Monday, September 26, 2011

Bounce, Richard Gere, Bounce

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You wanna know tragedy? Tragedy is the fact that the 1977 movie Looking For Mr. Goodbar is still impossible to get your hands on. We've been yelling about this for ages now. It was on Netflix Instant for a brief minute last year or so, but somehow a DVD release remains absent, therefore robbing we the people of a proper copy of not only a great film with a great performance from Diane Keaton but also that above inedible image of Richard Gere doing jock-strapped push-ups. Tragedy!


I was lucky enough to see the movie on a big screen over the weekend though! It was as wonderful as you can imagine. I mean Gere in his jock, but you really can apply it to the whole movie. I'd rank her work in this movie alongside Reds and Annie Hall, I would. It's shameful it's so hard to get a hold of. Okay I meant Gere in his jock again there, but you can apply that to the movie too.

It's weird though, I'm reading After Midnight, the biography of Brad Davis written by his wife right now - every other page she feels the need to tell us how totally 100% straight her hot hubby was, and then in between goes on to talk about much of his life he kept from her, how he was amazing at compartmentalizing things, and how he was a hustler for awhile and he just happened to have nothing but gay male friends all around him all the time - and there's a lot about his rivalry with Gere. They were in acting school together, and Davis was intimidated by how pretty Gere was. Gere came really close to taking Davis' star-making role in Midnight Express, since he'd just come off of Goodbar and was looking like The Next Big Thing, but director Alan Parker wanted somebody that was pretty much unknown, and got his way. Thank goodness! Think of all we would have missed!
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4 comments:

Pax Romano said...

Goodbar is one of the most gut wrenching films I have ever seen. I will never forget seeing this in the theaters back in the day (yes, I am that old). I recall, after the film was over, everyone just walked out with disturbed looks on their faces (in total silence).

I even had the soundtrack album.

I watched it on Netflix last year and did a write up on my blog in the hopes that some of today's horror fans would discover what a truly terrifying film it really is.

Anonymous said...

I read that book written by Brad Davis' widow too!

I've also read that much later, after the book was published, that she is no longer in complete denial that her husband may have had dalliances with men.

Jason Adams said...

I wish I could've seen it that way, Pax! Although I didn't know a whole lot about it when I aw it the first time, I don't think - I remember the ending making me dizzy.

anon - I hope she has! It reads as deranged at this point. Good grief. It's a good read though, as long as you can keep that in mind.

Anonymous said...

I read After Midnight over the course of four or five days last year. Brad was a pretty screwed up guy, but I guess a nightmarish childhood will do that to you. It astounds me that he didn't cut his parents out of his life.

Btw, his daughter Alexandra is now transgender musician Alex Davis. I'm pretty sure he has his own channel on YouTube.


Mrs. Bale