Katherine and I are watching the Academy Award-winning movies in chronological order beginning in 1969. Yesterday evening, we watched Ordinary People (1980). I remember people talking about this movie when it came out, but until yesterday I had never seen it. In my humble opinion, the acting was superb. Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton, and Judd Hirsch gave excellent performances. Sometimes I wonder how many takes it took to get a scene just right, because they appear to be perfect, right down to the facial expressions. Hutton in particular was terrific as the son. I haven't heard much about him in the past 31 years. Have you seen him in any other movies? I know that he comes from an acting family, because I remember seeing his father, Jim Hutton, in a movie with John Wayne.
What's amazing about this movie is that it succeeds without (1) car chases, (2) special effects, (3) explosions, (4) superheroes, (5) majestic landscapes, and (6) pixelization. It's a simple human drama of the sort the Greeks would recognize, with well-developed characters, interesting dialogue, and great acting. If you've seen this movie, I'd be interested in your take on it. From the beginning, I thought that the son was the normal one and the parents the abnormal ones.
