i just saw this movie for the first time and i found it depressing to observe such a messed up young woman and i also thought it an accurate foretelling of liza minelli's disturbences that came out as she got older. i think the movie was quite popular when it came out and i am very interested in other's opinions to broaden my thinking. as for right now, i am going to have to find a way to get this off my mind.
looking forward to hearing what you think.
I revisit this film every few years. I find it one of the most honest "love" stories ever written and put to film. There is nothing fake here. People do find each other for all the WRONG reasons just as Jerry and Pookie did.
From the opening credits with Pookie's father gladly sending her off to Jerry doing the same thing at the end, most people can see a little (or a lot?) of Pookie in themselves.
I always found it significant that the film takes several minutes to let Jerry calmly walk Pookie to the bus at the end (after a breakdown the night before). I took the notion that Pookie would spend the rest of her life watching people send her "away", emotionally and physically.
You could say that Pookie was just plain crazy. But, that's missing the point. She represents a mixed up innocent little child inside most all of us. But, sooner or later, we all have to try and grow up. Jerry did. Pookie couldn't. That's why Jerry sent her away, just as her father did at the start. Neither Jerry nor her own father could love Pookie enough to just let her be herself.
Don't get it "off your mind". We all have our "Pookie" moments. The goal is to avoid spending a lifetime living them . . . if we only can.
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I couldn't agree more about how real this film is. Tere have been few relationships portrayed onscreen that are as realistic as Jerry and Pookie's and few relationships where I find myself relating to both sides of the relationship and understanding what both parties are thinking and feeling and desiring from the other. I can relate to Pookie's constant search for independence and individualism and her frustrations at the constant roadblocks on her journey and I can understand Jerry's longing to have a "normal" relationship with a "normal" girl. I got very emotionally involved with these two people and as I much as I wanted to see them make their relationship work, I knew it was doomed.
shareMy big sister took me to see this when I was 7, and I remember having quite a crush on Liza. I also remenber it being very "dark", as in "Autumish"! The theme song was a favorite "45" of mine. "Come Saturday Morning" was a great, folksy song.
shareYou guys are right. My parents took us to the drive-in to see it when I was about 10. I don't think it was the light-hearted romp that they expected. Even though I didn't really understand what was going on, I could sense that my parents were antsy and really wished they didn't bring the kids. I never forgot the film and when I saw it again years later in college I realized why Mom and Dad were squirming. But more than that, I was completely blown away by what an honest portrait this was of a first love between the socially awkward. There's a piece of all of us in Pookie or Jerry. Some of us learn and get it together like Jerry and, like Pookie, some of us don't. Her character is so disturbing and heartbreaking. It makes me think, "That could have been me. Maybe it is." This movie is such an unsung classic. Why the soundtrack isn't available and that it's not out on DVD is baffling.
share"Disturbing and heartbreaking" is a dead-on analysis of the character of Pookie Adams.
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