Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Richard Brooks, 1977)
Depressing films focusing on the protagonist's journey of self destruction, aren't exactly a major selling point for me. They tend to be one time only affairs. Witnessing Nicolas Cage drink himself to death was enough for Leaving Las Vegas (1995) was enough for me to never bother watching again. Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant (1992) is possibly the only exception to this rule, but even then, I've still had to go in mentally prepared to rewatch it. For the record, I much prefer Werner Herzog's 2010 remake on account of it being lighter in tone and nowhere near requiring the same mental effort. Richard Brooks's Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) is another downbeat film which still haunts me. Way too young to understand its theme and plot when first experiencing it on television sometime in the '80s. The film's shocking climax a permanent memory and garnering enough curiosity for me to want to revisit it once again as an adult.
Adapted from Judith Rossner's 1975 New York Times best seller of the same name, Looking for Mr. Goodbar was inspired by the horrific murder of school teacher Roseanne Quinn. The grisly crime had shone a light on the perils of cruising bars and one night stands. The film rights were already snapped up before Rossner's book was even published. Brooks was hired to adapt the screenplay and helm the film. Aged sixty-five at the time, the director may have been too old to accurately depict the lifestyles of young people hitting the bars and disco clubs of this era. More importantly, Brooks was not a fan of Rossner's book and made significant changes, including turning the book's theme of female independence into a cautionary morality tale. Dismayed after seeing the adaptation of her novel, Rossner remarked in The Washington Post, "I feel like the mother who delivered her 13-year-old daughter to the door of Roman Polanski and didn't know what was going to happen". Ironically, Roman Polanski turned down the offer to helm the film.
Our heroine, Theresa "Terry" Dunn (Diane Keaton) is a young woman desperate to break from the oppressive roost of her Roman Catholic father (Richard Kiley). Back surgery scarring from childhood scoliosis has left Terry with both Ugly Duckling Syndrome. Adulthood has her fantasising sexual liberation. Her earliest sexual awakening manifests from her affair with a university professor, Martin (Alan Feinstein). Despite Martin's mistreatment of her, she is always wanting. Martin ending their relationship leads to her dreaming of walking into the road and being run over by the ex.
The fantasies lead to Terry seeking escapism in various bars and clubs. At first, she appear capable to balance her night life with her job as a school teacher for deaf children. But burning the candle at both ends becomes costly and harder to control. The duality of her existence bleeds into one and affects both her professional career and her personal life. During her descent she exclaims, "I'm alone! I'm alone, I'm not lonely." which comes across in Keaton's delivery as an obvious cry for help than a yell of her independence.
Terry is not the only woman in the Dunn family experiencing reckless sexual abandon. Her older sister, Katherine (Tuesday Weld and received an Oscar nomination in this film) is divorced, pregnant and eager to get an abortion in Puerto Rico. Eventually, Katherine remarries a property owner, where they watch adult films and host group sex parties. Terry's other sister, Brigid (Laurie Prange), is barely in the film, but is generally characterised as being more homely, but completely unhappy in her scenes.
The men of the film are perhaps the most exaggerated characters. If Terry's father and Martin aren't enough representations of dominating figures in her life, then they're positively tame compared to the rest of the indisputable red flags Terry hooks up with. There's Tony (Richard Gere), a precursor to his Jesse Lujack in Breathless (1983), a jack-the-lad womanizer, who she meets at a bar whilst reading Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather (obvious reference to Diane Keaton being in the Francis Coppola film), and dancing in his jockstrap with a glow-in-the-dark switch blade. Later on, he picks her door lock with it and breaks into her apartment. James (William Atherton, best known for being dickless and the odious reporter from the first two Die Hard films) is caseworker, masquerading as a do-gooder, winning over Terry's parents with his Catholic boy charm, only to be a creepy stalker. Then, there's Gary (Tom Berrenger). Introduced to us very late in the film, is a man in complete denial of his homosexuality "I'm a pitcher, not a catcher!" he says to his boyfriend whilst dressed in drag. Perhaps his best line, "In my neighbourhood if you didn't fight you were a fruit. In prison if you didn't fight you spread ass." It's fairly evident he belongs in a psych ward when you see how wildly out of control and dangerously volatile his behaviour is to anyone with a shred of common sense - except of course, the unfortunate Terry.
The look of Looking for Mr. Goodbar is one that revels in its grime and sleaziness. Brooks demanded William A. Fraker, his cinematographer, to make the film look as dark as possible. This was in order to conceal the copious amounts of nudity and the explicit nature of the film. So dark, I couldn't tell if it was lint, or an unkempt lady garden protruding from Diane Keaton's arse crack in one scene. It would also possess that shabby and beat-up look one would find from other acclaimed films with an urban setting from this era, like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), Taxi Driver (1976) and Saturday Night Fever (1977). The latter receives the most comparisons with Looking for Mr. Goodbar; largely because they were both from the same year, filled with disco anthems and contained dark moments. Fortunately, Saturday Night Fever ends with an uplifting and positive scene for its protagonist, Tony Manero: can't say the same for Terry Dunn.
Not the wisest decision to include a whole bunch of recognisable '70s song anthems (see the list below) in the very opening credits to any film. Hence, the reason Looking for Mr. Goodbar was stuck in a legal quagmire over music licensing and never got a proper release beyond video until now (extremely limited release on DVD at one point, however). As a result, the film became a holy grail for many cinephiles to have on Blu-ray, even making it on a prior wish list of mine. It's also rather bizarre that boutique, distribution label Vinegar Syndrome, a label synonymous with deluxe packaging and great film transfers of absolute turds, managed to achieve the impossible and release it on 4K no less; automatically making it one of the best home releases of 2024 for me.
Overall, revisiting Looking for Mr. Goodbar again after so many decades has been really worthwhile. Apart from a documentary about the actual murder case and a Madonna song inspired by it, it's generally regarded as a forgotten film. Achieving critical acclaim upon its release, notably for Diane Keaton's performance (also winning the best actress Oscar in the same year for Annie Hall (1977)), to a worryingly problematic film by today's standards. Which makes Looking for Mr. Goodbar an appealing film for an unapologetic exploitation head like myself with the occasional flirtation in more serious cinema.
A bleakly depressing drama with an unforgettable ending. But a film that both satisfied my curiosity and made me more appreciative of as an adult.
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