Looking for Mr. Goodbar

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I never read the book, and being of a younger generation,I actually did not realize there was one. I saw this film late night last summer while I sat in bed, with the boyfriend passed out beside me. I think if he had been awake I probably would not have paid attention to the film, but being as it was.. I was in for one of the most disturbing late night movies of my life. The drugs and promiscuity were no surprise tome,I unfortunately see it all the time in my generation,but I was moved by her working with the children, and most impressed with the portrayal of the kids. Children DO sense when something has changed or isn't right. But the big shock for me was the ending. I didn't see that coming, especially not from Tom's character. I found it most upsetting, especially how she was actually moaning and getting into it as he was murdering her. To this day I am haunted by the fading image of her dead,surprised face flashing in a strobe effect. And I am scared to death.

source: Looking for Mr. Goodbar

I saw "Mr. Goodbar" at a film festival screening, several years after it's initial release. In some ways (none of them good), this movie has haunted me ever since. I can still recall feeling strangely perturbed and confused as the film neared it's final minutes. I guess I expected that the ending would somehow magically bring the preceding grimy and occasionally chaotic events into some sort of focus. All I got from that ending was a brutal stomach ache similar to the lingering pain induced by a cheap sucker punch to the gut. I will readily admit to having gained no further understanding or insight into this film over the years. I still can't imagine why anyone would make a film like this, or what possible value or entertainment viewers derived from it. For me, Diane Keaton's performance is the only thing in the movie that keeps it from getting the lowest vote. That she managed to project some warmth and humanity from such a crudely drawn, relentlessly sad, and gratuitously self-destructive character, only made the ending that much more horrific and senseless. It's easily one of the worst experiences I've ever had in a movie theater.

Okay, let's see ... on weekdays, our anti-heroine is a touchy-feely educator of hearing-impaired children, but all other times is a shallow, giggling, hedonistic airhead, and all because mean old Daddy keeps talking to her as if ... well, as if she's a shallow, giggling, hedonistic airhead. Do people like this really exist? This may be one of the first and best-known "sure I'm a wacko but it's not my fault" films. More a series of impressions than an actual story, we have impossibly-young Richard Gere (who provides some of the funniest lines, though unintentionally) and Tom Berenger, both trying hard to do Marlon Brando impersonations. And Tuesday Weld's hair-tossing frenzies are so overacted that I wished she'd just stand still for a moment so we could remember what she looks like. Watch for Brian Dennehy in a funny fantasy sequence. The film is not without merit, but be prepared for a parade of unlikeable characters. 'Double Indemnity' pulled that off, and still managed greatness. LFMG could have been a memorable classic, instead of just the title. Too many cardboard characters; too little substance; too many excuses. It's as shallow as the lead character. Not recommended.

Theresa (Diane Keaton) is the daughter of a very rigid catholic father, and has a serious trauma with a scoliosis she had due to a congenital problem. When she was a teenager, she suffered a lot to heal the scoliosis, being immobilized for one year after many surgeries. When she graduates in teacher for deaf people, she decides to get free from her father and to live alone in a rented apartment. She finds a job in a specialized school, where she is a lovely and affectionate teacher with her kids during the day. However, in the night, like Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, she searches for sexual freedom cruising bars, having sex with the most different men, having a promiscuous and very low life. James (William Atherton), is the only distinct man she meets and she despises him. Her promiscuous life ends in a very tragic way. I watched this movie in 1977 and I was very impressed with the role and the performance of Diane Keaton. In the same year, Diane Keaton was the star of "Annie Hall", and I found this actress fantastic, capable of acting in the most different roles. Unfortunately, "Looking For Mr. Goodbar" has never been released on VHS, DVD or Blu-Ray in Brazil, and I have not had the chance to see this movie again. However, last month a cable TV channel presented it, I recorded it and yesterday I watched it again. The story is still good, but has aged. Although being a long movie, the reason why Theresa is promiscuous is not clear enough. There is oppression of her catholic family (specially her father), guilty problem due to the religion, there is the trauma of her congenital disease, explaining why she does not want to have babies, the sexual liberation of the woman in the 70's, but some explanation is missing. There is a scene that is very funny in the present days with AIDS, when Theresa laughs of James, because he used condom for having sex with her. Richard Gere has a performance very similar to his characters in 'American Gigolo' and 'Breathless', having the same movements of his body, hitting objects with his fingers like a drum etc. It is amazing the resemblance of his face at that time with the Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): 'À Procura de Mr. Goodbar' ('Looking For Mr. Goodbar') Note: On 17 February 2015, I saw this movie again.

This movie came out when I was a senior in high school. It made quite an impression on me, so much so that I saw it at least twelve times in the course of two months. It made sex and drugs seem like the greatest things life had to offer. At the time and for a little while afterward, that was true. I always felt that Diane Keaton won her Oscar for the wrong movie; this was released the same year as "Annie Hall". The entire cast is great - a young Richard Gere, Tuesday Weld and William Atherton, to name a few. All of Richard Brooks' movies have interesting casts and this is no exception. I can understand why some viewers find this movie offensive; it all depends on what you want out of life, though.

Wow. This film popped onto HBO tonight and I started watching it without having heard a thing about it. The main parts of the plot have been hashed over here many times already, so I don't need to go over that again. Having seen the whole thing from start to end, I believe that it will be sticking with me for some time. I can also say that I don't wholeheartedly agree with some of the conclusions the film seems to make. To those that have said that Keaton's character is in some part responsible for her own fate, well, you're right. But then, we all are. If you get rear ended on the highway on the way to work tomorrow, it could have been avoided if you had never gotten in the car, or took a different route, or called in sick. I don't think she went out looking for trouble. She was lonely, very lonely. She was trustful, too trustful. She was naive and looking for acceptance and a whole bunch of things that I, too, have been at some point in my life (and in some cases, still am). These things made her vulnerable. But just because someone is vulnerable does not give another license to take advantage of them. Or worse. Can I be honest for a moment? I've been down that path. I encountered some of that "dark side." And though I in no way was as hurt by it as she was, I was still hurt. How scary to look back and realize that it could have been me. There but for the grace of God go I. But it bothers me that this is a morality tale. Perhaps it's the idealist in me that just doesn't want to accept that bad things happen undeservedly. Perhaps I just want to think that we've moved on from the way society looked upon "unfettered" women in that time period. Those are the things I want, but then there is reality, too. I was also bothered by some of the over-the-top stereotypes. But still, wow. Just wow.

A good way into this movie my wife and I just looked at each other and said why are we sitting through this? We got up and left. This is one of only two movies I have ever walked out on.

My wife has recently came across of a used vinyl somewhere titled "LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR" MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK and after noticed Diana Ross is listed she bought it for me for the price of... only $1!!! Despite it's almost 30 years old there are no scratches, excellent quality, sounds like new - unbelievable lucky, isn't she? :) So here are the tracks: Side 1 1. Theme from "LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR" (Don't Ask To Stay Until Tomorrow) 1:16 2. Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston 3:37 3. Lowdown - Boz Scaggs 3:19 4. Machine Gun - Commodores 2:45 5. Love Hangover - Diana Ross 3:47 6. She Wants To (Get On Down) - Bill Withers 3:15 7. Theme from "LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR" (Don't Ask To Stay Until Tomorrow) (Reprise) 2:24 Side 2 1. Theme from "LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR" (Don't Ask To Stay Until Tomorrow) (Vocal) - Marlena Shaw 4:08 2. She's Lonely - Bill Withers 5:04 3. Try Me I Know We Can Make It - Donna Summers 4:14 4. Back Stabbers - The O'Jays 3:06 5. Prelude To Love - Donna Summer 6. Could It Be Magic - Donna Summer 6:12 PS: there's no time printed for 2/5 - in fact there's no such track present on the disc but it's listed on the label.

Probably the biggest problem with this movie – other than its insistence that all men are either worthless sexual predators or pathetic, near-impotent panderers – is the fact that it has aged so badly. In an age when a small army of women under 30 seem hell-bent on doing all they can to turn their livers and septums to mush in as short a time as possible, Diane Keaton's Theresa Dunn no longer comes across as somebody out of the ordinary. Diane Keaton gives a performance that is by turns both sensitive and irritating as her character revolves around her schizophrenic lifestyle. As a child, Dunn was encased in plaster, a result of scoliosis, and it seems that this is what compels her to take so many risks in her effort to find the kind of freedom she was denied as a kid – both by her spell in traction and by a harsh, overbearing Catholic upbringing. She is full of love, as indicated by her relationship with the deaf children she teaches, but gives it in all the wrong ways, leading to encounters with equally warped characters. One of these is Richard Gere in the role that first brought him to Hollywood's attention and which serves as a kind of template for the role of Jesse in Jim McBride's ill-fated remake of Breathless. The other is Tom Berenger, a borderline psychopath tortured by his own homosexuality. Both are characters no right-thinking adult would want to get involved with, but Keaton's self-destructive personality draws her to them, and while you want her to break free from her sleazy night-life a part of you can't help thinking she's going to get what she deserves. The problem with Dunn is that she engages the viewers' sympathy in her straight persona then keeps pushing them away with her self-indulgent excesses and sometimes callous treatment of those who love her most. Combined with the relentlessly depressing atmosphere of impending tragedy that hangs over the entire film, this makes Looking for Mr. Goodbar a difficult film to enjoy (or even watch) and one to which many people wouldn't wish to return.