Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)

A dedicated schoolteacher spends her nights cruising bars, looking for abusive men with whom she can engage in progressively violent sexual encounters.

Director:

Richard Brooks

Writers:

Judith Rossner (based on the novel by), Richard Brooks (written for the screen by)

Stars:

Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Tuesday Weld

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Diane Keaton	...	Theresa
Tuesday Weld	...	Katherine
William Atherton	...	James
Richard Kiley	...	Mr. Dunn
Richard Gere	...	Tony
Alan Feinstein	...	Martin
Tom Berenger	...	Gary
Priscilla Pointer	...	Mrs. Dunn
Laurie Prange	...	Brigid
Joel Fabiani	...	Barney
Julius Harris	...	Black Cat
Richard Bright	...	George
LeVar Burton	...	Cap Jackson
Marilyn Coleman	...	Mrs. Jackson
Carole Mallory	...	Marvella

Storyline

Theresa is a successful teacher of deaf children during the day but after a short unhappy affair starts to spend her nights cruising bars. Her craving first for sex but later also for drugs leads into increasingly demeaning and dangerous situations at odds with her daytime commitment to her children.

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Plot Keywords:

murder of a nude woman | woman on top | bar | one night stand | cunnilingus | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 October 1977 (USA)

Also Known As:

Buscando a Mr. Goodbar

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,540,635, 23 October 1977

Gross USA:

$22,512,655

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$22,512,655

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (still photograph montages) Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Alan Feinstein and Diane Keaton play lovers. In real life, Feinstein dated Lana Wood who dated Warren Beatty who dated Keaton.

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Goofs

In the book, Theresa's sister Katherine goes to Puerto Rico to procure an abortion during a scene that takes place in the mid-1960s. In the movie, the timeline is changed so that this scene is set in 1975, two years after abortion was legalized by the Roe v. Wade ruling, making the trip to Puerto Rico unnecessary.

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Quotes

Theresa: Honeymoon? I thought you went to get an abortion!

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Crazy Credits

A still version of the Paramount logo is seen at the beginning, in black and white.

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Connections

Referenced in Spin City: Snowbound (1997)

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Soundtracks

Silent Night, Holy Night
(1818) (uncredited)
Music by Franz Xaver Gruber
Lyrics by Joseph Mohr
Sung by Diane Keaton and her students

User Reviews

Cautionary tale holds up over time

Few viewers can deny the impact of this film – on the '77 crowd and generations afterwards. As a curious 8-year-old up late watching HBO, I never forgot the story or the lesson. Based on a true story, Richard Brooks astutely translated Judith Rossner's best-selling novel to screen, choosing a luminous Diane Keaton, hot off `Annie Hall' and `The Godfather' to play Theresa Dunn, an up-and-coming Richard Gere, a quirky Tuesday Weld , and amazing Richard Kiley as Dunn, the overbearing Irish-Catholic father. The misogynistic Richard Atherton and an ominous Tom Berenger rounds out the solid cast.

Neither traditionally beautiful like her stewardess sister, Katherine or a baby factory like her other sister living at home with her, Theresa is the odd one out, the sister who is searching for approval from a father who barely acknowledges her existence. Childhood traumas mold her and make the fact that Theresa allows herself to be strong and fallible all the more powerful and endearing.

Tired of her father's unyielding rule, Theresa moves into the apartment building owned by Katherine's next attempt at a husband. As the women's freedom movement is underway, Theresa is caught in the position of questioning the traditional roles for women, roles against a new woman in control of her body and her sexuality. By day she teaches at a school for the deaf. By night her nightly jaunts into New York's seamier nightlife scene, expose the dichotomy of being a professional woman by day who must maintain credibility and responsibility, especially with young children while trying to be sexually active, experimental and suffering the stigma attached to both – as whore and as a free woman – wanting purely physical experiences much the same as men, yet realizing the label is different.

Throughout this film, Brooks explores Theresa's perpetual search for acceptance by men but a need to maintain her own identity. From a failed affair with a Prof. she was a TA to, to her fling with Tony, a local hustler, Theresa is perpetually in question of her sexuality and her allure for men, making poor choices in her partners only to endure their violence and possessiveness - much like her father. That she meets up with a homicidal drifter the New Year's Eve night she has decided to quit drugs and cruising, is the irony of her self-discovery.

The only positive male in her life appears to be is LaVar Burton's character, Cap Jackson, –the sullen brother of one of Theresa's students. He is the only male presence in the movie that is not malevolent or trying to extract something from Theresa and during her altercation with Tony at the school, he is the only person to defend and protect her.

While the scare of AIDS stole later generations' promiscuity, this tale still resonates for viewers, especially for women on their own, looking for intimacy yet craving isolation.

While the ending tends to drag with one too many drug scenes the movie still packs a wallop for a finale.