The World According to Garp (film)

Last updated
The World According to Garp
1982Garp film movieposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by George Roy Hill
Screenplay by Steve Tesich
Based on The World According to Garp
by John Irving
Produced byGeorge Roy Hill
Starring
Cinematography Miroslav Ondříček
Edited by Stephen A. Rotter
Production
companies
Warner Bros.
Pan Arts
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • July 23, 1982 (1982-07-23)
Running time
136 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$17 million
Box office$29,712,172

The World According to Garp is a 1982 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by George Roy Hill and starring Robin Williams in the title role. Written by Steve Tesich, it is based on the 1978 novel of the same title by John Irving. For their roles, John Lithgow and Glenn Close (in her cinematic debut) were respectively nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 55th Academy Awards.

Contents

Plot

T.S. Garp is the out-of-wedlock son of a feminist mother, Jenny Fields, who wanted a child but not a husband. A nurse during World War II, she encountered a dying ball turret gunner known only as Technical Sergeant Garp ("Garp" being all he is able to utter), who was severely brain damaged in combat, and whose morbid priapism allows her to rape him and become impregnated. She names the resultant child after Garp.

Garp grows up and becomes interested in wrestling and fiction writing, topics in which his mother has little interest. Garp's writing piques the interest of Helen Holm, the daughter of the school's wrestling coach. She is wary of him. His mother observes his interest in sex and is intellectually curious about it, having no more than a clinical interest. She interviews a prostitute and offers to hire her for Garp. Immediately after, Jenny decides to write a book on her observations of lust and human sexuality.

Her book is a partial autobiography, called Sexual Suspect, and is an overnight sensation. Jenny becomes a feminist icon. She uses the proceeds from the book to fund a center at her home for troubled and abused women. Meanwhile, Garp's first novel is published by his mother's publisher, which impresses Helen. The two marry and eventually have two sons, Duncan and Walt. Garp becomes a devoted parent and successful fiction writer, while Helen becomes a college professor.

Garp spends time visiting his mother and the people who live at her center, including transsexual ex-football player, Roberta Muldoon. He also first hears the story of Ellen James, a girl who was raped at age 11 by two men who then cut out her tongue so that she could not identify her attackers. A group of women represented at Jenny's center, "Ellen Jamesians", voluntarily cut out their own tongues as a show of solidarity. Garp is horrified by the practice and learns that the Jamesians have received a letter from Ellen James begging them to stop the practice, but they have voted to continue. Garp flirts with and possibly has sex with his children's 18-year-old babysitter while driving her home.

Having learned of Helen's infidelity with one of her students, Garp rushes home with his children in the back seat and accidentally crashes into her lover's car parked in their driveway, while she is in the car performing fellatio on the student. As a result, Walt, who frequently foreshadows his fear of death, is killed and Duncan loses an eye. Garp, through the aid of his mother, learns to forgive himself and Helen. The couple reconcile and have a baby daughter, who they name after Jenny.

Jenny receives death threats because of both her center and her book. To Garp's dismay, she dismisses the danger and decides to publicly endorse a politician who supports her message. Garp writes a thinly fictional book based on the life of Ellen James and its aftermath. The book is very successful and well-regarded, but is highly critical of the Jamesians. Garp begins to receive death threats from them.

During a political rally, Jenny is shot and killed by an anti-feminist fanatic. The women of Jenny's center hold a memorial for her, but forbid all men from attending. Garp, dressed as a woman, is infiltrated into the memorial by Muldoon. He is identified by Pooh, a voyeuristic and jealous Jamesian he knew when they both were in primary school. A commotion breaks out and Garp is in danger of being hurt, until a woman leads him out of the memorial to a taxi. The woman reveals herself to be Ellen James, and uses the gesture to thank Garp for his book about her. The Jamesians are further outraged that Garp attended the memorial.

Garp returns to his old school as the wrestling coach, and intimates an ambition to take up hang gliding. One day during practice, Pooh enters the gymnasium and shoots him at close range with a pistol. He is airlifted by helicopter with Helen. Commenting that he is finally flying, Garp flashes back to a time when his mother would toss him into the air (seen in the opening credits sequence).

Cast

Production

In a 2023 interview, John Irving stated that George Roy Hill approached him to write the screenplay, but that a bone of contention was the character of Roberta Muldoon, who Irving imagined more empathetically:

It was the early 1980s when George Roy Hill asked me if I would write the screenplay for “Garp,” but I knew we didn’t see eye to eye about Roberta. George was a World War II guy; he couldn’t see past the comedic part of a transgender woman who’d been an NFL player. A pity, because John Lithgow, who was cast as Roberta in the film, could have played her as I wrote her. Roberta is a force of normality in an otherwise extreme world; she is the only character who loves Garp and his mother equally, the only character who isn’t in a rage about someone or something. I declined to write the “Garp” script because George wouldn’t do Roberta my way. [1]

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 21 critics give the film a positive review, with an average rating of 6.2/10. [2] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [3]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four. He was "entertained but unmoved", considering it a "palatable" interpretation of the novel, "wonderfully well-written", yet "cruel, annoying and smug", and wrote:

I thought the acting was unconventional and absorbing (especially by Williams, by Glenn Close as his mother, and by John Lithgow as a transsexual). I thought the visualization of the events, by director George Roy Hill, was fresh and consistently interesting. But when the movie was over, my immediate response was not at all what it should have been. All I could find to ask myself was: What the hell was that all about? [4]

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that "the movie is a very fair rendering of Mr. Irving's novel, with similar strengths and weaknesses. If the novel was picaresque and precious, so is the film – although the absence of the book's self-congratulatory streak helps the movie achieve a much lighter, more easy-going style." [5]

Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote, "There's no feeling of truth in either the book or the movie," and that this "generally faithful adaptation, seems no more (and no less) than a castration fantasy". [6]

However, Leonard Maltin, in his annual Movie Guide, gave the film a rare four-star review (one of only 408 films out of nearly 16,000 given the designation during the 45-year period that it was published). Calling Garp "dazzling" and "beautifully acted by all, especially Close (in her film debut)... and Lithgow", Maltin went on to praise the film as an "absorbing, sure-footed odyssey through vignettes of social observation, absurdist humor, satire and melodrama". [7]

Awards

Lithgow and Close were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, at the 55th Academy Awards. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Irving</span> American-Canadian novelist and screenwriter (born 1942)

John Winslow Irving is an American-Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.

<i>The World According to Garp</i> 1978 novel by John Irving

The World According to Garp is John Irving's fourth novel, about a man, born out of wedlock to a feminist leader, who grows up to be a writer. Published in 1978, the book was a bestseller for several years. It was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction in 1979, and its first paperback edition won the Award the following year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Roy Hill</span> American film director (1921–2002)

George Roy Hill was an American film director. His films include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973), both starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

<i>A Prayer for Owen Meany</i> 1989 novel by John Irving

A Prayer for Owen Meany is the seventh novel by American writer John Irving. Published in 1989, it tells the story of John Wheelwright and his best friend Owen Meany growing up together in a small New Hampshire town during the 1950s and 1960s. According to John's narration, Owen is a remarkable boy in many ways; he believes himself to be God's instrument and sets out to fulfill the fate he has prophesied for himself.

The Big Read was a survey on books carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003, where over three-quarters of a million votes were received from the British public to find the nation's best-loved novel. The year-long survey was the biggest single test of public reading taste to date, and culminated with several programmes hosted by celebrities, advocating their favourite books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Tesich</span> Serbian-American screenwriter, playwright and novelist (1942–1996)

Stojan Steve Tesich was a Serbian-American screenwriter, playwright, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1979 for the film Breaking Away.

Muldoon is an Irish family name. It is represented throughout the world where descendants of emigrants of people bearing that name have settled; e.g. U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other countries.

<i>Move Over, Darling</i> 1963 film by Michael Gordon

Move Over, Darling is a 1963 American comedy film starring Doris Day, James Garner, and Polly Bergen and directed by Michael Gordon filmed in DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope released by 20th Century Fox.

Ellen James Society was a rock band, based in Atlanta, that was fronted by Cooper Seay and Chris McGuire. Gary Held, Jan Dykes, Scott Bland, Fletcher Liegerot, and Bryan Lilje were also members at various times. They formed in 1987 and disbanded in the early 1990s after releasing two albums on Daemon Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sulfathiazole</span> Chemical compound

Sulfathiazole is an organosulfur compound used as a short-acting sulfa drug. Formerly, it was a common oral and topical antimicrobial, until less toxic alternatives were discovered.

<i>Loving</i> (1970 film) 1970 film by Irvin Kershner

Loving is a 1970 American comedy-drama film released by Columbia Pictures and directed by Irvin Kershner. It is based on the novel Brooks Wilson Ltd. written by pulp magazine illustrator John McDermott under his pen name J.M. Ryan. The movie starred George Segal in the lead role of a philandering illustrator and Eva Marie Saint as his wife. The cast included Sterling Hayden, David Doyle, Keenan Wynn, Roy Scheider, and Sherry Lansing. Broadway actress Betsy von Furstenberg has a small uncredited role, one of only two motion pictures she ever appeared in.

<i>In This Our Life</i> 1942 film by John Huston

In This Our Life is a 1942 American drama film, the second to be directed by John Huston. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Ellen Glasgow. The cast included the established stars Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters and rivals in romance and life. Raoul Walsh also worked as director, taking over when Huston was called away for a war assignment after the United States entered World War II, but he was uncredited. This film was the third of six films that de Havilland and Davis starred in together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothea Baird</span> English actress (1875–1933)

Dorothea Baird was an English stage and film actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Lithgow</span> American actor (born 1945)

John Arthur Lithgow is an American actor. He studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his diverse work on stage and screen. He has received numerous accolades including six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Tony Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and four Grammy Awards. Lithgow has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2005.

<i>Fright</i> (film) 1971 British film by Peter Collinson

Fright is a 1971 British thriller film starring Susan George, Ian Bannen, Honor Blackman, and John Gregson. The film follows a babysitter who is terrorized one evening by her employer's deranged ex-husband. Its original working titles were The Baby Minder and Girl in the Dark before it was titled Fright. It is said by many horror fans and commentators to be one of or even the first film in which an isolated babysitter is stalked by an unrelenting and psychopathic antagonist, rendering it the forerunner of dozens of movies to use similar premises over the following decades.

<i>Last Night in Twisted River</i> 2009 novel by John Irving

Last Night in Twisted River is a 2009 novel by American writer John Irving, his 12th since 1968. It was first published in the Netherlands by De Bezige Bij on September 1, 2009, in Canada by Knopf Canada on October 20, 2009, and in the United States by Random House on October 27, 2009. The novel spans five decades and is about a boy and his father who flee the logging community of Twisted River on the Androscoggin River in northern New Hampshire after a tragic accident. While on the run, the boy grows up to become a famous writer, writing eight semi-autobiographical novels. The book was included in Time's 2009 list of "the fall's most anticipated movies, books, TV shows, albums and exhibits".

<i>Lad, A Dog</i> (film) 1962 film by Leslie H. Martinson, Aram Avakian

Lad: A Dog is a 1962 American drama film based on the 1919 novel of the same name written by Albert Payson Terhune. Starring Peter Breck, Peggy McCay, Carroll O'Connor, and Angela Cartwright, the film blends several of the short stories featured in the novel, with the heroic Lad winning a rigged dog show, saving a handicapped girl from a snake, and capturing a poacher who killed his pups and injured one of his owners. Warner Brothers purchased the film rights for the novel from Vanguard Productions, and acquired the film rights for the other two Lad novels from the late Terhune's wife.

<i>The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit</i> 1968 film by Norman Tokar

The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit is a 1968 American comedy film directed by Norman Tokar, with a screenplay by Louis Pelletier and starring Dean Jones, Diane Baker, Ellen Janov, Kurt Russell, Lurene Tuttle and Fred Clark in his final film role. It is based on the 1965 book The Year of the Horse by Eric Hatch. The film's title is a humorous reference to the titular horse's color and the title of the 1955 Sloan Wilson novel about the American search for purpose in a world dominated by business, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Craig</span> British actress, theatrical producer, theatre director, and suffragette (1869–1947)

Edith Ailsa Geraldine Craig, known as Edy Craig, was a prolific theatre director, producer, costume designer and early pioneer of the women's suffrage movement in England. She was the daughter of actress Ellen Terry and the progressive English architect-designer Edward William Godwin, and the sister of theatre practitioner Edward Gordon Craig.

<i>An American Tragedy</i> (film) 1931 film

An American Tragedy (1931) is an American pre-Code drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel An American Tragedy and the 1926 play adaptation. These were based on the historic 1906 murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette at Big Moose Lake in upstate New York.

References

  1. Murray, Christopher (13 January 2023). "Q&A: Author John Irving discusses new novel championing sexual minorities". Gay City News . Retrieved 23 January 2024.
  2. "The World According to Garp". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media. Archived from the original on 2011-11-27. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  3. "The World According to Garp Reviews". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  4. Ebert, Roger (January 1, 1982). "The World According to Garp". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on March 2, 2014. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  5. Maslin, Janet (July 23, 1982). "The World According to Garp (1982)". New York Times . Archived from the original on May 29, 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2012.
  6. Kael, Pauline (1984). "Neutered". Taking It All In . Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. pp.  376–381. ISBN   0-03-069361-6.
  7. Maltin, Leonard (2009). "The World According to Garp". Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide . Plume, a Member of The Penguin Group. pp.  1565. ISBN   978-0-452-28978-9. Archived from the original on 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  8. "The 55th Academy Awards | 1983". www.oscars.org. Retrieved 2024-01-14.