Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Goodbye, Columbus (1969) - Young stars glimmer in Peerce's good Roth adaptation

5/05/2021

Goodbye, Columbus (1969) - Young stars glimmer in Peerce's good Roth adaptation

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'Every father's daughter is a virgin' the diminutive tagline reads on the sensual image of Ali McGraw with a rose on the cusp of blooming on this poster for Larry Peerce's Goodbye, Columbus

A young military veteran, who works at the local library and carries on his life with a comfortably loose hand, falls in love with the beautiful Brenda, who comes from a well-to-do Jewish family...

Goodbye, Columbus is written by Arnold Schulman (A Hole in the Head (1959)), adapting Philip Roth's (Everyman (2006)) same-titled 1959 novella, and directed by Larry Peerce (One Potato, Two Potato (1964)).

It is a zeitgeist type youth romance-drama with lots of skin; from the early pool scene to the later love scenes, some are natural and sexy, too. It today offers an interesting snapshot of its times, but it also has good performances from Richard Benjamin (Scavenger Hunt (1979)) and Ali McGraw (Players (1979)), as well as a refined sensibility, which may come from Roth's basis work.

SPOILER In the end the relationship, which is especially trialed by her bourgeois family, breaks - because she has forgotten her diaphragm! An authentic and painful fight becomes their end.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 1.5 mil. $

Box office: 22.9 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Mega-hit (returned 15.26 times its cost in North America alone)

[Goodbye, Columbus was released 3 April (USA) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place in July 1968 - ? in New York and Massachusetts. The film's 10.5 mil. $ in rentals made it the #10 top-grossing title in North America of the year; the gross is reported at 22.9 mil. $ and foreign grosses are unreported online, regrettably. The film was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, lost to Waldo Salt for Midnight Cowboy. It won 1/3 Golden Globe nominations and was nominated for 3 BAFTAs among other honors. Peerce returned with The Sporting Club (1971). Benjamin returned in Catch-22 (1970); McGraw in Love Story (1970). Goodbye, Columbus is fresh at 92 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Goodbye, Columbus?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

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Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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5/05/2021

Goodbye, Columbus (1969) - Young stars glimmer in Peerce's good Roth adaptation

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