In a thread elsewhere in CS, someone classifies The Big Chill as a “ripoff” of Return of the Secaucus Seven. The thread has run its course, so rather than bump it just to hijack it, I’m opening my own.
Tell me honestly, if you can remember: How widely seen was SS before the release of BC? How well-received was it? Did people go to see BC and say, “Eh, I’ve seen this before” or did SS lie dormant and only get resurrected when John Sayles was being lauded for Matewan? (Which I suspect.)
Because to be honest, I don’t see how Lawrence Kasdan “ripped off” SS. The script for BC was an extrapolation of his own experiences at the U of Michigan, and in fact, he and his co-writer may have been only marginally aware or even totally unaware of Sayles’s film.
And no offense, but I think SS is a dog. There’s no cohesion to it, the characters don’t have the interconnection and backstories that the BC characters have, and the premise (getting together for the anniversary of a protest they didn’t even get to) is, IMO, about as compelling as the presence of a Beach Party movie.
Now compare BC. The interaction between the characters is like a tennis match, the characters have been separated long enough to make a reunion more significant (more on that later), and the premise (funeral, suicide) is more topical.
And a lot happens, despite critics who say it’s all “dancing in the kitchen to Motown.” As if that was the only scene. How about the scene early on in which Mary Kay Place describes how she gave up being a public defender, because she had to defend actual, you know, criminals, and took a job as a corporate lawyer for a company who were “only raping the land.” When you’d think the environment would be more of a concern for her, and she’d stick to her guns and continue defending people who by law are entitled to a fair trial and representation, even if they are guilty as sin. But she sold out.
Then there’s the speech by JoBeth Williams’ husband. She has evidently fallen out of love with him, if she was ever in it, and other characters follow her cue and dismiss him. But late at night, he comes downstairs to raid the fridge, and muses to two of the guys about how most people just have to settle, even though they started out with high ambitions. More insight than his wife gives him credit for, and the scene adds more tension to events after he leaves and she stays.
And the scene where Kevin Kline is berating William Hurt for his attitude, particularly towards one of the local cops, who “happens to be a hell of a guy.” Something definitely changed between 1968 and 1983, if Kline objects talking back to a cop. Hurt holds his fire, then a few scenes later, delivers his return shot: “A long time ago we knew each other for a short while; that’s it.” (Or does he say that to Tom Berenger?) At any rate, compared to that, SS is home movies.
So those of you who remember back that far, when did BC start drawing comparisons to SS? And if you’ve seen both, which do you rank over the other?
(And I believe MKP’s speech is, if not the first mention in the media of a “biological clock,” at least the most influential.)