This is just about the saddest movie I have ever seen.And whats worse is that it happened in 1972. I actually watched this movie with my mother and we both wept. Even at the beginning of the film the viewer can see the disaster coming. Ben Gazzara and Robbie Benson did a superb job as father and son although it hurts to watch the two of them interact sometimes.
I have one serious issue here. Why did the entire family ( and I mean everybody) go to therapy? The mother (played by Eileen Brennan) could have played a pivatol role here and made everyone go. I felt desperately sorry for her character to be that torn between my husband and my son. However she should have taken much stronger action than she did. Having a strict father and a loving but ineffectual mother contributed to the tragedy. And don't even start me on Richie's 'friends'. Believe me no one needs friends like this.
I've considered writing a book in the future based on this tragedy but there's a third child in the family who goes off to Brown University, then to Cornell to vet school and becomes Providence, Rhode Island's most beloved veterinarian. The book would be written in first person and her first comment is ' When I was thirteen my family was destroyed by a horrible tragedy. I should be in a mental hospital. But instead I went to Brown University and graduated first in my class.
I have one serious issue here. Why did the entire family ( and I mean everybody) go to therapy? The mother (played by Eileen Brennan) could have played a pivatol role here and made everyone go. I felt desperately sorry for her character to be that torn between my husband and my son. However she should have taken much stronger action than she did. Having a strict father and a loving but ineffectual mother contributed to the tragedy. And don't even start me on Richie's 'friends'. Believe me no one needs friends like this.
I've considered writing a book in the future based on this tragedy but there's a third child in the family who goes off to Brown University, then to Cornell to vet school and becomes Providence, Rhode Island's most beloved veterinarian. The book would be written in first person and her first comment is ' When I was thirteen my family was destroyed by a horrible tragedy. I should be in a mental hospital. But instead I went to Brown University and graduated first in my class.