{"id":14850,"date":"2016-12-04T17:55:17","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T22:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=14850"},"modified":"2016-12-04T17:55:17","modified_gmt":"2016-12-04T22:55:17","slug":"dvd-breezy-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=14850","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Breezy (1973)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Breezy\"Film<\/strong>:\u00a0Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Very Good<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>:\u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Universal<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a01 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0June 1, 2004<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Drama \/ Romance<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A May-October\u00a0romance in which\u00a0a fiftysomething realtor begins an unlikely relationship with a barely twentysomething flower child.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0(none)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In what may be one of Clint Eastwood\u2019s oddest directorial choices, Breezy<\/strong> feels like an attempt to bridge the generation gap between flower children and grumpypantsters by going for extremes in this early January \/ early December romance in which high school graduate Breezy (Kay Lenz) falls for a presumably late forties \/ early fifties realtor (William Holden) in Laurel Canyon, California.<\/p>\n

The set-up isn\u2019t implausible \u2013 after dodging a would-be rapist, hitchhiker \/ free spirit \/ amateur guitarist Breezy finds safety in the passenger seat of less creepy Frank Hampton, and spins whatever waifish lie she can to spend the night in his warm & cozy canyon house \u2013 but the climax of the emerging romance does bring pint-sized Breezy with statuesque Frank together in a dimly lit bedroom.<\/p>\n

Eastwood has cinematographer Frank Stanley keep the lighting low and moody, which somewhat muffles the physical extremes of the actors, and greater screen time is spent building up the tolerance of each other\u2019s quirks, plus music montages in which the pair wander along boardwalks, beachfronts, and cliffs where the ocean crashes against the rocks \u2013 sequences that are more than reminiscent of Eastwood\u2019s Play Misty for Me<\/a> <\/strong>(1971).<\/p>\n

\"Breezy_poster\"

U.S. poster campaign, emphasizing macho Clint Eastwood to counteract the hard-to-pin-done tone of this romance-drama.<\/p><\/div>\n

The disparate age gap (Lenz was 20, while Holden was 55) is omnipresent but it\u2019s often conveyed through Frank\u2019s quiet inner conflict, as he simply doesn\u2019t know where their relationship should go, let along whether it ought to progress.<\/p>\n

Holden plays Frank as a friend than father figure, and Lenz completely sells her character\u2019s ing\u00e9nue design and flakiness by never being too flighty nor operatically dramatic; even when buckets of tears flow, her reactions are played out to show the pair\u2019s emotional disparity rather than portray Breezy as a needy brat.<\/p>\n

Frank\u2019s always in a state of flux that\u2019s brought on by increasingly awkward encounters\u00a0with contemporaries, such as the close friends who see him with Breezy one night at the movies (where the pair catch Eastwood\u2019s just-released High Plains Drifter<\/strong>); envious tennis buddy Bob Henderson (oily Roger Carmel); ex-girlfriend Betty Tobin (Marj Dusay) who tells him point blank she waited for him until a nicer guy and marriage proved too rewarding; and Paula (Joan Hotchkis), an obvious caricature of a vile, money-grubbing ex-wife who exists purely to bleed Frank dry financially and emotionally.<\/p>\n

\"Breezy_poster_Ital\"

Alternate European poster that’s more impressionistic and more successful than the U.S. campaign.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jo Heims\u2019 script is also much smarter than expected, using Frank\u2019s friendships, former loves, and professional associations as stressors that push him into various states of doubt. When he does gain confidence to give a relationship with Breezy a try, it\u2019s almost killed by an icy chat in a sauna with Bob, who drops the term \u201cchild molester\u201d in a half-jokey rumination. (That scene also has an unintentional parallel with Neil LaBute\u2019s unsettling 1998 film Your Friends and Neighbours<\/strong>, in which the male buddies sweltering in a sauna quietly feel nauseous as creepy Cary gloats about his attraction to younger fodder.)<\/p>\n

END SPOILER<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Heims and Eastwood ostensibly built a story about a central character filled with ongoing uncertainty with his life, and his inability to commit to a full Yes or No does provides some mystery to the film\u2019s finale. To some extent, it\u2019s unexpected: Frank heads to a park and watches Breezy interact with her contemporary friends, and using a dog they shared as a trigger, lures her to a tree where he blurts \u201cI don\u2019t know\u2026 If we\u2019re lucky, we might last a year,\u201d after which they walk off as a couple.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it\u2019s the best kind of agreement he can make. He led Betty on for too long before he broke their relationship by remaining indifferent and wholly non-committal; and in the\u00a0break-up argument with Breezy, his genuinely earnest explanation isn\u2019t profane\u00a0or involve tossing objects around, but shouting point blank \u201cI cannot cope with any of it,\u201d so it\u2019s consistent to Frank\u2019s sense of variable hope: partial, tinged with cynicism, but not exactly cruel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

END OF SPOILER ALERT<\/p>\n

Heims may keep Frank in a state of puzzlement and confusion, but he\u2019s never condescending to his young partner, and Breezy often takes analytical pokes at Frank\u2019s unspoken concerns by sounding neither brainy, pretentious, or utterly daft.<\/p>\n

Breezy<\/strong> has obvious sentimentality and cutesiness; the very nickname \u2018Breezy\u2019 screams flower piglet and airhead; and composer Michel Legrand frequently restarts his main theme to trace the progression of Breezy\u2019s infiltration into the life of a grumpy man who focuses more on closing deals and commissions than having any serious relationship. (A kind of orchestral-folk hybrid, the score is anchored to a theme song propelled by airy lyrics penned by Marilyn and Alan Bergman, and the vocal rendition featuring breathy Shelby Flint returns in a central music montage, and the End Credits.)<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s overall production values are first-rate yet modest, and it\u2019s a drama that\u2019s tightly cast with film and many character actors from TV (Star Trek <\/strong>fans will remember Carmel as the white slave \/ chauvinist pig in the episode\u00a0 \u201cI, Mudd\u201d), and features gorgeous locations, but in terms of interior design, the mid-scale homes sold by Frank ain\u2019t pretty, and his own house is wall-to-wall seventies wood paneling screaming for a gut-job and remodeling.<\/p>\n

Released as a bare bones DVD in 2004 by Universal with a hideously airbrushed cover, Blu-rays reportedly exist in Europe, and it\u2019s a pity this odd directorial stepping stone wasn\u2019t given even an afterthought making-of featurette with some words by Lenz, a fine actress who achieved a career high playing tough prosecutor Maggie Zombro in the underrated series Reasonable Doubts <\/strong>(1991-1993).<\/p>\n

Amid some creative disappointments, Holden would deliver a few solid performances in Network<\/strong> (1976), the odd and underrated The Earthling<\/strong> (1980), and his final film, \u00a0S.O.B.<\/strong> (1981).<\/p>\n

Screenwriter Heims reportedly did some uncredited work on Dirty Harry<\/strong> (1971), but Play Misty for Me<\/strong> (1971) provided Eastwood with solid dramatic and thriller material for his directorial debut and a genre classic. Heims’\u00a0other handful of feature film credits include the occult thriller The Devil\u2019s Hand <\/strong>(1961), the romance Tell Me in the Sunlight<\/strong> (1965), Elvis\u2019 Double Trouble<\/strong> (1967), the teenage romantic comedy The First Time<\/strong> (1969), and the horror film You\u2019ll Like My Mother<\/strong> (1972).<\/p>\n

Breezy<\/strong> was shot between the allegorical nihilistic western High Plains Drifter<\/strong> (1973) and the globe-trotting mountain climbing espionage thriller\u00a0The Eiger Sanction<\/strong> (1975), and signals\u00a0an ongoing directorial pattern in which a commercial, dramatically dissonant, or large scale production is followed by a small character-based film where Eastwood would explore deeper relationships and wounded psychologies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2016 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a>\u00a0— Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In what may be one of Clint Eastwood\u2019s oddest directorial choices, Breezy feels like an attempt to bridge the generation gap between flower children and grumpypantsters by going for extremes in this early January \/ early December romance in which high school graduate Breezy falls for a presumably late forties \/ early fifties realtor in Laurel Canyon, California…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[4815,1321,4816,4817,668,1116],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3Rw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14850"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14870,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14850\/revisions\/14870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}