Taking Off (1971)

hyped garbage

From my favorite movies..

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Having seen director, Milos Forman's two Czech b/w classics, The Fireman's Ball and The Loves of A Blonde (or a blonde In Love, as I knew it) I saw this, his first US film upon its original release. I remember it being controversial although not a big hit, but I loved it. It barely has a narrative story line, no big stars, Buck Henry being the most well known, but it just made me feel good. It wasn't one of those films preaching at one side or the other (that's kids and parents!) and just seemed to present a little of what was happening towards the end of the sixties and derive some good natured humour from it. Watching it again, I was amazed at how well it still works. There are no embarrassing moments, it looks good, sounds good and probably does you good. I have no idea why the recent Park Circus DVD release box is so subdued but then this is not a jazzy, wacky film, just a relaxed, intelligent picture of a very strange time. Wonderful.

It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with eitherForman or Henry that this film is both insightful and understatedlyhilarious. There was a time in the early 1970s when the influx offoreign directors on the Hollywood movie-making frontier (amongthem Forman, Bertolucci, and Polanski, as well as cinematographers like Zsigmond and Kovacs) were just as sharpand scathing of the American cultural revolution as our own youngfilmmakers. If not more so. This film is flat-out funny; the humor isderived from the droll use of pop references and supposedlytaboo behaviors. Because hey are put across so straight-faced,they reflect back to us an image too ridiculous to considerseriously. I saw this film in an open-air theatre at a fest and thoughit was difficult to hear, the combined laughter of the audiencebrought the experience to hysterics. Hope this film makes it toDVD.

Milos Forman's first American release is part social satire, part farcical look at two morose, middle-class parents (Buck Henry, Lynn Carlin, both outstanding)who begin to enjoy life only after their teenage daughter (sad-eyed LinneaHeacock) runs away. At once funny and touching, Forman and veteran Bunuelcollaborator Jean-Claude Carriere ("Belle du Jour," "Diary of a Chambermaid") concoct a simple story of unexpected depth, a wry comedy that unfoldsgradually, gently lampooning marriage and family life while painting a sensitive portrait of the confused, disenfranchised youth scene of the 1960s. Formanregular Vincent Schiavelli makes his debut here as a bell-bottomed marijuana"expert," who carefully instructs a banquet hall full of clueless parents in the fine art of getting high. A young Kathy Bates and a spirited Carly Simon appearbriefly singing at a theatrical audition, while Georgia Engel and Audra Lindley turn in subtle, nuanced performances several years before their televisiondebuts on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Three's Company," respectively. A beautifully observed, underrated gem.

Milos Forman is settling in to America here, learning the ways of rich Puritans. The casting is just about perfect; I don't recall Buck Henry being as expressive--in that deadpan way--in a movie. The scene between Georgia Engel and Lynn Carlin, in which Engel relates stories of her husband's incredible sexual drive is wonderfully funny. The strip poker scene between Henry, Carlin and their guests Audra Lindley and Paul Benedict, that ends with Henry singing an aria, naked, on top of the dining-room table has passed into cinematic legend.Miroslav Ondricek's camera work is really exceptional; it makes a success of one scene that drags on too long--the therapy group with the participants smoking reefer. Ondricek's ability to give life to interiors is amazing: see how he cuts from the ancestral paintings to the would-be dopers, making comments on both. This man, who turns 70 this year, is a master, and if I just give a partial list of his work you will know what I mean: The Fireman's Ball, If..., O Lucky Man!, Hair, Amadeus.