So go see HAROLD AND MAUDE.
Ruth Gordon was 75 in that one. Bud Cort was 22. And they were supposed to be playing an 80-year-old and a 19-year-old.
I know this was dropped several posts back, but it’s bugging me. I went to see “What Lies Beaneath” tonight, and they showed a preview for the Gear/Ryder flick. The preview made it EXTREMELY clear that a major point of the movie was that he was so much older than she. They made the fact that she was also dying seem like a sceondary plot.
I see we need to hear from an Older Guy. But I’m so old I can only think in short thoughts.
It gets pretty tacky. ‘Mad TV’ did a skit in which Connery told of his next movie with the Olsen twins.
Quoting Wife, “No, Idi Amin: a million bucks. Robert Redford: free.” She didn’t like him when he was pretty, but now he’s “cool ugly.”
Ruffian said:
Does this mean it’s over between us, Ruff?
I don’t have any strong feelings about May/December romances on film, and even still I felt that it was approaching silly in Entrapment.
One of the things I liked about the movie The Quick and the Dead was that they showed Sharon Stone’s crow’s feet, and in doing so allowed her to express a certain world-weariness that having her merely flawless and pretty wouldn’t have done.
Sure, there are reasons for women to be with older men - societal, maturational, etc. Most of the men I’ve dated have been older - until early twenties, most of the guys my age were too immature to date.
The frustrating thing is that this happens SO MUCH in the movies (almost every interview of older women actors mentions how damned sparse good roles are), and it’s diagnostic of societal attitudes towards older women. Who wants to be told that after your mid-thirties (possibly a little later, with plastic surgery) you will be a persona non grata?? Your sex life, your capacity to fascinate, your worth as an individual, you are told, will be worth little, and this change of perceived worth will be inevitable. Peri-menopausal = sexless suburban mom (no offense to suburban Moms. 
) Post-menopausal = dead, or possibly wise mothery type. So says Hollywood. Who wants to be so limited??
I can’t think of a good analogy for men that might make the complaints from women here make sense. Hmmm…do any of you feel that onset of Jason Alexander-style baldness is portrayed in movies as the sort of thing that would diminish your, um, considerable sex appeal to women? And maybe, just maybe, you dread baldness in part because of this derision?
- paradocs
I’m afraid it means it never started with us, dropzone.
snarling savagly I find nothing wrong with older men and younger women! BTW there is a website for older women and younger men but no websites for older men and younger women. I assume that is because of the great pedophile scare/terror/steriotype.
In some countries the woman prefer older men because they’re more mature and experienced.
I would love to date a younger woman 10 to 20 years my junior because they’re more exciting, lively, fun and – dare I say it – pretty. Most - not all – women my age have this hard assed look in their eyes, are often set in their ways, no longer bother all that much with looking good and have been divorced and carry a lot of baggage.
Younger women make me feel younger. Their attitude makes me do more things. They are more prone to take time to look good for me, which makes me feel special and I appreciate it. It makes me more prone to keep myself looking good.
I’ve dated women my own age and mostly found them not all that much fun. Those that are about 10 years younger seem better. I’m not real sure if I could keep up with a 20-something though it might be fun to try.
The television ads for the Ryder movie emphasize the dying. Apparently, the in-theater previews emphasize the age differences. So, the two different types of advertising stress two different things. I wonder why, and I wonder what the movie will be about. (Somebody please report back. I never see movies with Richard Gere. He makes me wanna yack.)
And there is at least one woman on the planet who doesn’t lust after Sean Connery–me. I don’t like men who think that it’s okay to hit women.
Here is the Space Cowboys geezer/teenager report:
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Clint Eastwood’s character had an age-approprate wife. I am not sure what the actress’s age was (The listing on the IMDB is spotty) but she looked age-appropriate. She actually had wrinkles! And, she and Eastwood’s character were “introduced” to us in a rather sexy scene involving a malfunctioning garage-door opener. (It’s not what you’re thinking, you pervs!)
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Donald Sutherland’s character lusted after any pretty young thing that moved–but this was supposed to be a somewhat laughable trait. Also, he didn’t get any in the movie. (There was a joke in the beginning where Eastwood’s character was un-knowingly speaking to Sutherland’s girlfriend. He said something like “your father is very talented.”)
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James Garner’s character was not shown to have any romantic tendencies at all. But he played a Baptist minister and we all know that Baptists aren’t interested in sex.
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Tommy Lee Jones is the one who “got the girl.” He portrayed a widow who got together with a new woman (no spoilers!) The actual age difference between the actors was only fairly large (15 years), but he was “playing older” and I think she was supposed to be playing younger, so the “effective” age difference was bigger.
So, it was pretty good in terms of age-appropriateness. Could have been better, but at least it showed one similarly aged couple, and made fun of the dirty old man. (It was also a fun movie and I’d recommend it to anyone who doesn’t get caught up in technicalities.)
BTW–They all got naked. Rear nudity only, I’m afraid. Clint Eastwood still looks damn damn DAMN good from the neck down.
Well I don’t know how Clint looks from behind…
But when I saw ‘True Crime’ where he leaned over the bar and placed a wet, sloppy one on the female reporter young enough to be his granddaughter…Christ, I almost lost my lunch. I can say the same for most of the audience I saw it with.
Hey, if your in your 40’s, it ok to be paired with young hot babe.
If you’re in your 50’s, we have to work just a bit harder to suspend our disbelief.
If you’re in your 60’s, it’s laughable.
If you’re in your 70’s Clint, give it up.
I agree with ya, spooje.
I guess the point I was trying to make is that a 70 year old guy with a 70 year old woman is great. A 70 year old man with a 28 year old woman is, well, yucky.
Isn’t Clint Eastwood married to a much younger woman?
Is he really 70? I think his wife is in her 30’s.
And how can we forget Tony Randall? IIRC, when he and his wife married, he was 75 and she was 25. Fifty year difference…talk about yuck!! I can’t even imagine having anything in common with someone 50 years older than me. I would feel like I was sleeping with my grandfather.
Green Bean wrote:
Damn! No sex for James Garner? I love him. So he’s 73, so what. So he’s got a seriously craggy face, so what? I love him anyway.
Kinsey Clint’s definitely 70. I think Garner’s still better looking at 73.
See, now y’all are proving my point. Women (at least some women) are attracted to these geezers, regardless of age. The reverse is not as frequently true. With rare exceptions, men are not attracted to significantly older women.
Result: A twenty-something (or thirty-something) couple can go on a date to a movie featuring an old guy and a young woman, and both moviegoers may have a sexual attraction to the respective lead characters. However, pair the old male actor with a similarly-aged actress, and the same result does not follow.
Which movie is likely to make more money?
Lest that last post sound too cold-blooded, I do understand the frustration this situation causes for women.
I guess the analagous situation for guys is that the movies frequently feature wealthy characters as romantic male leads. The female lead gets swept off her feet Cinderella style, and taken away to a life of wealth and comfort. How many guys can live up to that movie image?
I picked up a young girl hitch hiking in a not too great area of town at about 2AM one morning – mainly because she looked out of place there and looked all of 19. It turns out she was all of 22 - and might not have been all that out of place there after all. She had been walking home after leaving her boyfriend for the night – who turned out to be her sugar daddy, age 47. She told me about how he was quite well off and treated her well and how she really liked him, but I could not quite understand why she was leaving alone and on foot in the middle of the night.
I dropped her off about a mile further, in a better area, in front of a cheap apartment building. She was pretty, that was for sure, but I did not know whether to envy the guy or feel sorry for him. Why was she leaving his place in the middle of the night? Why was she not driving? If he was rich, why did she not have the money for a cab? Was she a hooker who had stumbled on a rich old client?
I don’t know because I never ran into her again.