I've been trying to come up with a movie diary about love scenes, great romances, best kisses, etc., but I recognize that others could do those topics far more justice than I. The other side of the coin, Divorce, is a much easier nut to crack.
Divorce movies are, in fact, one of the best ways of following changes in American society and culture over the decades. It is a serious topic, which has over the years been treated with great seriousness, hyperbolic superciliousness, and delicacy bordering on utter denial. A review of Divorce movies shows how far this country has come in the past century.
Follow below the fold, if the subject isn't too painful, for a brief historical review of Divorce in the Movies. I won't even try to be comprehensive, so share your favorites too. We'll start with the Alpha and Omega of Divorce Movies.
Kramer vs. Kramer was the 1979 film that swept the top Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Benton), Best Actress (Meryl Streep), Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Benton and Avery Corman.) This movie featured Streep as a woman feeling limited in her marriage, who left her husband and son to find meaning in her life. Hoffman is left with his son Billy and has to learn how to become a parent. Both meet in divorce court seeking custody of Billy. It is notable for a sensitive exploration of the redefinition of gender roles in the era after Sixties feminism, and for the even-handed treatment of both main characters. A beautiful and painful movie to watch.
On the other extreme, 1989's The War of the Roses eschews sensitive reality for the hyperreality of a morality play. It was a true artifact of the Republican business-worshipping 80's, depicting marriage as business and divorce as war. The film deliberately invokes the battles between the Houses of Lancaster and York in telling the tale of the Roses (Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner), whom we follow from meeting to merger to growth to nasty and ultimately Pyrrhic divorce battle. The casting, which includes Danny DeVito as Douglas' friend and lawyer, is particularly interesting. The three main actors had recently appeared in the adventure movies Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile. Not sure exactly what this reunion means, but it does invoke the habitual cynicism that permeated the decade as well: marriage and divorce as fantasy adventure fiction?
Early movies about divorce made efforts to reflect the reality of divorce of the time. The Divorcee, which won Norma Shearer an Oscar in 1930, examined whether marriage should be a loveless partnership or a love match. It also looked at post-divorce promiscuity, the hypocrisy of the adultery-only divorce laws of the time, and showed how women could be the partners who blossomed after divorce. One More River was a great 1930 James Whale vehicle which took place in England. In it the female lead battled a husband who engaged in physical abuse, rape, and character assassination. The divorce trial is considered one of the best ever committed to film. The married couple live in the colony of Ceylon at the opening, bringing the metaphor of imperialism into this late Imperial story.
In 1934, the Hays Code imposed self-censorship on Hollywood for the next 34 years. As an example of the difference this made, 1934's The Gay Divorcee dropped the reality of Norma Shearer's recent vehicle for the divine Ginger Rogers - Fred Astaire dance team. Arriving on the cusp of the Code, it still managed to be a witty and effective spoof of fault-based divorce. After this movie, though, the veil of propriety descended. Screwball comedies like The Awful Truth showed couples going through the travails of divorce, only to reunite happily in the end, proving the sanctity of marriage. Divorces were turned into annulments to push plot lines, as in the great It Happened One Night. The greatest divorce movie of the early code era was George Cukor's camp classicThe Women, which pushed the Code to the limit. Adultery abounded, gossip was sharp and malicious, and the deathless divorce line "Where does it get you? On the train to Reno" earned immortality. At the end, the main couple, Stephen and Mary, joyously reunite in a nod to the censor.
Divorce was rare in subsequent decades, though often inferred. ("Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.") The adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' Dodsworth featured a divorce, as it was central to the movie's plot. Foreigners were not so constrained, but still the subject didn't come up often. Divorce Italian Style earned a 1962 Oscar for the sophisticated Marcello Mastroianni vehicle in which he battles the prudery of his culture to divorce one woman and wed another.
After the breakdown of the Hays Code in 1968, Hollywood seemed rusty in dealing with the subject. Divorce American Style was an early effort from Norman Lear, which probed various scenarios by exploring the disintegrating marriages of several couples. Network and Blume in Love, on the other hand, harkened back to Hays Code days by featuring divorced couples where the struggle to reunite was central. Meanwhile, free of the influence of American censorship, Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage in 1973 gave perhaps the most deep and unsparing look at a divorcing couple in movie history, even though it was made for Swedish TV.
Other post-code movies deserving mention include An Unmarried Woman, Paul Mazursky's great film with a terrific Jill Clayburgh, and Woody Allen's gorgeous Manhattan, which urbanely bring lesbianism into the picture for comic effect. The Squid and the Whale is a recent effort that harkens back to the 80's, and examines divorce from the affected children's point of view. One last unlikely entry is Divorce His - Divorce Hers in which -- of all people -- Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton offer their thoughts on divorce.
There are lots of other great examples of divorce movies and lessons to draw from them. Step right up, gang.