The Big Chill
| Year: | 1983 |
| Studio: | Columbia |
| Director: | Lawrence Kasdan |
| Producer: | Michael Shamberg |
| Writer: | Lawrence Kasdan |
| Cast: | Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Tom Beregner, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Jennifer Tilly, JoBeth Williams |
One of those generation-defining films we see every 10 or 15 years. We all love movies that capture the zeitgeist of our youth when we're adults and our dreams have been tempered by reality or have failed altogether.
It's a very simple premise; a group of friends who've drifted off into their own lives after college and who see each other sporadically. One of their number dies (Kevin Costner as the most famous edited-out corpse in movie history) and the remainder converge from across the country for the funeral, agreeing to stay over for the weekend.
What ensues is a funny, sweet and sad round of soul searching, regret, passions rifts and loves that regroup, fall apart, strengthen and falter the way relationships do.
It's the same film that could be repackaged with different window dressing every 10 years; in the 90s there should have been one where they reminisced about the mission brown velour flares of the 70s, in the last few years there should have been one where they play electronic synthesised music and laugh about the shallow pursuit of burgeoning wealth of the 80s.
But ultimately the window dressing of the times and (massively successful) soundtrack are just window dressing, and it's about people and their connections. Rambling and breezy, it's an example where these peoples' entire lives are the plot, we just get a glimpse over a single weekend.
In fact writer/director Kasdan did try it once more, with the beautiful and under-appreciated Grand Canyon.
It's a very simple premise; a group of friends who've drifted off into their own lives after college and who see each other sporadically. One of their number dies (Kevin Costner as the most famous edited-out corpse in movie history) and the remainder converge from across the country for the funeral, agreeing to stay over for the weekend.
What ensues is a funny, sweet and sad round of soul searching, regret, passions rifts and loves that regroup, fall apart, strengthen and falter the way relationships do.
It's the same film that could be repackaged with different window dressing every 10 years; in the 90s there should have been one where they reminisced about the mission brown velour flares of the 70s, in the last few years there should have been one where they play electronic synthesised music and laugh about the shallow pursuit of burgeoning wealth of the 80s.
But ultimately the window dressing of the times and (massively successful) soundtrack are just window dressing, and it's about people and their connections. Rambling and breezy, it's an example where these peoples' entire lives are the plot, we just get a glimpse over a single weekend.
In fact writer/director Kasdan did try it once more, with the beautiful and under-appreciated Grand Canyon.