On Golden Pond

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botankus
Before I typed the words On, Golden, and Pond into the search function, I would have bet the farm that there would be no matches...and I would have been a wealthy man, too.

This movie from 1981 was adapted from a play of the same name. What happened is that Jane Fonda received the advice from an usher at an event to check out this play on Broadway. She did, and immediately bought the movie rights. The only problem was who to get with it.

Katherine Hepburn was interested, but the hard part was getting Jane's father, Henry Fonda. Her and her father never had the greatest of relationships through the years (as did anyone except for Ted Turner with Jane), and she wanted to finally do a film with her father before his health took a major downward spiral. Ironically enough, part of the film focuses on Henry and Jane's character's difficult relationship as father and daughter, so much of the emotion and feeling is real life.

Henry Fonda had never won an Oscar to that point, and Hepburn and Fonda had won 3 and 2, respectively. Turns out Henry and Katherine each got the Acting Oscars for On Golden Pond, while Jane (who's really not in it much) was snubbed.

Henry Fonda's character (Norman) is far more intriguing and just flat-out humorous than Hepburn's character (Ethel). Henry does an excellent job of acting and was very well-deserving of any accolades he received as a result of this role. I thought Hepburn's character was forced and over-dramatic. Also, I heard that she started out as somewhat of a b*** when she first arrived on the set. Her being the legend and all. Nevermind the fact that Henry and Jane had put in 7 decades of film work between them.

I realize I told nothing about the movie except for the relationship between father and daughter - there's also a fiesty kid and Jane Fonda's boyfriend, that's about it for characters - but the story behind the story is what's really worth learning about. It makes the movie that much better.

MildPossession
Anything with Jane Fonda in is something I will watch and have probably seen most of her films. And then in the same film you have Hepburn! well what's not to like about this film, it's just wonderful.

This was on television yesterday here in England, and silly me forgot it was on! but yes, excellent film.

If you know the history behind JAne and Henrys relationship then the film is all the more interesting to watch.

botankus
MildPossession, I can always count on you to respond to these late '70's and early '80's drama threads. Thank you for existing! If it weren't for you, my threads would disappear onto page 2 with nary a single reply.

jaden101
was this on the tv yesterday?...in the UK...

amity75
I don't want to lose man points for admitting this but On Golden Pond is one of my favourite films and probably the only film I've ever cried at.

MildPossession
Yes Jaden, well yesterday or the day before. Think it was on Channel 4 at 2.50pm.

bakerboy
Great movie. Fonda and Herburn were absolutely wonderful, great, masterpiece performances. And that was the first time on work together for both of them. Jane fonda was good too, for that time, the relation between Henry Fonda and his daughter Jane was bad, but if you watch the final huge between them, you see in Jane's eyes that this huge meaned much more than acting, that huge was some kind of a restart of their relationship. The bad thing was that Henry Fonda died a few months after the shooting of the movie. But great movie.

MildPossession
The part where Henry and Jane are talking and she goes to touch his leg and he starts to cry is one of the most touching scenes in the film, she didn't tell him she was going to touch his knee like that for comfort. It must have brought up some strong emotions.

botankus
Yeah, the scene between Jane and Henry is very deep, but there's one line that's said before they get into the heavy stuff that I thought was hilarious.

Jane is making an effort to make up for lost time and make things right and all Henry Fonda can say is, "You got here just in the nick of time, did ya? You trying to get in the will?"

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