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Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
19 December 1979 (USA) moreTagline:
There are three sides to this love story!Plot:
A just divorced man must learn to care for his son on his own, and then must fight in court to keep custody of him. full summary | add synopsisAwards:
Won 5 Oscars. Another 31 wins & 15 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(8 articles)
Streep at 60: Chamaeleonidae Erotica (From FilmExperience. 30 June 2009, 6:29 PM, PDT)
Meryl Streep "The Immoral Psychotic Promiscuous One"
(From FilmExperience. 18 June 2009, 6:43 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
An Intelligent and Solid Film About Divorce moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Dustin Hoffman | ... | Ted Kramer | |
| Meryl Streep | ... | Joanna Kramer | |
| Jane Alexander | ... | Margaret Phelps | |
| Justin Henry | ... | Billy Kramer | |
| Howard Duff | ... | John Shaunessy | |
| George Coe | ... | Jim O'Connor | |
| JoBeth Williams | ... | Phyllis Bernard (as Jobeth Williams) | |
| Bill Moor | ... | Gressen | |
| Howland Chamberlain | ... | Judge Atkins | |
| Jack Ramage | ... | Spencer | |
| Jess Osuna | ... | Ackerman | |
| Nicholas Hormann | ... | Interviewer | |
| Ellen Parker | ... | Teacher | |
| Shelby Brammer | ... | Ted's Secretary | |
| Carol Nadell | ... | Mrs. Kline |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
105 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
MonoCertification:
UK:A (original rating) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Indonesia:Dewasa | UK:PG (video rating) | Sweden:11 | Netherlands:AL | South Korea:15 (DVD rating) | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Chile:18 | Finland:S | Norway:12 (1980) | Singapore:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:16 | Canada:G (Québec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario)Fun Stuff
Trivia:
JoBeth Williams's funny nude scene was optically darkened for the film's theatrical run in order to avoid an R rating. However, the undarkened version very often turns up on some television prints. moreGoofs:
Continuity: After Ted drops Billy at school, Joanna's hand position on the window changes between shots. moreQuotes:
[Ted is having lunch with his boss]Ted Kramer: So the other morning, I'm at the refrigerator... you know, getting Billy ready for school. So I'm just in my underwear and he notices I've lost weight. And he comes in and pats me. He comes up to here
[touches his stomach]
Ted Kramer: , and he says "Daddy, you've really lost a lot of weight", he looks up at me and he says "And it's all gone to your nose."
[laughs]
Ted Kramer: He was so cute. You know?
more
Soundtrack:
Concerto in C Major for Mandolin & Strings 1. Allegro moreFAQ
How does it end?more
more
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After a decade of turbulent unrest, American movies began to switch gears and turn their cameras away from war-torn battlefields, political corruption, and general social unease to the more intimate world of family dysfunction. The toll the selfish Baby Boomers began to take on the American family as they grew up and had kids of their own was making itself felt.
"Kramer vs. Kramer" is one of the first of these dysfunctional family dramas that would continue to be so popular throughout the 1980s, and it's one of the best. It gets a rather bum rap now, because it's known as the film that beat "Apocalypse Now" for the 1979 Best Picture Academy Award, but comparing these two films is like comparing a banana to a marinated chicken breast: they're not remotely the same, but can't we enjoy them both? Director/writer Robert Benton doesn't try to do anything fancy with his movie; its strength lies in its performances, those of Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep particularly, playing a divorced couple fighting childishly and selfishly over their son. The courtroom scene in which they duke it out for custody, and in which each is forced to hurt the other in terrible ways, is devastating, and feels authentic. The movie doesn't present Hoffman's solid dad as a hero, or Streep's straying mom as a villain. They're neither good or bad as people -- they're simply bad at being married.
The film is tear-jerky at the finale, but not in a manipulative way. It earns its right to elicit sobs.
Grade: A