A film that shows Baxter's acting ability;
I thought that this film was great, in that Baxter portrayed Broderick as a Unstable lunatic. She may have people think the real Broderick was a "victim", but I believe Betty was only cold-hearted and criminal,in her intentions. If You get divorced,you move on with your Life(that is how Normal people go).
Very well said. Thank you. I am so tired of Betty supporters I could get sick.
shareAfter watching this movie once again last nite, (Pt. II airs tonite at 7:00 on Lifetime), I do very much agree Meredith Baxter's performance was great. She was so believable and convincing, but unfortunately with the way her role was portrayed I could not find much, if any sympathy for Betty.
Betty Broderick was spoiled, obsessive, and very selfish in this situation. Her husband was no angel, of course, but I can see after watching this portrayed on TV, and if it is anywhere near the truth, she does deserve to be in prison now for those killings.
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It's called narcissistic personality disorder. During the trial they said there were 9 behaviors that indicated that you had it, and if you had 5 you probably had it. When asked how many Betty had, I think the psychiatrist said "nine". I wish we were taught about this stuff in school. Normal people are turned off by people like this, others are attracted to them, for some reason. Dan paid the price for not following his normal intuition (my guess). You can be too nice.
shareIn the second movie, during her second trial - one indicator of how removed she believed herself to be leaped out - she sat there calmly filing her nails with a look of boredom on her face. The jury had to have been disgusted by that -
she was just in her own little world.
"...truth against the world..." - attributed to Boudicca of the Iceni
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Meredith Baxter was just brilliant in this film and should have won an Emmy for her work. I agree with your assessment of the character she played as well. Betty definitely should have just learned how to move on with her life...she invented a lot of the misery she put herself through by not accepting reality and the fact that her husband wanted to move on.
shareYes, Meredith was outstanding in this role as Betty. She was always best known as Elyse Keaton on Family Ties. But she really made herself older here and captured the emotions and craziness of Betty. Thus it became one of the best TV movies ever (and I believe one of the highest rated).
shareMeredith Baxter was fantastic as Betty Broderick.
shareWhile most murder I certainly don't condone, (Come on...why can't we pull the plug on Manson, already?) the fictionalized account, I do consider a guilty pleasure. I think there are many women who were on the 'table for one' end of an affair whose emotional wish to wreak havoc on the man who cheated on them is served in watching the 'based on a true story' sensationalism 'Woman Scorned' brings.
Having read many articles about this story, and realizing that any rational person would have opted not to shoot their husband and his trophy wife trade in, I confess I enjoy the fictionalized version of this as a 'Man, would I have loved to do that!' kinda thing. When I found out my husband cheated, I certainly wanted him to 1.) die, 2.)catch a nasty case of something from his girlfriend, 3.) get some seriously nasty hangnails and case of jock itch, and 4.)get served a spit burger from some disgrunteled teen at a late night fast food run after one of their romps.
While the emotional side wanted those things and more to happen to him, I realized that the law is the law, and subsequently allowed the courts to do their thing, and hoped kharma would end up taking care of the rest. I recognize in reality one shouldn't do those things, it certainly doesn't mean I don't enjoy every bit of Meredith Baxter scene chewing loveliness as she torments the ex and his 'dog meat.'
I've commented on a couple of threads about Baxter's brilliant performance. In the first movie she played Betty a bit more sympathetically, but in the second one, she plays her differently.
The scene after the St. Patrick's Day party is excellent. In the commentary on the special features on the DVD, the director states that Baxter more or less ad-libbed what she did in that scene - looking at the fine lines and wrinkles, seeing if she needed a face lift, looking at her kind of lifeless hair which needs a touchup and then turning in her vanity chair and staring at her sleeping husband. You can see the wheels turning in her mind and she kind of realizes that she could lose her husband.
"...truth against the world..." - attributed to Boudicca of the Iceni
just saw this for the first time...absolutely great acting by meridith and stephen. i wanted to kill her myself sometimes for being such a lunatic and crazy. she definitely didn't leave any sympathy for her character whatsoever.
i never got the impression from the movie that the affair started b4 the divorce proceedings and i'm not sure how close to the facts this movie was as it clearly wasn't in betty's. only her friends would know for sure her actions. great movie but i really had an issue w/a 19 yr old who is actually 25 meaning linda. as soon as i saw her, it irritated me throughout the whole movie. perhaps if they would have left that out of the movie, it would have been better.
You DO know that the film was purely Dan's relatives' version of the story, right? Betty wrote to Baxter (who was very good, if not exactly accurate), but Baxter didn't reply. I guess she didn't want to be confused. The entire film was only one side of the story. The Kolkenas didn't participate, but I bet that the Brodericks got something for their cooperation in the film.
"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"
Just caught part of this again tonight and, as always, was mesmerized by Meredith Baxter's performance. She makes fascinating acting choices, never playing scenes in a conventional way, and as a result, she creates a complex portrait of Betty Broderick that has you rooting for and against her. Superb!
shareI've seen this film numerous times and Baxter was superb in her portrayal. I just googled to see if she had won any awards for it and she was nominated for an Emmy for this role in 1992 but lost out to Gena Rowlands. Other contenders were Laura Dern, Ann Bancroft, can't remember the other.
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