A Camp Classic

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by johnyzero_2000 » Tue Aug 22 2006 11:23:09 Flag ▼ | Reply |
IMDb member since December 2004
Post Edited: Fri Sep 22 2006 06:35:31
Sorry but this picture hasn't aged well and the performances come off as VERY campy and theatrical. But The Turning Point is still an entertaining piece of work and I watch it whenever it is on TV. Good dancing, costumes, music and art direction give it an extra push and the soap opera storyline make it interesting. After watching this I no longer had any respect for ballet dancers because this movie portrays them as evil and rotten to the core and the snobbery is difficult for anyone to stomach. How the hell did Leslie Browne and Mikhail Baryshnikov get oscar nominations? Their performances were ok but nothing earth shattering I guess it was a weak year in 1977 in the supporting category. Another thing I want to point out is how come we never see Anne Bancroft dancing? She's supposed to be this great ballerina but we never see her in action. Did anyone want to smash Martha Scott's character's face in? Always I look forward to the catfight scene that is right up there with Valley of the Dolls wig yanking scene guaranteed to have your sides aching from laughing too hard.

I disliked the movie. It seemed like it was going to get better, but it just fell flat.

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I respectfully disagree with the OP. It's not "camp" by the longest stretch (that'd be something like "Valley of the Dolls"); I think it's maybe easy to draw that conclusion because movies from the '70s suffer from looking so dated, the late '70s in particular, because the clothes and hairstyles are all so specific (and let's face it, horrible) to that time. So when you see Shirley MacLaine wearing pantyhose at the beginning, and several more pair hanging over the shower curtain rod, or Tom Skerrit's character wearing a leisure suit, it looks anachronistic and tacky (sort of Brady Bunch-ish?), whereas for many movies, for many decades, you might have a hard time knowing what period of the 20th century they're set in.

Apart from that, though, the basic story holds up—the stories of two paths taken and the regrets and what-ifs the characters have now that they're middle-aged. MacLaine and Bancroft both turn in wonderful performances, though I am partial to Bancroft, who is so lovely, understated, refined, and elegant in this. It is odd that we never see her character dancing, only a couple of tiny snippets of rehearsal and a brief bit of a performance of Anna Karenina where she's not actually dancing.

I'd say the foreshadowing, if that's the right word, is a little heavy-handed at the beginning, when the ballet company has come to OK and there's a party at Dee Dee's house. Not having seen her old friend Emma for seemingly years, right off the bat, as they talk on the porch alone, she starts sniping. When she says to Emma, "You picked your life" and Emma responds, "As did you" (or something pretty close to that), Dee Dee says, "Not really. You didn't let me." It sort of moves past that quickly, but I was surprised I didn't remember that scene. As I say, it seems to lay some groundwork that's really not needed.

Anyway, it's almost 40 years old. The late-'70s styles date it, but the basic elements—the story and the characters—hold up well. And there is some beautiful dancing in it.

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It's corny throughout, and the ridiculous catfight near the end is embarrassing, but it's worth it for the dancing. The advantage of DVD or BluRay is that you can fast-forward through the silly story and just watch the dance parts.

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