The Big Chill is a 1983 film about a group of
baby boomerBaby boomer is a term used to describe a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context, and sometimes used to describe someone who was born during the post-WWII baby boom. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve...
college friends who reunite after many years and explore the aftermath of the 1960s. It stars
Tom BerengerTom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
,
Glenn CloseGlenn Close is an American actress and singer of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as deranged stalker Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction...
,
Jeff GoldblumJeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. Currently, he stars as Detective Zach Nichols on the USA Network's crime drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Early life:...
,
William HurtWilliam M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
,
Kevin KlineKevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre and film actor. He has won one Academy Award, two Tony Awards and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2009.-Early years:...
,
Mary Kay PlaceMary Kay Place is an American actress, singer, director and screen writer.-Early life & career:Place was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Bradley E. Place. She graduated from Nathan Hale High School and the University of Tulsa, where her father was an art professor and where she was a...
,
Meg TillyMeg Tilly is a Canadian - American actress, Broadway stage dancer and ballerina.-Early life:Tilly, the third of four children, was born Margaret E. Chan in Long Beach, California, the daughter of Patricia Tilly, a schoolteacher, and Harry Chan, a Chinese American used car salesman...
, and
JoBeth WilliamsJoBeth Williams is an American television and film actress and director.-Early life:Williams was born as Margaret JoBeth Williams in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Frances Faye , a dietitian, and Fredric Roger Williams, an opera singer and manager of a wire and cable company...
.
Kevin CostnerKevin Michael Costner is an American actor, musician, producer, and director. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Oscars and a Golden Globe Award. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...
was cast as the dead character Alex, but all of the scenes showing his face were cut. It was written by Barbara Benedek and
Lawrence KasdanLawrence Kasdan is an American movie producer, director and screenwriter. Raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he graduated from Morgantown High School in 1966, he went on to attend the University of Michigan as an education major.-Biography:Kasdan was born in Miami, Florida...
, and was directed by Kasdan.
The Big Chill was filmed entirely on location in
Beaufort, South CarolinaBeaufort is a city and county seat in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1711, it is the second-oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston. The city's population was 12,950 in the 2000 census...
, and was shot at the same antebellum home used as a location for
The Great SantiniThe Great Santini is a 1979 film which tells the story of a Marine officer whose success as a military aviator contrasts with his shortcomings as a husband and father. The film explores the high price of heroism and self-sacrifice...
, starring
Robert DuvallRobert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards....
and
Blythe DannerBlythe Katharine Danner is an Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...
.
The television show
thirtysomething was influenced by
The Big Chill. However, this was not before the movie was directly adapted to television in
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
' short-lived 1985 dramedy
HometownHometown was an hour-long dramedy series than ran on CBS for 9 episodes, premiering on a head-start to the 1985-86 fall season on August 22, 1985, and running until October 15, 1985...
, whose ensemble cast featured
Jane KaczmarekJane Frances Kaczmarek is an American actress. She is best known for playing the character of Lois on the television series Malcolm in the Middle. She lives in San Marino, California.- Early life & career :...
,
Franc LuzFranc Luz is an American actor of stage, film, and television seen in popular leading dramatic film roles in the 1980s and 1990s. These credits are also supplemented with a heavy dose of TV guest roles and several regular turns on TV series...
and
Daniel SternDaniel Jacob Stern is an American actor of film and television. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films C.H.U.D., City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films, and as the narrator for the television series The Wonder Years.-Early life:Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to a social...
.
It is the early 1980s,
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
is president,
conservatismConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
is the norm and the peace movement and
counterculture of the 1960sThe counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural protest movement that developed in the United States between 1960 and 1973 as a reaction against the political conservatism and perceived social repression that prevailed during the 1950s. The movement gained momentum during the US government's...
are both a distant memory for a group of
baby boomerBaby boomer is a term used to describe a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context, and sometimes used to describe someone who was born during the post-WWII baby boom. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve...
college friends from the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public research university located in the state of Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university, the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, and one of the top public universities in the world...
.
The Big Chill is a 1983 film about a group of
baby boomerBaby boomer is a term used to describe a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context, and sometimes used to describe someone who was born during the post-WWII baby boom. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve...
college friends who reunite after many years and explore the aftermath of the 1960s. It stars
Tom BerengerTom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
,
Glenn CloseGlenn Close is an American actress and singer of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as deranged stalker Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction...
,
Jeff GoldblumJeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. Currently, he stars as Detective Zach Nichols on the USA Network's crime drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Early life:...
,
William HurtWilliam M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
,
Kevin KlineKevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre and film actor. He has won one Academy Award, two Tony Awards and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2009.-Early years:...
,
Mary Kay PlaceMary Kay Place is an American actress, singer, director and screen writer.-Early life & career:Place was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Bradley E. Place. She graduated from Nathan Hale High School and the University of Tulsa, where her father was an art professor and where she was a...
,
Meg TillyMeg Tilly is a Canadian - American actress, Broadway stage dancer and ballerina.-Early life:Tilly, the third of four children, was born Margaret E. Chan in Long Beach, California, the daughter of Patricia Tilly, a schoolteacher, and Harry Chan, a Chinese American used car salesman...
, and
JoBeth WilliamsJoBeth Williams is an American television and film actress and director.-Early life:Williams was born as Margaret JoBeth Williams in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Frances Faye , a dietitian, and Fredric Roger Williams, an opera singer and manager of a wire and cable company...
.
Kevin CostnerKevin Michael Costner is an American actor, musician, producer, and director. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Oscars and a Golden Globe Award. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...
was cast as the dead character Alex, but all of the scenes showing his face were cut. It was written by Barbara Benedek and
Lawrence KasdanLawrence Kasdan is an American movie producer, director and screenwriter. Raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he graduated from Morgantown High School in 1966, he went on to attend the University of Michigan as an education major.-Biography:Kasdan was born in Miami, Florida...
, and was directed by Kasdan.
The Big Chill was filmed entirely on location in
Beaufort, South CarolinaBeaufort is a city and county seat in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1711, it is the second-oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston. The city's population was 12,950 in the 2000 census...
, and was shot at the same antebellum home used as a location for
The Great SantiniThe Great Santini is a 1979 film which tells the story of a Marine officer whose success as a military aviator contrasts with his shortcomings as a husband and father. The film explores the high price of heroism and self-sacrifice...
, starring
Robert DuvallRobert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards....
and
Blythe DannerBlythe Katharine Danner is an Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...
.
The television show
thirtysomething was influenced by
The Big Chill. However, this was not before the movie was directly adapted to television in
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
' short-lived 1985 dramedy
HometownHometown was an hour-long dramedy series than ran on CBS for 9 episodes, premiering on a head-start to the 1985-86 fall season on August 22, 1985, and running until October 15, 1985...
, whose ensemble cast featured
Jane KaczmarekJane Frances Kaczmarek is an American actress. She is best known for playing the character of Lois on the television series Malcolm in the Middle. She lives in San Marino, California.- Early life & career :...
,
Franc LuzFranc Luz is an American actor of stage, film, and television seen in popular leading dramatic film roles in the 1980s and 1990s. These credits are also supplemented with a heavy dose of TV guest roles and several regular turns on TV series...
and
Daniel SternDaniel Jacob Stern is an American actor of film and television. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films C.H.U.D., City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films, and as the narrator for the television series The Wonder Years.-Early life:Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to a social...
.
Plot
It is the early 1980s,
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
is president,
conservatismConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
is the norm and the peace movement and
counterculture of the 1960sThe counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural protest movement that developed in the United States between 1960 and 1973 as a reaction against the political conservatism and perceived social repression that prevailed during the 1950s. The movement gained momentum during the US government's...
are both a distant memory for a group of
baby boomerBaby boomer is a term used to describe a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context, and sometimes used to describe someone who was born during the post-WWII baby boom. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve...
college friends from the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public research university located in the state of Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university, the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, and one of the top public universities in the world...
. An impromptu reunion occurs at the funeral for friend Alex (
Kevin CostnerKevin Michael Costner is an American actor, musician, producer, and director. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Oscars and a Golden Globe Award. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...
, edited out of the theatrical release) who had committed
suicideSuicide is the intentional killing of one's self. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"...
in the home of physician Sarah (
Glenn CloseGlenn Close is an American actress and singer of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as deranged stalker Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction...
) and business executive Harold (
Kevin KlineKevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre and film actor. He has won one Academy Award, two Tony Awards and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2009.-Early years:...
). Alex had been living there with his young girlfriend, Chloe (
Meg TillyMeg Tilly is a Canadian - American actress, Broadway stage dancer and ballerina.-Early life:Tilly, the third of four children, was born Margaret E. Chan in Long Beach, California, the daughter of Patricia Tilly, a schoolteacher, and Harry Chan, a Chinese American used car salesman...
) while trying to figure out what to do with his life.
After the funeral, the rest of their college friends spend the weekend with Harold and Sarah. They turn to each other as a means of trying to figure out not only why Alex committed suicide but also to explore what happened to the ideals of their youth. This includes the now-divorced Sam (
Tom BerengerTom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
) who has gone from leading protests to becoming a Hollywood star bearing a close resemblance to
Tom SelleckThomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, screenwriter and film producer, perhaps best known for his starring role on the television show Magnum, P.I., and for his recurring role as Dr...
(he also starred in a television series similar to Selleck's hit series,
Magnum, P.I.Magnum, P.I. is an American television show starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....
) Sam continues to harbor romantic feelings for Karen (Jo Beth Williams) who is now living an affluent lifestyle with her conservative husband Richard. Nick (
William HurtWilliam M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
) is an injured
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
veteran who suffers from impotence. He was a radio psychologist in San Francisco who questions the ethical nature of what he does and now supports himself as a small time drug dealer. He eventually becomes involved with Chloe whose aimlessness finds greater purpose through this relationship. Michael (
Jeff GoldblumJeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. Currently, he stars as Detective Zach Nichols on the USA Network's crime drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Early life:...
), once a radical journalist, now works for
People MagazinePeople is a weekly American magazine of celebrity and human-interest stories, published by Time Inc. As of 2006, it has a circulation of 3.75 million and revenue expected to top $1.5 billion. It was named "Magazine of the Year" by Advertising Age in October 2005, for excellence in editorial,...
and is perpetually unfaithful to his (offscreen) girlfriend, the only person who still subscribes to the ideals of her youth. Meg (
Mary Kay PlaceMary Kay Place is an American actress, singer, director and screen writer.-Early life & career:Place was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Bradley E. Place. She graduated from Nathan Hale High School and the University of Tulsa, where her father was an art professor and where she was a...
) is a successful but unmarried lawyer who is desperate to have a child. She decides to ask one of the men in the group to have a child with her and spends the weekend trying to determine whom she should ask. It is also revealed that Sarah had had an affair with Alex at some point in her marriage to Harold. While they do not fully resolve the issue of Alex's suicide, the bonds of their youth serve as a method of healing for the current issues in their lives.
Cast
- Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
as Sam Weber
- Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as deranged stalker Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction...
as Sarah Cooper
- Jeff Goldblum
Jeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. Currently, he stars as Detective Zach Nichols on the USA Network's crime drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Early life:...
as Michael Gold
- William Hurt
William M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
as Nick Carlton
- Kevin Kline
Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre and film actor. He has won one Academy Award, two Tony Awards and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2009.-Early years:...
as Harold Cooper
- Mary Kay Place
Mary Kay Place is an American actress, singer, director and screen writer.-Early life & career:Place was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Bradley E. Place. She graduated from Nathan Hale High School and the University of Tulsa, where her father was an art professor and where she was a...
as Meg Jones
- Meg Tilly
Meg Tilly is a Canadian - American actress, Broadway stage dancer and ballerina.-Early life:Tilly, the third of four children, was born Margaret E. Chan in Long Beach, California, the daughter of Patricia Tilly, a schoolteacher, and Harry Chan, a Chinese American used car salesman...
as Chloe
- JoBeth Williams
JoBeth Williams is an American television and film actress and director.-Early life:Williams was born as Margaret JoBeth Williams in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Frances Faye , a dietitian, and Fredric Roger Williams, an opera singer and manager of a wire and cable company...
as Karen Bowens
- Don Galloway
Don Galloway was a prolific American character actor of stage and TV, a libertarian and journalist, perhaps best known for his role as Raymond Burr's protégé, Detective Sergeant Ed Brown, on the long-running crime drama Ironside...
as Richard Bowens
Reviews
Richard CorlissRichard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
of
TIMETime is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects...
described the
Big Chill as a "funny and ferociously smart movie," stating:
- These Americans are in their 30s today, but back then they were the Now Generation. Right Now: give me peace, give me justice, gimme good lovin'. For them, in the voluptuous bloom of youth, the '60s was a banner you could carry aloft or wrap yourself inside. A verdant anarchy of politics, sex, drugs and style carpeted the landscape. And each impulse was scored to the rollick of the new music: folk, rock, pop, R & B. The armies of the night marched to Washington, but they boogied to Liverpool and Motown. Now, in 1983, Harold & Sarah & Sam & Karen & Michael & Meg & Nick—classmates all from the University of Michigan at the end of our last interesting decade—have come to the funeral of a friend who has slashed his wrists. Alex was a charismatic prodigy of science and friendship and progressive hell raising who opted out of academe to try social work, then manual labor, then suicide. He is presented as a victim of terminal decompression from the orbital flight of his college years: a worst-case scenario his friends must ponder, probing themselves for symptoms of the disease.
Vincent Canby of the
New York Times argued that the film is a "very accomplished, serious comedy" and an "unusually good choice to open this year's festival in that it represents the best of mainstream American film making."
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
stated, "
The Big Chill is a splendid technical exercise. It has all the right moves. It knows all the right words. Its characters have all the right clothes, expressions, fears, lusts and ambitions. But there's no payoff and it doesn't lead anywhere. I thought at first that was a weakness of the movie. There also is the possibility that it's the movie's message."
The DVD of the film received a 69% rating from
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad.- History :...
(22
fresh and 10
rotten reviews).
Awards and nominations
The Big Chill won two major awards:
- Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival begins the Thursday night after Labour Day and lasts for ten days. Between 300-400 films are screened at approximately 23 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
People's Choice Award
- Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen
It was nominated for three Oscars:
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(Glenn Close)
- Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
- Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible...
Other nominations include:
- Directors Guild of America Award
- BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay
The BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay is the British Academy Film Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. It has been awarded since 1984, when the original category was split into two awards, the other being the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted...
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy has been awarded annually since 1952 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1950s:* 1952 - An American in Paris* 1953 - With a Song in My Heart...
- Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
The Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture is one of the annual awards given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1960s:1965: Doctor Zhivago – Robert Bolt*The Agony and the Ecstasy – Philip Dunne...
See also
- List of American films of 1983
- The Big Chill (soundtrack)
- Return of the Secaucus 7
Return of the Secaucus 7 is a drama film written and directed by John Sayles. It features Bruce MacDonald, Maggie Renzi, Adam LeFevre, Maggie Cousineau, Gordon Clapp, Jean Passanante, and others....
- Hometown (TV Series)
Hometown was an hour-long dramedy series than ran on CBS for 9 episodes, premiering on a head-start to the 1985-86 fall season on August 22, 1985, and running until October 15, 1985...