One of the darkest days of anyone's life is that day you find that your marriage is over. It's even harder when you don't see it coming. Ted Kramer was on of the ones that didn't know there was problems that his wife was having in their marriage until him came home from work and she said she was leaving. Confused and angry Ted spends the next few days in denial that Joanna was coming back. After a few weeks he realizes that she is not and starts getting his life back on track and creating a new routine and relationship with his son Billy. Fifteen months after Joanna leaves Ted finds that she is back in town. After not telling him where she was, and having hardly any communication with their son, Joanna says that she wants custody. Ted does not want this because she gave him fully custody in their divorce. Taking the issue to court is the only path they can take to come to agreement, but this a path is filled with sadness and heartache.
With this film being as heartfelt and emotional as it is you could think there would be some backlash or craziness in the making of this film. However, there doesn't seem to be. The only thing that I could see that shocked me is that this film has yet to be selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. However, I hope they do add it because I personally think that any film that wins Best Picture needs to be preserved. Columbia seemed to be the underdog in the Best Picture category this year because 20th Century Fox had 3 out of 5 nominations with: All That Jazz, Breaking Away, and Norma Rae. The other underdog was a company called Zoetrope and their movie nominated for Best Picture was Apocalypse Now.
Now this is a movie I can get behind. With the most of the 70's Best Picture Winners I did not like I was not thrilled to really watch this one. However, it took me by surprise. This movie was about so much more than divorce. This movie really showed a single dad life. Like their real life not the "ideal" single dad life. It a side that you don't even see much about today in films let alone a whole movie. Dustin Hoffman is spectacular in this film and really hits home on how much he loves this his kid and what he is willing to sacrifice for him. I some of the film is him finding and trying to keep his job because no one in his building understand what it means to be a single father. They are all so used to the mother taking care of the kid that having a full time father on their hands confuses them and they cut him no slack for all of the effort he is putting into his family life. I think this is a beautiful movie that really shows a shift in family dynamics.
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