MovieChat Forums > Foxes (1980) Discussion > Small problems with FOXES

Small problems with FOXES


First off: this is one of my top 3 movies of all time; saw it when it came out. I just have seen it so many times, the little things bug me. Please don't bother with "I love this movie so who cares about the bad parts" 'cause I'm way ahead of you !

1) Jodie Foster saying things like "c'mon, shake yer booty" and wearing a T-shirt saying "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" - did someone mistake this for 1975 ?

2) Hollywood Boulevard - scary & bozo no-no. No indeed ! A decked out pump with his ladies in broad daylight - sorry, that's a chapter from Get Christie Love, circa 1973. I have lived in Hollywood since '82, all you see are tourists and Latino locals, and it probably wasn't that different then. No "cool" local high school kid would be caught dead here ! Not even Mary Wierdo !

3) The Angel concert - Angel, an above average hard rock band, never sounded that way on record (The song "20th century foxes" is a wierd, atypical disco-rock hybrid solely worked out for the soundtrack). They show the crowd going crazy for it, but the song would have roundly booed even in 1980 ! Too typical of filmmakers not quite in touch with current scene.

4) Every one is patted down by Security for the concert but Scott Baoi walks in with his skateboard unmolested ?

5) Every time I see "Loser" I keep thinking it's Robert Hays (ok, personal problem, but when you think of Hays marrying Currie in real life...)

6) At the fancy dinner party they're all getting high. So why are they all put out when Annie gets too into it, or even aware of it ?

7) Scott Baoi was able to push a guy into a window ?? Big loud dramatic scene, with a small crowd gaping, but no one had the cops on their tail ?

8) Annie's hospital scene - yes, they always allow family and close friends to gape into the operating room.

If I'm mistaken on some of these feel free to let me know ! I still love this movie.

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Okay, the movie was FILMED in 1979, so disco was still "in."

1. Shake Your Booty was still being used, and shirts with sayings were still hot.

2. Can't comment on Hollywood Boulevard since I'm from New York.

3. True about Angel. They were sort of billed as the "angelic" version of Kiss -- all in white and whatnot. That song was not representative of their style. It was sort of a last-gasp effort to give them a hit before they got dropped by Casablanca, I suppose.

4. I guess they didn't pat down Scott Baio because he looked like he was 12.

5. I'll have to go back and see if that guy looks like Hays, but I don't recall the resemblance.

6. Yes, they were all high but aware of themselves and not acting out of hand. Annie, on the other hand, was (at least to Jodie's character) going overboard.

7. I'll give you that. Remember, it's a movie.

8. Ditto.

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Remember, it's a movie. I HATE WHEN PEOPLE SAY THIS !!

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LOL! Never noticed those problems. Still a great flick. You know what Annie would say to anyone who didn't like it? "Shine you!"

We'll see who's the filthiest person alive! We'll just see!

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Hey, it's one of my top five movies. It's just that I have seen it so much that I notice certain things more, esp. when I am watching it with other people. (And Annie's huge expensive headstone ? C'mon !)

Trust me, I love this movie and if it was just a dumb teen flick I wouldn't care. It is realistic in so many other ways I can't get enough of it. Jodie said she felt this was one of her best acting jobs - and it was !


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Those were all enough reasons for me to really not like this movie. It was so cheesey. I was grinding my teeth the entire time. The only thing worse than being embarassed is being embarassed for someone else. Thats how this movie made me feel, embarassed for everyone involved.

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I didn't like the fact that all those losers were able to take over the party like that. True, it did and still often happens at these types of parties, but they trashed that poor guy's house; what f---ing a--holes. I was hoping Annie would have been smacked in the face, but I suppose her fate was dramatic enough. Good coming of age movie, great performances by all.

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Remember...it's only a discussion board.

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1) Jodie Foster saying things like "c'mon, shake yer booty" and wearing a T-shirt saying "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" - did someone mistake this for 1975 ?
Don't remember her saying, "Shake your booty" but a lot of people wore silly t-shirts in the 70's and 80's.

2) Hollywood Boulevard - scary & bozo no-no. No indeed ! A decked out pump with his ladies in broad daylight - sorry, that's a chapter from Get Christie Love, circa 1973. I have lived in Hollywood since '82, all you see are tourists and Latino locals, and it probably wasn't that different then. No "cool" local high school kid would be caught dead here ! Not even Mary Wierdo !
Don't know L.A. No comment.

3) The Angel concert - Angel, an above average hard rock band, never sounded that way on record (The song "20th century foxes" is a wierd, atypical disco-rock hybrid solely worked out for the soundtrack). They show the crowd going crazy for it, but the song would have roundly booed even in 1980 ! Too typical of filmmakers not quite in touch with current scene.
Wasn't too familiar with Angel at the tiime, but I liked the song "Foxes". Then again I liked Disco.

4) Every one is patted down by Security for the concert but Scott Baoi walks in with his skateboard unmolested ?
Probably a stretch, but skateboarders might have other opinions.

5) Every time I see "Loser" I keep thinking it's Robert Hays (ok, personal problem, but when you think of Hays marrying Currie in real life...)
I thought that was a funny scene.

6) At the fancy dinner party they're all getting high. So why are they all put out when Annie gets too into it, or even aware of it ?
Probably because she mentions Joni Mitchell over and over.

7) Scott Baoi was able to push a guy into a window ?? Big loud dramatic scene, with a small crowd gaping, but no one had the cops on their tail ?
Some cinematic license, but it was a cool moment.

8) Annie's hospital scene - yes, they always allow family and close friends to gape into the operating room.
Definitely for dramatic effect.

Overall you have to give the movie a little license, but that's true of a lot of films. I remember at the time this came out they promoted it almost like it was cheesy teen crap. A lot of the critics were pointing out that it was much better than they expected it to be.

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Jodie says "shake your booty" in the opening scene as a wake up to her friends...

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Re: #8, I did not get operating room from that, more like emergency room, less secure, more people milling around. The hospital crew looked like a combination of Interns and First Responders. I saw the movie for the first time on cable last night. I was way past being a teen in 1980. I still have chills. I thought being a teen in the 60's was tough, I clearly had no idea.

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Yep, ER curtain room, not operating room. :)

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I am also a huge fan of the movie, but yes - there are a few gaping holes. The ones I noticed:

1) Hollywood and Hollywood Boulevard in particular were (and still are) very busy places, and to think you could drive down and call out for someone and then just have them hear you is ridiculous.

2) Of all the remarks regarding Scott Baio's "pushing the villain through the glass scene", I've always found the scene of his heroic skateboarding in the canyon (just making it under the semi) much more unbelievable.

That said, this movie really DOES reflect SoCal in the late 70s/early 80s. If you were a kid then and in that area, you'd know.

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They were REAL doctors:
In the E! True Hollywood episode about Foxes, Adrian Lyne says that he told them to do whatever they would do to save a real patient.

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I love this movie, too.

I own it and watch it all the time.

You're right about all that stuff, but the main thing I agree with is that they would all not be in the hospital viewing her death. (But that scene made a big impact on me when I first saw this film as a young teen.)

At the fancy dinner party, what was pissing everyone off is that Annie was already WAY blotto and it's obvious that she is the one who told everyone that a party was taking place there...the whole disaster ensuing. She's with the guy who caused the fight at the party when Brad and Jeannie find her in Hollywood.

I have one thing to add to your "fake" list, that you didn't mention:

I thought it was totally fake that the guy Scott Baio knocked through the window would be able to locate them in the hills to the exact location and would stay there and watch even though the cops had shown up. That was TOTALLY fake. NO WAY would they pinpoint where to look for them after he went through a plate-glass window and had to RECOVER from that.

If they were from some population of 1000 people town where all teens go to the same place, MAYBE... but in LA, no way.

That was bull.

But it's still a great movie.

By the way, Sally Kellerman is a foot taller than Jodie Foster and Adam Faith. I ran into Jodie Foster at a Japanese restaurant in Hollywood and she's TINY. Adam Faith must also be tiny. Sally Kellerman looks like an Amazon compared to them both.

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This was a Casablanca film. Angel was on Casablanca Records. Angel was a great band, but Casablanca could never get them to quite catch on for some reason. Aside from Kiss, Casablanca's biggest act, Casablanca's success was all about disco--Donnna Summer, the Village People, etc. Even with Kiss, because Casablanca had such success with disco otherwise, they tried doing a disco tune in 1979--"I Was Made for Lovin' You". It became one of their more successful singles.

Casablanca decided to feature Angel in Foxes, and they decided to have them do a disco-ish tune for the soundtrack. It seemed like it should work. The hope was that it would finally give Angel the big hit they needed. It didn't, unfortunately. Angel never did another studio album for Casablanca. Casablanca eeked out a final live Angel album, which featured "20th Century Foxes", and then Angel split up. Regardless of how good their music was (for folks like me who like that sort of 70s hard rock/progressive rock hybrid), Casablanca, who by the early 80s was having general financial problems anyway (for a number of complex reasons--there's a good book about it if you're interested), couldn't afford to keep them on, and Angel couldn't afford to keep going with the same type of show they had been doing. They were losing money. Internal tension over all of that broke them up. They finally reformed with only a couple original members in the late 90s, by the way, and as of a couple years ago, at least, they were still doing club circuits.


http://www.rateyourmusic.com/~JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies

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Actually, Greg Guiffria of Angel (the keyboardist) went solo and had an MTV "hit" circa 1984 with "Call To The Heart". The name of his band was simply "Guiffria".

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8) It was the E/R, not the O/R. She died in the E/R. They had no time to get her to the O/R or to ICU or anywhere else. Yes, they try to keep people out, but are not always successful, especially when their main focus (as it should be) is on saving the rapidly failing life on the guerney.

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