“UNDER THE VENEER”

By Raymond Benson

Finally, a high definition Blu-ray disk of Robert Redford’s 1980 masterpiece, Ordinary People, has been released. To date, the film has existed on home video only on VHS and DVD, and the new Paramount Presents edition is most welcome.

People was Redford’s directorial debut, and at the time audiences and critics expected it to be good, but they didn’t count on it being that good. It took the Best Picture prize at the Academy Awards, along with a trophy for Redford for Direction, one for Alvin Sargent’s Adapted Screenplay (based on Judith Guest’s wonderful novel), and a most deserved Supporting Actor Oscar for Timothy Hutton. Granted, Hutton’s character, Conrad Jarrett, is really the protagonist, i.e., the lead in the movie, so it’s one of those infuriating cases in which an actor is nominated in the wrong category. (That said, there’s no way Hutton would have won over Robert De Niro’s blistering once-in-a-lifetime performance in Raging Bull, so the studio was smart to offer up Hutton in the Supporting category, where he’d have a better than fighting chance.)

Mary Tyler Moore also received a nomination for Best Actress, and Judd Hirsch a nod for Supporting Actor (competing with Hutton). They are both brilliant, too. Moore plays against type, portraying a woman with a cold heart who has forgotten—or never knew—how to love, and Hirsch is the psychiatrist with whom we all would want to spend two sessions a week. Missing from the Oscar awards tally was Donald Sutherland, who, for this reviewer’s money, provides the performance of his career. In many ways, he’s the center of the picture. We slowly see that his stable assuredness is also cracking from the pretense going in his family. Why Sutherland wasn’t at least nominated is a head-scratcher.

The story is about a mid-to-upper class family living in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest. Everything should be as Beth Jarrett (Moore) believes it is—that their family is happy and their world is perfect. “Neat and easy,” as her husband, Calvin (Sutherland), describes how she keeps their lives. But under the polished veneer, all is not well. Not one bit. The Jarretts recently experienced a tragedy. The oldest son, Buck, drowned in a boating accident while out on the water with his younger brother, Conrad (Hutton). Not long afterwards, Conrad attempted suicide and ended up in a psychiatric hospital for four months. Now he’s home, and Conrad is having a very difficult time adjusting. He can’t relate the way he once did to his high school buddies. He can’t feel as if he’s part of the school swim team, the way he could prior to the incident. Worst of all, his relationship with his mother has deteriorated. Calvin can see the conflict between them and does his best to play referee and understanding father, but this only begins to drive a wedge between him and Beth. It’s only after Conrad starts seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Berger (Hirsch), that the teenager embarks on an excruciating but necessary emotional journey toward wellness.

The script is an honest and canny depiction of how families bury truths and put up facades. Redford’s direction is sensitively nuanced, and the acting all around is impeccable. This is powerful stuff. Ordinary People also provides one of the better positive depictions of psychiatry ever put on celluloid, and this reviewer challenges anyone viewing the film not to have welling eyes during the scene in which Dr. Berger tells Conrad, “I’m your friend.”

Beyond the quartet of principle stars, Elizabeth McGovern is striking as a high school romantic interest for Conrad, a young Adam Baldwin is effective as one of the teen swim team pals, M. Emmet Walsh has a turn as the clueless swimming coach, and Dinah Manoff has a short but significant scene as a fellow hospital patient, now out in the real world like Conrad.

But the movie belongs to Timothy Hutton. Ordinary People was his first feature film (he had made only one television movie earlier in the year, and appeared uncredited, briefly, as a child in a picture in the 1960s.) His Conrad is a virtuoso piece of acting.

The Paramount Presents feature is remastered from a new 4K film transfer overseen by Redford, and it looks crisp and colorful. The only supplements are two new, short featurettes with interviews with Hutton and author Judith Guest, plus the theatrical trailer.

Ordinary People merited every honor it received. It is an emotional roller-coaster that elevates the Hollywood family drama to an unprecedented high. Enthusiastically recommended.

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Ordinary People vs. Raging Bull

Some personal observations and opinions here. There have been critics over the years (Siskel and Ebert, for example) who have claimed that Ordinary People “stole” the Oscar from Raging Bull, which is often cited not only as the “best” movie of 1980, but of the entire 1980s decade.

I love Raging Bull and consider it a magnificent example of bravura filmmaking from Martin Scorsese. It’s slick, gorgeously shot in black and white, brilliantly edited (by Oscar winner Thelma Schoonmaker), and it contains not only powerhouse performances by Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty in supporting roles, but the crowning screen appearance of Robert De Niro’s career. There is no question that De Niro’s Jake LaMotta is one of the most accomplished acting displays ever.

Yes, Raging Bull is a great film… and I also find it unpleasant as hell. The brutality is visceral, and of course, that’s the point. It’s about a man who can’t control his rage. I may love the film, but I can’t say I enjoy it, if that makes any sense.

Ordinary People is not a happy story, either—that’s true. While it’s without physical violence, it is an emotionally violent tale; but it is so elegantly rendered with intelligence and, yes, beauty, that I, personally, am always moved by it. For me, it tugs at the heartstrings and the tear ducts. And while the fate of the tale’s family is a tragedy, there is the hint of hope at the end that all will be well for young Conrad Jarrett. I adore Ordinary People more every time I see it.