Taglines: Come to laugh, come to cry, come to care, come to terms.
Terms of Endearment movie storyline. Approximately ten years in what is the complex relationship between long widowed Houston-based upper middle class Aurora Greenway and her adult daughter Emma Horton is presented. There is general love and affection between the two, which is nonetheless characterized by Aurora’s overbearing and judgmental nature and Emma’s need for acceptance from her mother regardless. Aurora’s focus on being a constant influence on Emma’s life was strengthened upon the death of Aurora’s husband / Emma’s father Rudyard when Emma was an adolescent.
Despite allowing a few ardent but rather undistinguished admirers into her life, Aurora did not actively pursue romance following being widowed, again turning that energy largely to Emma. This phase of Aurora and Emma’s story starts when Emma marries Flap Horton, of who Aurora openly disapproves as a man she considers ambitionless (as he wants to be an academic). Aurora and Emma’s relationship hits some further challenges when Emma, Flap and their children at whatever given time make moves away from Houston for Flap’s career advancement.
Although Aurora and Emma talk frequently on the phone due to the distance, Emma, a stay at home mom, is largely left to deal with the issues in her and Flap’s less than perfect marriage on her own. Meanwhile, with extra time without Emma nearby and the hands of time slowly passing, Aurora eventually decides to take a chance and ultimately accept a date with her longtime next door neighbor Garrett Breedlove, an aging astronaut to who she never really even talked over the years due to their outward differences. While Garrett is miles away from the gentility that Aurora seems to admire in others and in herself, Aurora is conversely unlike most of the women Garrett pursues, he using his celebrity status to chase after nubile young women half his age.
Terms of Endearment is a 1983 American comedy-drama film adapted from Larry McMurtry’s 1975 novel, directed, written, and produced by James L. Brooks, and starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels, and John Lithgow. The film covers 30 years of the relationship between Aurora Greenway (MacLaine) and her daughter Emma (Winger).
The film was a major critical and commercial success, grossing $108.4 million at the domestic box office and becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 1983. It received a leading eleven nominations at the 56th Academy Awards, and won five: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress for MacLaine, and Best Supporting Actor for Nicholson.
Terms of Endearment was commercially successful. On its opening weekend, it grossed $3.4 million, ranking number two, until its second weekend, when it grossed $3.1 million, ranking #1 at the box office. Three weekends later, it arrived number one again, with $9,000,000, having wide release. For four weekends, it remained number one at the box office, until slipping to number two on its tenth weekend. On the film’s 11th weekend, it arrived number one (for the sixth and final time), grossing $3,000,000. For the last weekends of the film, it later dwindled downward.[14] The film grossed $108,423,489 in the United States.
About the Production
James L. Brooks wrote the supporting role of Garrett Breedlove for Burt Reynolds, who turned down the role because of a verbal commitment he had made to appear in Stroker Ace. “There are no awards in Hollywood for being an idiot”, Reynolds later said of the decision.
The exterior shots of Aurora Greenway’s home were filmed at 3060 Locke Lane, Houston, Texas. Larry McMurtry, writer of the novel on which the screenplay was based, had received his M.A. at Rice University, a mere three miles from the home. The exterior shots of locations intended to be in Des Moines, Iowa and Kearney, Nebraska were instead filmed in Lincoln, Nebraska. Many scenes were filmed on, or near, the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. While filming in Lincoln, the state capital, Winger met then-governor of Nebraska Bob Kerrey; the two wound up dating for two years.
MacLaine and Winger reportedly did not get along with each other during production.[6][7][8][9] MacLaine confirmed in an interview that “it was a very tough shoot … Chaotic…(Jim) likes working with tension on the set.”
On working with Nicholson, MacLaine said, “Working with Jack Nicholson was crazy”, but that his spontaneity may have contributed to her performance. She also said,
We’re like old smoothies working together. You know the old smoothies they used to show whenever you went to the Ice Follies. They would have this elderly man and woman – who at that time were 40 – and they had a little bit too much weight around the waist and were moving a little slower. But they danced so elegantly and so in synch with each other that the audience just laid back and sort of sighed. That’s the way it is working with Jack. We both know what the other is going to do. And we don’t socialize, or anything. It’s an amazing chemistry – a wonderful, wonderful feeling.
MacLaine also confirmed in an interview with USA Today that Nicholson improvised when he put his hand down her dress in the beach scene.
Terms of Endearment (1983)
Directed by: James L. Brooks
Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels, John Lithgow, Lisa Hart Carroll, Shane Serwin, Megan Morris, Tara Yeakey, Norman Bennett, Jennifer Josey, Amanda Watkins
Screenplay by: James L. Brooks
Production Design by: Polly Platt
Cinematography by: Andrzej Bartkowiak
Film Editing by: Richard Marks
Costume Design by: Kristi Zea
Set Decoration by: Anthony Mondell, Tom Pedigo
Art Direction by: Harold Michelson
Music by: Michael Gore
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: December 9, 1983
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