioned her distant relative, J.D. "Boss" Hogg... yes, that Boss Hogg. How weird is that?
(to be fair though, I should mention that I got that Boss Hogg info from Wikipedia, which is known to be wrong from time to time)
Anyway, any review/article/blog about Alice would be incomplete if I didn't say "Kiss My Grits" at least once.
So there you have it.
Here's the movie in a nutshell: (there's a spoiler or two here, but the movie is 30 years old, and anyway, it's nothing you can't figure out by reading the back of the box) This lady Alice is married to this guy Don, who is a domineering jerk. He dies and Alice and her 11-year old son, a young snotty jerk, hit the road and try to make it to Monterey, California, where Alice hopes to rekindle her singing career. Along the way, she makes a pitstop or two, briefly hooks up with another guy who ends up being abusive, played by a very young Harvey Keitel, and ends up in Tucson, Arizona. There, she finds true love with Kris Kristofferson and gets a job as a waitress at Mel's Diner, working with a sassy lady named Flo and a nutjob named Vera. If the last part sounds familiar, it's because this movie was the inspiration for the tv show Alice. More on that later...
The tagline for the movie was "A movie for anyone who has ever dreamed of a second chance", and that pretty much sums it up. Alice begins the movie in a pretty bad spot, being totally subservient to a husband who is emotionally unavailable and very short tempered. She spends most of the movie chasing the dream of a singing career in Monterey, shown in an idyllic childhood scene at the beginning of the film, and after some hard times and bad luck (and a bit of advice from Flo), she ends up feeling pretty good about herself and life in general. She doesn't give up her dream, but she does stop running away from her problems, and starts a new life with a pretty cool guy.
The writing in this movie is top notch. None of the dialogue or situations felt forced, and all of the characters were very believable. They felt like people I've worked with, went to school with and am related to. That being said, I found Alice to be a bit of a drama queen at times, and her son was a snot-nosed brat. But were they real? Oh hell yeah... Every performance was perfect.
The main reason I rented the movie was that I grew up with fond memories of the CBS televison series Alice, which ran from 1976 to 1985. Kris Kristofferson's character wasn't in the tv show, but in an interesting turn of events, Vic Tayback played Mel in both the movie and the series, and Nancy McKeon's brother Phillip was Alice's son. I've seen the show recently, and frankly, it doesn't really live up to my memories... it's a lot like Monterey was to Alice, just a childhood dream that can never really be relived. One thing that does hold up is the theme song. Download it if you can, or pick up one of those tv theme compilations - it's one of the best tv themes from the golden age of tv theme songs, second only to the end credits from The Incredible Hulk.
Lastly, I'll leave you with another bit of bizarre trivia. The character of Flo was eventually spun off into her own tv show and replaced by Diane Ladd, who played Flo in the movie! Ladd played Belle, who didn't last long, and was replaced by yet another southern waitress named Jolene, who often mentioned her distant relative, J.D. "Boss" Hogg... yes, that Boss Hogg. How weird is that?
(to be fair though, I should mention that I got that Boss Hogg info from Wikipedia, which is known to be wrong from time to time)
Anyway, any review/article/blog about Alice would be incomplete if I didn't say "Kiss My Grits" at least once.
So there you have it.
No comments:
Post a Comment