A woman's wistful face rests on her hand in darkness. It's pitch black around her, but her sympathetic face is lit up like that of an angel. Her eyes are a little wet, and she is looking down. "I love you, Billy," she utters. A quiet, lethargic response from the off-screen space, "I love you, mom," expands the space by sound before a cut to a larger shot scale does so by image. This little moment of intimate truth, the mother's truth, that of a lost woman played by then not yet even a star-on-the-rise Meryl Streep, is but one of many in this gem of a film called "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979). The opening scene establishes a certain tone for the film, directed by then accomplished scriptwriter Robert Benton, it establishes a calm tone of realist minimalism, but it also sets up the film's concise exposition. It continues with a parallel cut that reveals the mother's husband, a young advertiser on the rise in his company, played by the then already established method actor of films such as "The Graduate" (1967), "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), and "All the President's Men" (1976), Dustin Hoffman, walking away from work with his boss who is making big promises to him about the future. Arriving home, excited about the news of potential upcoming promotions, the man is met with his wife's impassioned words: "I'm leaving you." Not only does she leave him but also their 5-year-old son without giving any promises of return. Thus starts the development of a father-and-son relationship between the dad and his estranged son. Through trials and errors, ups and downs, they come together, get closer, and form a tight bond on broken ground. Their new found relationship is interrupted by the mother's unexpected return which drives them into a difficult custody battle.
Sweeping the Academy Awards, winning all the biggest five Oscars, Benton's "Kramer vs. Kramer" never feels what many nowadays call an "Oscar film." While it speaks to us, while it still resonates poignantly with our innermost feelings, it comes from a different time in film history before there was such a thing as an "Oscar film." There's a cliched saying, "they don't make them like they used to," which is often applied to films from the golden age of Hollywood, but there's a truth to it when used appropriately. In addition to the golden age of Hollywood from the 30's to the 50's, there was a second renaissance in American popular cinema. It took place from the late 60's to the late 70's, and it is known as New Hollywood. In many ways, "Kramer vs. Kramer" embodies this decade of artistic transition. Alongside films such as Allen's "Annie Hall" (1977) and Mazursky's "An Unmarried Woman" (1978), Benton's film exemplifies a new cinematic realism in American film that had been fine grained enough and that had reached such a level of effortless sophistication that it was possible to just put actors in real spaces and let them go with it. "Kramer vs. Kramer" is often seen as some kind of a watershed moment as it depicts divorce and custody battles with a new sense of maturity and elegance, giving both parties an equal stand and refusing easy answers. Although the film is told primarily from the man's point of view, there is not a moment when the spectator could hate the mother after the brilliantly executed opening scene. While the film exemplifies changes that were taking place in western society during the second wave of feminism, it does this not by intention or force but due to its intuition that has been achieved by the New Hollywood aesthetics of realist minimalism. Sobriety is in its nature. It's funny to think that Francois Truffaut almost came to direct "Kramer vs. Kramer" and how different -- no matter how fitting with Truffaut's own oeuvre in the late 70's -- the film would have been like. It owes its heart to Benton's touch and its homely feeling on familiar ground.
Of equal importance, in this case, it must be stressed, are the performances by Hoffman, Streep, Jane Alexander as their mutual friend, and Justin Henry as Billy, who is still the youngest actor ever to receive an Oscar nomination for his performance. There's true power of emotional presence. Hoffman was in the middle of divorce even before production, and Streep had recently broken up with her boyfriend. There is improvisation and there is honesty. The first rewrite sessions of the script with Hoffman, Benton, and producer Stanley Jaffe have been described by Jaffe as group therapy. The method acting, Benton's minimalism, and new American realism all breathe freely from the film's audiovisual texture that feels and tastes like ordinary life. It's a little film, it's simple film, but its smallness and simplicity are something that is lacking in American popular cinema forty years since its premiere. "Kramer vs. Kramer" is full of these little moments of intimate truth that make you marvel. The father grabbing a hot frying pan in the middle of an unprecedentedly hectic morning, the son revolting by taking up ice cream from the freezer before finishing up his dinner, them shopping together, two divorced friends just talking on a park bench while their children are playing before them, a glass thrown against the wall in bitter anger, a hug that lingers between the father and his son, a terrified run through the streets, a quiet nod in court, a sigh, and an exchange of looks between the doors of an elevator. They ask to be enjoyed, they ask to be to be cherished and embraced as they are -- just because they are. Because they are real.
Sweeping the Academy Awards, winning all the biggest five Oscars, Benton's "Kramer vs. Kramer" never feels what many nowadays call an "Oscar film." While it speaks to us, while it still resonates poignantly with our innermost feelings, it comes from a different time in film history before there was such a thing as an "Oscar film." There's a cliched saying, "they don't make them like they used to," which is often applied to films from the golden age of Hollywood, but there's a truth to it when used appropriately. In addition to the golden age of Hollywood from the 30's to the 50's, there was a second renaissance in American popular cinema. It took place from the late 60's to the late 70's, and it is known as New Hollywood. In many ways, "Kramer vs. Kramer" embodies this decade of artistic transition. Alongside films such as Allen's "Annie Hall" (1977) and Mazursky's "An Unmarried Woman" (1978), Benton's film exemplifies a new cinematic realism in American film that had been fine grained enough and that had reached such a level of effortless sophistication that it was possible to just put actors in real spaces and let them go with it. "Kramer vs. Kramer" is often seen as some kind of a watershed moment as it depicts divorce and custody battles with a new sense of maturity and elegance, giving both parties an equal stand and refusing easy answers. Although the film is told primarily from the man's point of view, there is not a moment when the spectator could hate the mother after the brilliantly executed opening scene. While the film exemplifies changes that were taking place in western society during the second wave of feminism, it does this not by intention or force but due to its intuition that has been achieved by the New Hollywood aesthetics of realist minimalism. Sobriety is in its nature. It's funny to think that Francois Truffaut almost came to direct "Kramer vs. Kramer" and how different -- no matter how fitting with Truffaut's own oeuvre in the late 70's -- the film would have been like. It owes its heart to Benton's touch and its homely feeling on familiar ground.
Of equal importance, in this case, it must be stressed, are the performances by Hoffman, Streep, Jane Alexander as their mutual friend, and Justin Henry as Billy, who is still the youngest actor ever to receive an Oscar nomination for his performance. There's true power of emotional presence. Hoffman was in the middle of divorce even before production, and Streep had recently broken up with her boyfriend. There is improvisation and there is honesty. The first rewrite sessions of the script with Hoffman, Benton, and producer Stanley Jaffe have been described by Jaffe as group therapy. The method acting, Benton's minimalism, and new American realism all breathe freely from the film's audiovisual texture that feels and tastes like ordinary life. It's a little film, it's simple film, but its smallness and simplicity are something that is lacking in American popular cinema forty years since its premiere. "Kramer vs. Kramer" is full of these little moments of intimate truth that make you marvel. The father grabbing a hot frying pan in the middle of an unprecedentedly hectic morning, the son revolting by taking up ice cream from the freezer before finishing up his dinner, them shopping together, two divorced friends just talking on a park bench while their children are playing before them, a glass thrown against the wall in bitter anger, a hug that lingers between the father and his son, a terrified run through the streets, a quiet nod in court, a sigh, and an exchange of looks between the doors of an elevator. They ask to be enjoyed, they ask to be to be cherished and embraced as they are -- just because they are. Because they are real.