This post was submitted by Ben K.

Film people have been upset for three decades that Martin Scorsese and Raging Bull lost the Academy Award in 1980 to Robert Redford and Ordinary People.  Fair enough.  Raging Bull is certainly considered one of the great American films, and many think it’s Scorsese’s best, but whenever the Hollywood establishment can honor one of their golden boys for trying something new, like directing, they jump at the chance.  It is no surprise that this was an easy win for Redford.

But, here’s the thing: Ordinary People is a damn good movie; I am not going to quibble with those who say Raging Bull is a better movie (it is), but Redford did an excellent job with his film.  Ordinary People is a quiet, introspective tale of a family falling apart, and trying to stay together, in the face of death and pain.

Taking place in Lake Forest, Illinois, an affluent suburb north of Chicago, Ordinary People tells the story of the aftermath of the death of Buck, the eldest child and family star of the Jarrett family.  Left behind are his parents Beth and Calvin (Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland) and his younger brother Conrad (Timothy Hutton) who was with Buck when he died in a sailboat accident on Lake Michigan.  Conrad, who carries an enormous amount of guilt over his brother’s death, has just returned from a months-long stay at a psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt.  Upon his return home, he begins to see a psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch) to help him cope.

The challenge Conrad has is centered on his terribly difficult relationship with his parents, particularly his mother.  Beth is as cold as can be toward Conrad, and certainly seems like she did love Buck more than Conrad, of which Conrad is painfully aware.

In my estimation, it really was brilliant casting to cast Mary Tyler Moore in the role of Beth.  After years of being known from the cheery characters she played on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, she turns in as opposite a performance as possible from those characters; it is this film that really showcases what a great actress she is, and the amount of range in her skill and talent.  All the performances are stellar, and Timothy Hutton won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for the film.

It’s study of family perfection broken, and the truth that lies beneath the happy family portrait is done with care and contemplation.  It defies all opportunities for high melodrama and instead carefully crafts a picture of a family in rapid disintegration.  It is not the most uplifting film, but is one of the best films out there on the study of the American family.

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