Search This Blog

Monday, June 30, 2008

An Old Film

I saw an old movie called ‘Breezy’ not long ago. Clint Eastwood directed it, with William Holden and Kay Lenz in the starring roles. The plot involves a man in his fifties who gets involved with a young woman in her late teens he picks up hitchhiking. She seduces him, and although he reluctantly lets her, he feels appropriately odd about it. I remember seeing the 1973 movie a couple years after it came out. When seeing it in my twenties, the thought of this fifties something guy with a woman barely above the age of consent didn’t give me much of a yuck factor. Now I’ve made it into late fifties-something realm, the movie gave me a Twilight Zone type reaction. In this age of rainbow virility pills, such relationships could be common place for all I know.

Realizing the breadth and depth of the chasm between twenty-something people and fifty-something people, the movie gave me the creeps. What does this have to do with anything? For one, it was written by a woman screen writer, named Jo Heims. She also wrote the screenplay for another Clint Eastwood directed film, called ‘Play Misty For Me’. It was said her script for ‘Breezy’ made the relationship believable. Seeing it now at my age, it just seems creepy. :)

6 comments:

Jordan Summers said...

Time does tend to lend a bit of perspective. ;)

BernardL said...

Yea it does, Jordan. William Holden looked uncomfortable in the role, which I hadn't noticed before when I saw the movie in my twenties. It would be understandably difficult doing love scenes with a young woman who could be a granddaughter's age. Yucko! :)

Charles Gramlich said...

Definitely creepy. Makes one think the young girl has got some issues.

BernardL said...

Kay Lenz portrayed the girl very well, Charles: a hippy with no money and no place to go. It was a well acted movie, but disturbing.

Virginia Lady said...

I haven't seen the movie, but I always wondered at the idea of a young woman with an extremely older man. It seemed odd to me, and now it seems odd to consider guys in their early twenties. Not happening.

It does make you wonder about the author and their inspiration.

BernardL said...

The early seventies were a strange time, VL. I remember the old rich guy and very young woman was still a humorous anecdote at the time. I don't think it's funny anymore.