KRAMER VS. KRAMER—The last Best Picture winner of the Seventies is another one of the socially “important” Oscar-winners, a movie that owes its victory in part to the fact that it was perceived as being particularly relevant to American society at the time of its production (think Gentlemans Agreement and In the Heat of the Night for two notable previous examples of this phenomenon). This time the social issue is divorce and womens rights as demonstrated through the story of Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman), a successful ad man who finds himself suddenly thrust into the role of single parent when his wife, Joanna (Meryl Streep), abruptly divorces him and leaves him to raise their son, Billy (Justin Henry) all alone. After a rough start, Ted and Billy seem to reach a place of reasonable contentment together; at this point, however, Joanna returns to New York and demands full custody of the son she left behind. A brutal court battle ensues in which everybody loses except the lawyers (including Howard Duff as Teds gentlemanly brute of an attorney). Theres no doubt that the explosion of divorce in this country inspired this picture, which was written and directed by Robert Benton, best known for his screenplays for Bonnie and Clyde and Superman, who adapted a novel by Avery Corman (no relation to Roger, but the guy who also wrote the novel that inspired Oh, God! In 1977); certainly by the end of the Seventies it was time for a major motion picture to investigate the issue. The real issue is whether or not Kramer vs. Kramer is a good movie regardless of the social issues it addresses, and I must admit that it is still very effective even after the passage of 35 years. The film is touching but never maudlin, and a concentrated effort is made to make all the characters realistic—there is no real bad guy here, and Streep does a good job of making Joanna a proper antagonist, not a villain, which in lesser hands is what the character would be. Bentons direction is as assured as his script; he has written and/or directed a number of excellent films, including the underrated Nobodys Fool in 1994. The cast is uniformly excellent, particularly young Justin Henry, who gives a heartbreaking performance (and who apparently never had another major acting gig, even though he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). Hoffman and Streep both won Oscars for their work, and Streep emerged as a major star in the films wake; to this day she is considered by some to be the best actress in America. Streep won her first Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category, beating out co-star Jane Alexander, who plays a sympathetic neighbor to the Kramers. Overall Kramer vs. Kramer is an excellent movie, but I still prefer Apocalypse Now, which I think lost out as much because The Deer Hunter won the previous year as because Bentons film was so topical. The best film of 1979 was not even nominated: Hal Ashbys Being There, which at least won Melvyn Douglas a Best Supporting Actor award (Douglas beat out young Henry in what was the largest age disparity in Oscar nomination history—70 or so years! That record stood until 2013, when there was a 76-year disparity between two Best Actress nominees). And so we close out the Best Pictures of the 70s, which overall seems to have been the best decade for Best Pictures—even when I would have voted for other nominees. Alas, as VH1 tells us, “the 80s lay dead ahead.” RATING: ****
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 18:56:55 +0000
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