Looking for Mr. Goodbar

Thersea Dunn (Diane Keaton) is a dedicated teacher by day. By night she cruises bars picking up men for increasingly violent sexual encounters. This leads to drug abuse and starts affecting her job. Can she stop?

A VERY negative view of the swinging 70s before AIDS came about in the 80s. I originally saw this on TV when I was in high school where it was cut to ribbons and virtually incomprehensible. A revival theatre did show it a few months later so I got to see it uncut on the big screen. I was a little too young to understand it fully (a 10th grader doesn't know much about singles bars:)) but the message came through loud and clear--sex + drugs = death. There's more to it than that--they get into Dunn's family life and you see she grew up feeling neglected with an obnoxious loud father and a meek mother. There's also her sister Katherine (Tuesday Weld) who is also addicted to sex and drugs. Basically this is a very depressing film full of unpleasant characters and situations. Keaton is great in her role--she totally buried her "Annie Hall" image with this. She also did nude scenes which she previously refused to do. Weld was superb (and Oscar-nominated) for her role. It's also fun to see Richard Gere and LeVar Burton before they hit it big. Also a still unknown Tom Berenger pops up at the end in a very disturbing but crucial role. He had guts playing the role he does (I won't give it away). This movie has disappeared due to song rights (I believe) and that's too bad. It IS disturbing but an accurate portrayal of the dark side of the singles bars in the 1970s.

I saw this movie when it came out in the '70's. Living in Marin County, we were all experimenting with our new freedom of sexuality, (Hot Tubs included). This movie should have been a wakeup call. But naive as I was, the night I saw the movie, my friend and I went to a local pub afterwards. I met a handsome fellow and he invited me to his home nearby, where he said he had a warm fire going. I told him of the movie and made him swear he wasn't a Mr. Goodbar (in a joking, yet serious way). But dummy me, I believed he was OK, and the man turned out to be someone you'd rather not go home with. Nothing too drastic happened, but I didn't go home with strangers again. I also became a "poster child" or should I say the voice of reason regarding the fact that "free love" was really not what we were looking for. Women are usually looking to be loved, and although we now had choices, this choice was a poor example of what we really needed.

Tonight my boyfriend and I were listening to Could It Be Magic by Barry Manilow, and I could picture the ending with that music playing and the lights flashing, and the rest of it which as you already know is unforgettable. So much so, that it's something I wouldn't want to see again. At my age now, it just might be a little too much for my heart to handle, LOL

This was an interesting movie and it shows how the world has changed in the last 30 years. The attitudes (between men and women, gays and straights), the language used back then, the social atmosphere (bar scene) of the late 1970s, even the financial differences--she's able to afford an apartment in Manhattan on a teachers salary! (even though it has roaches this still isn't possible in 2006). All of these things made the movie interesting for me. I also imagine it must have been a very shocking movie back then. I was 8 years old when it came out so I didn't see it in the theater but I would have liked to see it in a theater just to see how people took it back then. I would have liked to walk out of the theater and hear the conversations going on as people walked to their cars. Did people like it back then? Did they think it was shocking? Did they think it accurately portrayed a type of person they maybe knew or were themselves back then? Also, Diane Keaton was very good in it and it's very interesting to see a young Richard Gere and Tom Berenger when their careers were just beginning.

Looking For Mr. Goodbar isn't exactly the kind of feel good movie you might want to pop in on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It's heavy - almost suffocatingly so at times. What it does offer is a great chance for Diane Keaton to play a very different kind of character. Her Theresa is nothing like her Annie Hall or Nina Banks and that's refreshing to see. It's also an excellent time capsule of New York City life in the 70's.

With an upbeat 70's disco soundtrack (odds are, you'll know most of the tunes), Looking For Mr. Goodbar tracks a schoolteacher looking for love, passion, and satisfaction anyway she can find it. Sometimes it leads to heartbreak, sometimes it leads to danger, but it always leads to depression for the audience.

It's been a long time since I've seen a film this aggressively depressing and cynical and, to be honest, it's hard for me to process. On one hand, Keaton's work is exceptional, but on the other hand, it's a pretty tough slog to sit through. One needs to be in the right frame of mind to make it through.

My wife has recently came across of a used vinyl somewhere titled "LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR" MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK and after noticed Diana Ross is listed she bought it for me for the price of... only $1!!! Despite it's almost 30 years old there are no scratches, excellent quality, sounds like new - unbelievable lucky, isn't she? :)

So here are the tracks:

Side 1 1. Theme from "LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR" (Don't Ask To Stay Until Tomorrow) 1:16 2. Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston 3:37 3. Lowdown - Boz Scaggs 3:19 4. Machine Gun - Commodores 2:45 5. Love Hangover - Diana Ross 3:47 6. She Wants To (Get On Down) - Bill Withers 3:15 7. Theme from "LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR" (Don't Ask To Stay Until Tomorrow) (Reprise) 2:24

Side 2 1. Theme from "LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR" (Don't Ask To Stay Until Tomorrow) (Vocal) - Marlena Shaw 4:08 2. She's Lonely - Bill Withers 5:04 3. Try Me I Know We Can Make It - Donna Summers 4:14 4. Back Stabbers - The O'Jays 3:06 5. Prelude To Love - Donna Summer 6. Could It Be Magic - Donna Summer 6:12

PS: there's no time printed for 2/5 - in fact there's no such track present on the disc but it's listed on the label.