Goodbye, Columbus (1969)

hyped garbage

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I saw Goodbye, Columbus when it was released and found it almost as profound and moving as The Graduate. Why has this movie been so neglected and forgotten? Why is it not shown on network or cable? It's terrific and still timely. Anyone have any ideas?

A young man meets a young woman and falls in love. Then as the relationship develops the man discovers that the young woman, who is beautiful and charming, is a confused shrill who is using him to act out against her parents. Now the man has to make a decision: stay or leave. This movie is remarkable for one reason: Ali McGraw. Thirty-five years ago Ali McGraw was a mega-superstar and is a truly great actress. Ali McGraw makes this movie watchable. Her performance, in this noteworthy movie, was great. This is not an upbeat movie and does not have any heroes. None of the characters in this movie are particularly likable, especially the Richard Benjamin character whose perpetual scowl reflects a condescending arrogance that adds to the movie's negativity. But that does not mean that this is a bad movie. Quite the contrary. It's a well acted, well-scripted movie that tells a story. But don't expect a happy story.

This movie was meaninful to me because the characters represent real people. People who the main character, Neil, rejects (or at least cannot relate to) because of what they represent. For example, the hard-charging businessman played by Jack Klugman, who's portrayed in his plumbing-supply office screaming into the phone, making deals. The brother, played by Michael Myers (not the famous Mike Myers) is the ultimate very-dumb jock. And, of course, Ali McGraw, who's is actually torn between being the good Jewish American Princess and her attraction to Neil. Her father (Klugman) is dumbfounded when he learns that Neil doesn't really mind being a librarian. Finally, Richard Benjamin's Neil, is a kind of existential Jewish outsider who can't relate to the affluence displayed by the Patimkins. One of the more memorable scenes in the movie: Neil discovers a second refrigerator in the Patimkin's basement PACKED with food. Are these people real? They are. And even though the movie is 35 years old we can still relate to these characters. Thank you Phiip Roth.

One of the simple pleasures of viewing Woody Allen's films is you don't have to be kosher necessarily to relate to Allen's stock character of the down-trodden goy fraught with a plethora of neurosis-everything from sexual dysfunction to the nagging doubt predicated by existential angst over our natural inclination towards God and the infinite. What cheap shots Allen did throw at religion were strictly for laughs both as parody and commentary. In other words, Catholicism and Judaism suffered slings and arrows in the same measure. At the time ofthe film's release, "Goodbye, Columbus" was criticized for being "too jewish". It's simple tale of nice jewish boy meets spoiled jewish princess meets crass wealthy jewish family (who somehow along the way forgot their humblebeginnings) is met with tribulation and turmoil mostly from shrewish jewishmother inevitably leading to a parting of the ways for nice jewish boy arrived during a period in Hollywood when the youth of America were being heard atpeace marches, flag burnings, love-ins, gay and feminist movements, sexualliberation and draft dodging. From 1967-72, audiences were being treated tofilms of relevant social commentary beginning with "The Graduate" and justabout ending with the release of "Harold and Maude". It's all good as it was all about consciousness-raising. Among them, "Goodbye, Columbus" is a bit of apeon but a film that still remains a stinging comment on class-consciousAmerica in it's whole up-the-rich-screw-the-poor-warts-and-all approach tostory telling. Richard Benjamin is fine as Neil, a man smitten by Ali McGraw (her debut) as Brenda but taken aback by her family and her unremittingdependence on them. The final scene involving Brenda's willingness to commit an unconscionable act of sex sans condom and it's consequences promptingNeil's apathy to face the world wiser but at least no worse for the wear remind us of just how emotionally disconnected most Americans were in the latesixties. We were battered and bruised having come through an unpopular war .Add to that the violent demonstrations we were witnessing at home leaving anation numb if not weary. Perhaps the most evocative scene which says themost about our culture is the wedding reception for Brenda's lunkhead brother in which friends and relatives descend upon the banquet table like a plague of locusts devouring everything in sight. It sets just the right tone for the film: 'I'm so hungry, I'd eat my own kind. And only then with certain reservation.'