Breezy

The late William Holden provides further proof of his considerable acting talent in this sleeper film from 1973. Kay Lenz and the supporting cast members are also enjoyable. This is a refreshingly low-key romantic drama and doesn't have much comic relief, but it's still a good movie. It is also a change from director Clint Eastwood's more violent films. I don't remember hearing any objectionable four-letter words and I don't remember any violence. The lush scenery is an appropriate backdrop for the main characters' unlikely love affair. I should mention that there is nudity in the film. Kay Lenz appears topless several times. If you don't like brief nudity (which occurs several times), you may want to pass on this film.

This film is interesting for a number of reasons. I saw it at 12, when it first came out, and again at 45, and it felt creepy each time. Holden, who was 53, but had the drinkers' face of a 60 year-old is really tough to buy in a relationship with the nubile 17 year-old Lenz plays (Breezy). His character Frank is so crusty and grumpy, he would be more at home in a Cheever short story as a life lesson of middle age foolishness that the symbol of hope he is meant to be. A real estate agent who doesn't even have an office, but rather a desk in front of the huge plate glass window of his company's tacky office, Frank somehow lives in a luxurious, elaborated furnished dream house. When Breezy, a homeless hippie barges into his extremely exposed home(double height windows, isolated in the hills above LA) with her long straight black hair and floppy hat, I could not stop thinking that Frank's mind must be on the Manson Murders of only a couple years before, and Charlie's girl Susan Atkins, who Lenz could easily have portrayed in Helter Skelter. I'd love to know if that discussion ever arose on the set. How could the not have? Sociologically, while the Frank of 1973 is just moderately ill-at ease with the logistics of the relationship, if this film was made today, it would be a cause celebre, with Bill O'Reilly calling for Frank to be jailed and his name blasted across the internet as a sex offender. Come to think of it, I'm afraid Arthur (Dudley Moore) would not be such a crowd favorite these days either, with his devil may care attitude towards alcohol abuse and drunk driving. If we're right about all this now, were we all completely insane such a brief time ago? what's happening in our culture? Finally, a not very good film which Eastwood inexplicably calls own of his best, this looks like an ABC movie of the week with nudity. Nevertheless, it has enough curiosities to it to make it compulsive viewing.

When William Holden took the part of Frank Harmon in Breezy it was a dress rehearsal for the same kind of role in Network where he was the older man who had fallen out of love with his wife and looking for something new and different. Of course his taste in women is a whole lot different. In Network Holden falls for the chic Network news executive Faye Dunaway and in Breezy he's entranced by the free spirited young hippie chick in the title role which Kay Lenz got her breakout role. These two women are about as different as they come. One thing that the story and director Clint Eastwood failed to do is give us all that much information about Breezy and how her character developed as it did. She's a type that was quite common in 1973 and it's assumed by the audience that the Vietnam War and the counterculture of free love makes her typical of young people. So when she drops into Holden's life by kind of forcing him to give her a lift in his car after a night of sex with Dennis Olivieri who picked her up. Holden's gone through a bitter and nasty divorce and we also are not quite sure about the whys and wherefores there. But Eastwood kind of takes care of it from his end when Holden and Lenz at a fancy restaurant encounter his ex-wife Joan Hotchkiss who's there with a date. Her one scene with Holden and Lenz is Breezy's most unforgettable point. This is one bitter and drunken women and while we don't really know what went wrong, it's clear why Holden wanted out of the marriage and why he's soured on the female of the species. There was a 33 year age difference between Holden and Lenz and most wouldn't give odds for this lasting, but you never know. Both Holden and Lenz give a good account of themselves making up for some plot deficiencies in Breezy.

Why do I love love stories so much? This movie is embedded in my brain from back in the 70's when I was young and in love myself. I wish I could see this film again because of the angel, Kay Lenz. Now, I'm the divorced, middle-aged man like in the story. When will my Kay Lenz appear to me?

Even though William Holden is the star of the film, it is Kay Lenz that holds the film together. Her beauty and innocence is what makes the movie enjoyable. With a sexy over bite like Jessica Simpson's, Lenz represents the ignorant bliss that made up the 70's. Holden, on the other hand, represents the tired and unhappy generation that made up the quiet and conservative solitude of the 60's. With moments much like Weekend with the Babysitter, Breezy has its moments of eye candy and sex. An early Clint Eastwood film, Clint didn't use direction to interest his audience but the story of 2 completely different people who somehow fall in love when nothing else makes sense.

you have a strong stomach. Holden was actually 55 years old at filming but looked near 70 and he only lived another 8 years. At one point Holden said, "I am over twice your age." Okay, try triple grandpa! The "old enough to be your father" theme they were shooting for didn't work. Granted senior citizens sometimes wind up with legal teens. More power to them, but that doesn't mean I want to watch it. It's not a matter of judgment but the digestive track. I like my food where it belongs. Lenz is fun to watch and the 70s cars, clothes, furniture, etc. make it worth it if it comes on cable late at night and you want to watch something to wind down for bed. It would have been nice to see the blonde friend of Lenz, the one who hocked her guitar, get more scenes. Pleasingly spacey... Who was this chick? I'm going to try and find out.

I have to echo some of the other comments here and say that this great film SHOULD BE RE-RELEASED ON VHS AND DVD!! ARE you listening Mr Eastwood??! A wonderful cross generational love story that doesn't ring a false note, I'm glad I was able to find a copy of the unedited for TV version since I've only seen a TV edited version some years ago and it stuck in my head....it's that good a film and I recommend it to all!

Trifling romantic drama directed by Clint Eastwood about the loving relationship which grows between a comely hippie (Kay Lenz) and a Los Angeles real estate agent in his golden years (William Holden, surprisingly affable). The script is slight but not without some thoughtful passages; still, the scenario is such a middle-aged cliché by now that most of the picture comes off as puerile. It may have worked much better with different leads: Holden and Lenz don't match up well (her stature is so slight he seems to tower over her), making their intimate scenes less stirring than simply uncomfortable. Dated, blurry-romantic, and mostly unmemorable. ** from ****

Another fine 70s adult character drama with typically rich details, compelling characterization and seemingly aimless pacing representative of that great and celebrated era in American movies. Directed with inspired understatement by Clint Eastwood early in his film-making career and with a well crafted script it's an excellent spin on the older man/young girl conflict set in photogenic LA. Kay Lenz so winning and charming as the free spirited idealistic temptress. With his fabulously craggy face and usual smoky boozy sincere caustic growl William Holden created another memorable portrait of aging dispirited masculinity. If I had seen it last year I would have certainly been shrieking it's virtues during my rant against Lost in Translation.

It's interesting what passes for "love" in movies, when it's actually more like lust. I haven't seen this movie since its debut in 1973 and have no compelling desire to revisit it. I remember my older sister was bound and determined to see it; our grandmother was appalled at both the subject matter and the fact that William Holden had stooped so low as to make this turkey. I had no idea that Clint Eastwood had directed it and wish I'd never found out. My respect for him dimmed when I realized he had a creative hand in this exercise of cross-generational something that might charitably be tagged a romance. Why do I dislike this movie? It is well-made and the acting's fine. The story was just so contrived and banal. As I recall, Holden's character had something seriously wrong going on in his life that was supposed to excuse him sleeping with a teenager. The whole affair was deemed to be at once essential and temporary, much like the 70's view of sexual relationships. The whole decade was one very weird cross between innocent/naive and promiscuous. Breezy, it can be surmised, was a distillation of those screwed-up mores and succeeds in that sense. However, the resulting touchy-feely moral relativism that saturates the film also makes it very creepy. I do clearly recall that Mr. Holden didn't look well and seemed out of place, like he took the part for money but wasn't happy playing it. Miss Lenz was better; the supporting cast was okay but their characters were two-dimensional, lacking depth, and seemed only to be around to help drive the two leads into their disjointed relationship. In summary, this is a strange and dispirited love/lust story that was neither compelling nor relevant, even for its own time frame, and even less so today. Mr. Eastwood directed better, both before and after this pathetic tale, and Mr. Holden shone much brighter in "Network" later on. As for Kay Lenz, this part didn't really launch her career, though she did a fine job acting in this strange little drama. My grandmother was right when she called this movie a waste of time and talent.