Looking for Mr. Goodbar
I had no idea what I was in for when I rented this movie. I knew it was supposed to be dark, but didn’t bother to read anything about it before I decided to watch it, which in retrospect was a good thing because the ending was so stunning, it made me queasy.
It’s a 1977 film starring Diane Keaton as a single schoolteacher in New York City. After a failed affair with her professor in college, she moves on living alone in the city to habitually ‘enjoying the nightlife’ by seeking out men for one night stands and eventually getting sucked into heavy drugs. But even that summary wouldn’t have prepared me for this final scene, which after a little research I’ve learned, has traumatized many, many people who happened to innocently start watching it on cable.
Even just that I’ve said all of this will diminish your experience of the movie if you ever end up watching it. And it’s funny that halfway through (it is a very long 2+ hours), I was thinking this is almost at the level of “Valley of the Dolls” camp. But again, the last scene changes everything.
I don’t watch many horror films, but I’m always intrigued by them. I’ve wanted to see ‘The Descent’ for years but have always been too squeamish to go through with watching it. However, some films not branded with a genre like ‘horror’ can kick you in the stomach with these macabre elements if it’s done right.
Take for example, ‘Taxi Driver’ or ‘Straw Dogs.’ The end of ‘Taxi Driver’ - that one long overhead tracking shot at the end will be stuck in my head forever. ‘Straw Dogs’ less so - but the transition from one kind of movie to another over the course of an hour and a half, left a haunting impression. And I think Hollywood doesn’t make these movies often. ‘In the Bedroom’ is the most recent example I can think of. For the first 40 minutes or so, you think it’s going to be one kind of movie but by the end you are so far away from where you were at the beginning, it’s entirely breathtaking.
I think now Hollywood thinks, if you say something’s a thriller or a romantic comedy or even just a family drama, it has to deliver all that an audience would think that kind of film is. But ‘Mr. Goodbar’ and ‘In the Bedroom’ have taught me how perversly thrilling it can be to have a movie take you down to hell.
But I’m still worried about having nightmares tonight.
