Breezy (1973)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Clint Eastwood

Writer:

Jo Heims (writer)

Release Date:

9 March 1974 (Denmark)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Breezy is a teen-aged hippy with a big heart. After taking a a ride with a man who only wants her for sex...

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Nudity | Melodrama | Female Nudity | Age Difference

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Golden Globes.

Cast

William Holden	...	Frank Harmon
Kay Lenz	...	Edith Alice Breezerman ('Breezy')
Roger C. Carmel	...	Bob Henderson
Marj Dusay	...	Betty Tobin
Joan Hotchkis	...	Paula Harmon
Jamie Smith-Jackson	...	Marcy (as Jamie Smith Jackson)
Norman Bartold	...	Man in Car
Lynn Borden	...	Harmon's Overnight Date
Shelley Morrison	...	Nancy Henderson
Dennis Olivieri	...	Bruno
Eugene Peterson	...	Charlie
Lew Brown	...	Police Officer
Richard Bull	...	Doctor
Johnnie Collins III	...	Norman
Don Diamond	...	Maitre d'

Runtime:

Germany:102 min | USA:108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Spain:18 | UK:AA (1973) | Argentina:16 | Singapore:M18 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | USA:R | West Germany:16

Company:

Malpaso Company, The

Trivia:

Jo Ann Harris (who had recently starred with Clint Eastwood in The Beguiled (1971)), Lauren Hutton, Sondra Locke and Tuesday Weld were considered for the female lead.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: When Breezy and Frank go to see the ocean at sunrise, the sun appears over the ocean... but in Los Angeles (like almost every west coast city), the sun sets over the ocean.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006)

Soundtrack:

Breezy's Song

Does becoming older mean feeling foolish?

Clint Eastwood's 2nd directorial effort is a gentle, pleasant surprise that probably will evoke a completely different reaction if one were to observe a strict adherence to societal norms. A 50 plus well-to-do business guy with a 19-year-old hippie drifter? Not necessarily uncommon but in this film the girl's not in it for the money and the guy's not in it for the sex. They genuinely love and cherish each other, and strangely, this is the element of controversy.

William Holden plays Frank, a cynical divorced real estate broker who lives by himself with only a series of uncommitted relationships for companionship and a mental rulebook that precludes serious involvement. He is likewise surrounded by like-minded cynics that all want for something they have long since given up on . . . youth. Not so much in chronological terms, but more in attitude and that sense of wonder about life. Breezy is the very embodiment of that sense of wonder, and despite her 19 years, possesses a wisdom that cuts through the cynical disillusionment of Frank, who unlike what you'd expect, never makes a sexual advance toward the younger girl, even though she's very attractive and probably willing. For her part, Breezy recognized the sensitive soul that Frank has taken pains to suppress and confounds his suspicions by giving of herself to him without asking for anything in return. When he eventually gives in to his feelings, the age difference becomes irrelevant, but Breezy and Frank do not exist in a vacuum and the outside world eventually fills his head with doubt. His best friend, while being envious of the "zing " Breezy has put into Frank's life, laments thus: "Why should a young girl like that love an old fart like me? I'd be a meal ticket for her and nothing more." And even if it could be more, "where could I go with her without feeling like a child molester?" And so Frank smolders in a crisis of perception that already had been countered by Breezy in an earlier scene. "Is that how it is Frankie? Do you start believing what you see in the mirror and forget about what you feel inside? Do you stop feeling because the outside of you makes it seem foolish? Does becoming older mean feeling foolish? What's there to look forward to if you can't go on loving and being loved?" Surely this bit of wisdom transcends any distance of years between two people.