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From: dvorak@houem.UUCP ( Chuck Dvorak )
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: TERMS...why so great? (SPOILER)
Message-ID: <201@houem.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Jan-84 23:59:09 EST
Article-I.D.: houem.201
Posted: Tue Jan 10 23:59:09 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Jan-84 00:31:12 EST
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 46


OK, I plead ignorance.  Why did everyone think this movie was so
great?  For example, a TV critic in NYC (Dennis Cunningham) gave
this a 10, and I bet it has been 2 years since that happened.
While it was entertaining with SOME good acting, well...

Basically it's a long soap opera; very little character development.
For example, nearly all of the women are unidimensional.  Emma loves Flap
and her kids.  She enjoys sex, and has more kids. She makes lotsof
rubbery faces when no one else in the set is looking at her (but
Winger knows the audience is looking!).  She gets cancer and dies.
Gimme a break--LOVE STORY was deeper!  Take away the cute little
kid crying about his mother dying, and you don't really care.
By the way, I have 2 kids, and so I was crying at the right parts,too.
But I wondered the whole time, "If I were not a parent,
would this kid affect me as much?"
I felt mechanically manipulated, and
for me it was melodrama and nothing else.

More unidimensional women--those in NYC who were friends of Patsy's,
Patsy herself, Flap's girlfriend, all in fact except perhaps for
Aurora.  For me she was the bright spot, although only in comparison.
And more unidimensional people--Flap, even Garret the Astronaut, while
funny was just Nicholson typecast again.  I really enjoyed him and
his shenanigans with Emma as humor--but NOT GREAT CINEMA.

And in 1983-4 (after Kramer vs Kramer) we have
a movie that says, "Hey, a father is not a mother, so let Grandma raise
the kids."  Nice, deep, current message.

Finally (I could go on), what the hay does the title mean?  Who is
endeared to what or whom?  What are the terms?  Boy, I sure ask a
lot of questions for someone from New Jersey...

At all events, to end this in an upbeat fashion, the only sense I made
out of it all (looking for more meaning than how unfair life can be)
was that (1) people can go on for years not really understanding each
other; (2) life goes on even if it is unfair; or (3) teaching English
in Iowa and reading a lot warps one's mind; and (4) the writer
really hated New Yorkers.

Not too much there for me.
Would someone please tell me what this flick did for them, aside from
jerk them around emotionally?  

--Chuck Dvorak (...houem!dvorak) Bell Labs. Holmdel