Movies from the Heart—On Golden Pond

On Golden Pond [1981] by Ernest Thompson, became a classic almost as soon as it was released. And I think it’s because it had stories going on on two levels. First, the relationship between this older married couple, Ethyl and Norman. And second, the relationship between Norman and his daughter Chelsea. It also had a killer cast—Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda. And believe me, great casting can sometimes overcome the most mediocre of scripts.

But that’s not the case here. This is a first-rate story of the love between husband and wife and father and daughter.

The first is an interesting example of how a relationship can grow and age—can be brittle—but doesn’t have to break. It looks realistically at some of the problems in a marriage and how partners change to accommodate one another—even when it’s tough.

And the second relationship, between father and daughter, is also met with head-on honesty. This father and daughter are, as the English say, “chalk and cheese”—they just don’t go together. They don’t get along and she totally blames him.

Take a look at the trailer for the film.

The other thing to remember about this film is that it was adapted from a play. And it does a pretty good job there. Often, adapting something from the stage to the screen can mean you’ve got an overly talky script that’s weirdly staged. Because think about it—a story framed for a stage with sets and no way to actually go outside can become stagnant on film.

If you’ve written a play and are thinking about adapting it for the screen, remember that you have to—as the saying goes—“open up” the play. Confining a story to a stage makes it a bit of an interior story. You can only portray what’s happening on that stage—whatever room you’re in, even if that “room” is an outdoor scene with park benches and fake trees. There’s no chance to have shots of the sky or people running through surf on the beach or any number of visual effects that just don’t work on stage.

“Opening up” a play came from the idea that you can open up the story and take it OFF the stage—take it outside, take it up a mountain, in a plane, etc., etc.

One of the things you can do if you’re at a loss for ideas is find a play you like—one in public domain [Shakespeare, Austen, etc., etc.] and take the story, put it into present day if you like, and write the film! It can be a lot of fun and a terrific writing exercise.

Next week we take a break from our look at romantic films with elderly characters when we make friends with a bunch of people who are Romancing the Stone.

Copyright © Diane Lake

14Apr24

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