Ordinary People (1980)

Danish title:
“An Ordinary Family”

Directed by: Robert Redford

Written by: Alvin Sargent, Nancy Dowd, Judith Guest

Starring: Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, Timothy Hutton

Running Time: 2 hours, 4 minutes

Rating: R

Pre-Conceived Notions: I got interested in watching Ordinary People when I was working with someone on writing a screenplay, who suggested I buy the book Story, by Robert McKee, where he goes into meticulous detail about writing a screenplay the studios aren’t going to trash as soon as they get their hands on it. One of the chapters talked about Ordinary People and analyzed its structure, focusing on the inciting incident of the film, i.e. the singular event in the film that is basically the whole cause of the plot to begin. The inciting incident of Ordinary People, according to McKee’s book, is not that the older son dies, but when Mary Tyler Moore’s character coldly scrapes the French toast into the sink. And McKee then marvels at how brilliant this is that the inciting incident of a film revolves around one very simple action involving French toast. If you’re reading this because you’re interested in movies and are curious as to how they’re written, please do yourself a huge favor and pick up the book I’m talking about. It’s a pretty thick book, but the topic is so absorbing that it won’t take you any time at all to get through the whole thing. And you’ll never watch movies the same way again.

Why I Haven't Seen This Film: It really wasn’t on my radar until I read McKee’s book. And then I had forgotten about watching this until the idea for this project came up.

2 hours, 4 minutes later…: Goddamn, that was a good movie. I wish my copy of Story wasn’t back in Maine so I could re-read that section of the book on Ordinary People. The acting was some of the best acting I have ever seen; Timothy Hutton deserved that Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and amazingly enough, after 33 years, he still holds the record for the youngest person to ever win that award. Donald Sutherland was impeccable as usual, and it was really great to see MTM in a role where she’s not the perky, smiling, cheerful ingenue. Judd Hirsch was, well, Alex Rieger as a psychiatrist. 

As I sit here, I am not sure of what to write, which is the first time this has happened during this little project of mine. I don’t think it’s because I have writer’s block, but I think it’s because this movie is like a good glass of scotch, or a huge bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. In order to enjoy it, you have to stay with it a little while so your palette can get all of the full-bodied flavor. 

After watching this film, it makes me wish that we in America could get back to the kind of cinema that this movie represents. It wasn’t all about the beautiful people who get into trouble and then walk out the other side of the movie squeaky clean. This was about taking the audience by the shoulders, and giving them an emotional experience they won’t soon forget, screw the happily ever after. And I think if Hollywood could move towards that a little more, I’d be going to the movies a lot more often than I am. 

Final Thoughts: I’m giving Ordinary People one large pizza with everything on it—well, almost everything. On this blog, the pizzas don’t come with pineapple. Pineapples should be kept as far away from pizzas as humanly possible. Phenomenal acting, phenomenal directing from Mr. Sundance himself, Robert Redford, and just a phenomenal piece of cinema no matter how you look at it.