The Big Chill (1983)

A group of seven former college friends gather for a week-end reunion at a South Carolina vacation home after the funeral of another of their college friends.

Director:

Lawrence Kasdan

Writers:

Lawrence Kasdan, Barbara Benedek

Stars:

Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Berenger	...	Sam
Glenn Close	...	Sarah
Jeff Goldblum	...	Michael
William Hurt	...	Nick
Kevin Kline	...	Harold
Mary Kay Place	...	Meg
Meg Tilly	...	Chloe
JoBeth Williams	...	Karen
Don Galloway	...	Richard
James Gillis	...	Minister
Ken Place	...	Peter the Cop
Jonathan Kasdan	...	Harold and Sarah's Son (as Jon Kasdan)
Ira Stiltner	...	Running Dog Driver
Jake Kasdan	...	Autograph Seeker (as Jacob Kasdan)
Muriel Moore	...	Alex's Mother

Storyline

A seminal Thirty-Something movie in which a group of old college friends who are now older and experienced come together for the funeral of Alex, who was at one time the brightest and the best of them at college and yet who never managed to find his way. The friends use the occasion to reacquaint themselves with each other, discuss where their lives have led and speculate on what happened to their idealism which had been abundant when they were younger.

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Plot Keywords:

group of friends | original story | funeral | reunion | reflection | 

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Taglines:

How much love, sex, fun and friendship can a person take? The story of eight old friends searching for something they lost, and finding that all they needed was each other.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 September 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Big Chill

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,662,152, 2 October 1983

Gross USA:

$56,399,659

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$56,399,659

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Carson Productions, Delphi Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Meg says that she envisaged herself defending "Huey and Bobby", referring to Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, founders of the Black Panther Party.

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Goofs

When the cast is eating their first dinner, a crewmember is visible through the window on the right.

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Quotes

Sam Weber: So how's your life?
Karen: Oh, great. How's yours?
Sam Weber: Not so great.
Karen: Ohhh, we're telling the truth.

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Alternate Versions

In the original, after Meg tells Sam how much she loves him (in bed), Sam jokingly replies, "so, you wanna fuck?". However, in the network version, he says "so, you wanna do it?".

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Connections

Referenced in God, Sex & Apple Pie (1998)

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Soundtracks

My Girl
Written by Smokey Robinson (as William Robinson Jr.) and Ronald White
Performed by The Temptations
Courtesy of Motown Records and Jobete Music

User Reviews

Ensemble Acting at it's Best

"The Big Chill" is about my peers. When first released in 1983, I, like the characters, was in my early thirties, a former rebellious collegian from the '60s. After a decade in the work-a-day world, being a family man and raising babies, watching "The Big Chill" was like a fantastic time machine and took me back to places long forgotten. It really connected with me on a visceral level and I loved it.

Now, almost twenty years later, I've watched "The Big Chill" again. Same effect? Not exactly, although a lot of this may be due to the effect of viewing any movie a second time. My views of the 60s are not so gilded as they were then either. "The Big Chill" is still a very good movie; you have to love it for the ensemble acting. So many of the actors in the movie went on to have respected careers in the 80s and 90s. It's one of those rare movies like "American Graffiti" and "Diner" that served as a launch pad for acting careers. And the soundtrack is perfect, capturing the breadth of late '60s pop music. I really wish Kasdan had done with these characters, what Updike did with his "Rabbit" novels, that is, show the characters at ten year intervals through their lives.

This is one of the better movies of this type and is highly recommended even for the gen-x'ers.