Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), directed by Paul Mazursky.
I remember the ads for this but never saw it before. I must be old enough now. I was expecting some sort of sex farce but it is better, more satirical than I expected. A great acting ensemble.
A couple attend a weeklong group therapy retreat that changes their lives. Being totally honest and uninhibited about feelings becomes their religion and they evangelize it to their friends; jarringly the opening scenes are done to selections from Handel's Messiah: the Hallelujah Chorus and "I Know My Redeemer Liveth".
Jealousy and monogamy are supposed to banished, which causes some distress to their best friends. I would have expected Robert Culp and Natalie Wood to be the more conventional couple, but no: Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon are the squares trying to adjust to the new free love faith.
In fact it is an odd time for all of them. Presuming they are the same ages as their characters, each of the actors was born in the 1930s and are too young to be the Greatest Generation that worked in the Depression and fought WW2, but they are too old to be boomers. The culture quakes of the 1960s hit when they are already married, already semi-adults. In the end, after the supposed orgy scene shown on the posters (it never gets going) they revert to their natural squareness and it is right for them.
Our players:
Natalie Wood (West Side Story (1961)) is the bona fide movie star of the cast, just luminously beautiful. She is only 30 here and I think of her as older, perhaps because she was acting as a child star in the classic era. She mostly retired in the 1970s to have a family, otherwise she might be better remembered as an actress. She brings a self-consciousness to the role -- perhaps her own feelings about the part -- which is a great reading of someone trying to be "with it", trying too hard.
Dyan Cannon (The Anderson Tapes (1971)) has a fiercely erotic persona but plays the most conservative character, her self-image at war with hidden desires and changing times.
Robert Culp (Hannie Caulder (1971)) had a big TV career. He's the showman of the group, the one always acting a part. He can't wait to get home and boast to his wife of having an affair, which she accepts. His response when she turns the tables on him is priceless.
Elliott Gould (The Long Goodbye (1973)) is an average guy, most closely representing men in the audience: horny but loyal to his wife, confused, tempted. I don't quite believe his confession of also having an affair; I wonder if he was just trying to keep up with this best friend.
The week-long retreat is supposed to be the Esalen Institute, which I know only from satires about it. The Human Potential Movement probably helped some people but the whole touchy-feely let-it-all-hang-out irritations wore out their welcome decades ago.
At the start when asked "Why are you here?" one woman replied "I want better orgasms", which was probably the most sensible thing heard that day.
Brief score by Quincy Jones. Photographed by the great Charles Lang, who filmed Natalie Wood in three other movies, including The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) when she was 9.
Available on Blu-ray from Twilight Time with two commentary tracks:
Regulars Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo, both very excited about the title. I have never paid much attention to Paul Mazursky but they take him very seriously. This was his first movie.
A happy conversation with Mazursky, Culp, Cannon and Gould as they watch the film.
