A great performance in 'Ordinary People'

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It was a Great Performance, one of the Best. Had Sissy not been so wonderful as Loretta Lynn that year, MTM would have had the Oscar.

Right at the height of her run as America's Sweetheart, she takes on a role that's completely unsympatethetic and bound to cause shock and awe amongst her fans. That was a truly balls-out move at the time. Almost more impressive than her performance in the film, which was intense and pitch perfect. Beth is a woman you can really hate, and not in a Cruella De Ville cutesy way. She gave her audience that opportunity. MTM taking on that role showed some real......well...no other word for it, I guess....spunk.

Yes, the power of her performance, and of the film itself, is understatement. (Sadly, its approximate style was copied to death by every stupid, manipulative LIFETIME TV-movie for the next 20 years, causing ORDINARY PEOPLE to lose esteem unfairly).

Mary did say, a few years ago, that Beth wasn't a bitch, though.

With all due respect, Mary's wrong: Beth was absolutely a bitch. But what made her so effective was that, unlike so many Bette Davis/Joan Crawford/Faye Dunaway cinema dragon-ladies we'd seen before, Beth Jarrett was a realistic bitch, one who could share a table with you in your kitchen.

She didn't love her youngest son, and she only loved how her eldest son's social acceptability potentially enhanced her own and made her feel.

That's not unusual, but it qualifies, legitimately, as a bitch. She is concerned only for herself.

Some people try to defend Beth because she's a woman. But when a father behaves like that (and many do) he is indeed an unloving bastard, as well.

--

The most profound of sin is tragedy unremembered.

To play the role, MTM has to incorporate the backstory of Beth losing her son as justification for her descent into icy cruelty to her son and husband. So yeah, she may not see her character as a bitch. It's an internal process. But what the audience sees is an unlikeable woman. No avoiding that. Like you said...the fact that it all feels so horribly human and realistic is a testament to the cast.

Agreed, she should have won the Oscar for this. Great performance.

It was a potential Oscar winning performance. I think Redford coaxed something dark inside of her.

It's that man again!!

Redford was looking for a 'Beth Jarrett' when he spotted MTM walking a beach alone. He said that she clearly did not expect that she was being observed; he was so taken aback by the expression of grim seriousness that she wore on her face that it took him a minute to confirm that it was her.
It was then he decided to approach her about the role, and I agree it was her Magnum Opus.
Consider, too, that when she took the part she was coming off the heels of her son's untimely death, so she felt the part was meant to be.