I have just finished watching this film for the first time. I was wondering if this film drew any major controversy when it came out? I know the idea of a love story betweeen a 13 year old girl and a man in his thirties wouldn't go over very well in 2007 so how did it go over in 1979?
Well, the 13 year-old was Brooke Shields and she had already caused much controversy when she was a 12 year-old marrying Keith Carradine's character (I think) in Pretty Baby. Maybe that's why she was cast as Wanda Nevada? And what about the Bitterstix character? That was just gross! And then there was Strap, right? Definitely more than one older man was interested in the girl .... but it is still a favorite because it was a fun adventure all the same. Loved the Apache ghost.
Be kind, live well and laugh often.
So there is someone else out there! I couldn't believe mine was the only post for this film.
I saw Pretty Baby about a year ago and I do remember the flack about that particuliar film so perhaps you're correct when you said that is why Brooke was chosen to play Wanda.
Yep, more than one older guy found Wanda sexually attractive, and maybe that's why I didn't seem to mind Fonda's character falling in love with her; because he was more or less a protector and the love he developed for Wanda was just that, love and not lust. He never tried to abuse her or take advantage of her.
It's kind of funny but as bad as this film was as far as acting and screenplay went, there is something about this film that I really liked. I think perhaps because it was upbeat and had a happy ending.
I watched it on HBO (or one of the movie channels) recently and was curious about some of the cast members, so that why I was "out there" too and replied. But I think I've probably watched it four or five times maybe more in the past and really don't know why! Like you say, there's just something about the film I like. It's kinda sweet and campy and happy.
Be kind, live well and laugh often.
Agreed. I watched it on VHS last Sunday and as bad as it was do you know what I did on Monday? I watched it a second time!
shareThis movie was pretty creepy with all those older guys hitting on her. She clearly looks early teen and they still all hiting on her. The Blue Lagoon was her next movie, so I guess she decided to push the envelope even further.
shareIn retrospect, we can wonder how this film got a PG rating, with it's under-lying subject of Man-child love (Brooke was 14, but the character in the film clamed to be 13 and a half). It is, indeed, considered a fantasy, while many people are put at ease by the Peter Fonda bad guy with a heart of gold (forgive the pun) character. But, if anyone old enough to remember back to that time, the '70's was a very experimental time for the movies. Louis Malle had already filmed 12 year old Brooke full frontal nude in Pretty Baby. And, of course, her next film, Blue Lagoon, was a controversial (and exploitive) teenage sexual fantasy that put her on the map. In all this, one must remember who her manager was at the time, her mother. When she was six, I remember Brooke appearing in ads wearing lipstick and make-up and that caused an uproar. Now we have (and post Jon-Benet) little beauty queen contests from here to Texas where 3 year olds are modelling bathing suits. It's funny how times have changed, and yet remain the same.
shareI disagree BobbySimone..Brooke had on makeup and was beautiful so any man in a drunken stupor would mistake her for 16 at least. Happens all the time in this day and is shown in many movies. I have a 13 yr old niece who men look at all the time and they aren't drunk. Brooke played the part of a 14 yr old very well, if you know 14 yr old girls...and I have a girl that was that age once. They think they are all grown up and sexy...lol. No envelope pushing here, nor anything dirty happening either..unlike many movies of today. We were quite open minded back then, not looking for something in everything..we accepted things as they appeared without looking for hidden meaning and pedophilia everywhere. That went on in families mostly and kept very hidden back then.
There was no controversy over this that I can recall back then. There was no "romance" between the two characters. Peter's character feels more like an older brother to her but knows that if she were older he would probably want to be with her, that's call.
Whomever wrote the storyline for this should never have called this a "romance" story. Love yes but in a big brotherly way and that was how it was looked at back in the time it was released. I was a young woman and loved Peter Fonda so saw many of his movies at that time. I just watched it again on a new channel called Retroplex which shows movies from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Some great older movies that I always loved, but that people today think are bad due to judging them by currect filming standards. This was more of a comedy than anything else with some drama thrown in. A bit like "True Grit".
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I am older than your mom Al_ice and don't mind it at all. Growing older has a lot of benefits.
As I tried to say, we didn't have media over kill on everyhing that makes it seem as if pedophelia is everywhere..the statistics have not changed much on that at all and we are reporting many more cases now than then. It is people that are changing trying to find something dirty in everything now. Look at True Grit..another example of a young girl with an older man. Back then Elvis Presley had Priscilla living with him at a very young age with a chaperone there.
People live in sheer fear of everything these days..it is just awful. It is the media that goes non stop and bloggers who pick up news stories and make it to be even bigger...we are bombarded with stuff. Child abductions are still the same amount as they were. the Internet has made it more easy for chid porn to be passed around...so I will take growing up in the 50's any day to what is happening now. We were not afraid of much back then...and not as many copycat things going on.
Well, that is very disturbing. There is nothing normal about an adult man being attracted to a 13 year old...any man who finds himself in that state should do society a favor and blow their brains out. Lipstick doesn't make a child look like a woman.
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The question is, what happened between Peter and Brooke after they drove off into the sunset?
"Well, how was it?".
"Degrading, humiliating, emasculating... and somewhat enjoyable".
I don't think there is any doubt that the two characters are going to become lovers.
shareI was flipping through the listings and this just popped up, so I watched it. What a bizarre (but funny) film!
I figured that Wanda would spend the film trying to sort out about how she felt about Fonda's character - boyfriend vs. father figure - and come to the conclusion that he could only be a surrogate big brother. I was shocked when he's the one who changes his mind and decides she is girlfriend material and they drive off into the sunset together!
It's like Humbert and Lolita heading off on their roadtrip and everybody is okay about it!
I got to wonder if this wasn't originally written with an older actress (perhaps 17 or 18 years of age) in mind, but they just altered it a bit for Brooke when she proved to be a rising star.
People today blow everything up and think the worst. Some men do not believe in sex with teenagers and I saw them more as big brother and little sister and so did people of that time period when it wasn't released. We didn't jump to the conclusion that everyone likes little girls. We can thank the media today for fear mongering.
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all i remember is that people were asking for there money back from the drive-ins after seeing this movie
shareI just saw the movie again today. I suppose the youthfulness of Brooke Shield's character would be an issue today because a modern movie would make it so: there'd be more overt menace, more sexuality, more graphic violence and intensity. However, this movie was not a rough, gritty "realistic" depiction, the violence was mild, the sexuality virtually nonexistent (less than an Disney Family Channel TV presentation) - just more innocent. I didn't feel it exploitative of Shield's youth or looks.
shareNot where I lived, lurched thing. Maybe you lived in a Bible belt state.
shareIt probably depends on where it played. I know three women in Ohio who were married at age 13. Two were raised in the country in very religious familys and got married around 1940, and the third lived in a small city and got married in the mid-1960s. Their families all were in favor of the marriages, and none of the brides were pregnant. Loretta Lynn was 13 (see Coal Miner's Daughter) and Jerry Lee Lewis's cousin-bride was 13. Edgar Allen Poe's was, too. I don't recall any controversy about this film, but Pretty Baby was extremely controversial in the same neighborhood. Go figure.
~If you go through enough doors, sooner or later you're gonna find a dog on the other side.~
I can't recall if the film itself was controversial but indeed, as posted before me; controversy surrounded the young miss Shields...even more so, her mothers choices for Brooke as her manager. For some reason, I want to say the world was still reeling with Brooke's nudity from the previous movie (and probably preparing for her next movie) (The Blue Lagoon) to critique this one too much?
P.S. Big Bad Momma from 1974 comes to mind, too.
Since the movie garnered only around 2 mln dlrs at the US box office (compared to 6 for Pretty Baby from the year before and 60 for Blue Lagoon from the year after), this was either a flop or a limited release or both. In any case, it was a low-profile, not aggresively promoted, not much publicized movie. Why, I am not sure. Perhaps the distributors shied away from the content, perhaps they simply thought it was not good enough, perhaps both.
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I realize the movie is supposed to be a "modern" Gold Rush story, set in the 1950s. But even then, it was not typical for women to wait until 20s or even 30s to get married and have children. And at the time of the ORIGINAL Gold Rush - and earlier, when many people didn't live to REACH 30 or 40 or 50 - marriages often took place in early teens.
A friend of mine who had been very obstinate on the subject, maybe because he and his wife have a 2-year-old daughter now, mentioned to me some favorite BBQ restaurant chain in Texas that he liked to order special sauce from. I looked up the company's web site and under the founding history section, it mentioned how the original owner had come to Texas from some other state in the early 1900s, meeting his wife along the way. Who was I think 12 or 13. My friend hasn't mentioned the subject since.
I'm disappointed to read that people think pointing out a few examples of successful couplings of older men with young teens makes it acceptable. Or saying that because 13 year-olds have sex these days that it's okay to depict it as desirable. Although there are exceptions, the usual outcomes in the long run from pairings when the power balance is so off are not very satisfying for the either partner when she or he matures. In fact, the younger person's maturity can often be stunted, and it's often not very good for the older person, either. When that maturity happens, the result is often dissolution of the partnership with a lot of pain on both sides. Human sex drive/attraction is only part of the picture.
I'm not surprised that men are attracted to much younger women. It is a biological drive for males to desire females that look like healthy procreators, but it has been found wanting as a way to develop happy, longterm relationships. Most modern cultures that demand a lot more time before people can successfully enter the adult culture and support themselves don't promote such partnerships. Being able to support yourself is very important to the power balance, unfortunate circumstances notwithstanding.
I wish I could say I thought the ending implied a brotherly or platonic relationship, but most women I know never sit as close to or as lovingly by their brothers when they're driving as the two of them were at the end of the film.
But Hollywood isn't known for promoting smart human relationships. I thought more of Peter Fonda, but maybe he was just trying to take advantage of the momentum of the time.
Trying to apply modern ideas of "proper" and "acceptable" to 100-200-300 or more years ago is a fool's game to begin with.
And biologically speaking, ALL animals - including people - are more driven by the need to be protected from predators and other trials of life, than whatever modern fad of "acceptable social behavior" and "power balance" and what-not may try to dictate.
Looking back from here, from what amounts to a civilizational ivory tower, it may be easy for some people to figure that females of the past were all victims and the males were all creepy pedophiles, "heh heh heh, get 'em while they're young!" But the reality would be that it was get 'em while they're still ALIVE, and before some other "competitor" comes along with a better offer.
To put it another way, the idea of some arbitrary point of "maturity" was something that, in the past, neither males NOR females had the luxury of waiting for.