Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Richard Brooks, 1977)

[Dylan]

Professor Wagstaff - I know that it has been broadcast a few times recently on HD channels in a remastered version.

[Lowry_Sam]

I would have much preferred this to Last Days Of Disco.

[domino harvey]

Coming to UHD/Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome

[MichaelB]

AnamorphicWidescreen, I'm just curious to know how you ended up watching this and if it's streaming anywhere for viewing. While you were watching it and stroszeck was purchasing the soundtrack, I found myself reading Judith Rossner's novel last week and would like to compare them both if I can. Thanks.

I no longer have access to the UK version of Paramount Plus, but I'm pretty sure it was streaming there when I did - which would have been the time when that post was made.

[Black Hat]

Did they clear the music rights for this and if so, how?

[captveg]

Did they clear the music rights for this and if so, how?

Apparently Paramount themselves were finally able to clear it, but that's not 100% confirmed as far as I can tell.

[beamish14]

Coming to UHD/Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome

Ugh, an essay from Marc Edward Heuck, one of the annoying quizmasters on Comedy Central’s Beat the Geeks who was even more insufferable in-person as the manager of the Landmark Nuart

[GaryC]

AnamorphicWidescreen, I'm just curious to know how you ended up watching this and if it's streaming anywhere for viewing. While you were watching it and stroszeck was purchasing the soundtrack, I found myself reading Judith Rossner's novel last week and would like to compare them both if I can. Thanks.

I no longer have access to the UK version of Paramount Plus, but I'm pretty sure it was streaming there when I did - which would have been the time when that post was made.

It currently is streaming on there.

[domino harvey]

Did they clear the music rights for this and if so, how?

Apparently Paramount themselves were finally able to clear it, but that's not 100% confirmed as far as I can tell.

VS’ recent email confirms all of the original songs are intact

[Alexander_Nevermind]

Did they clear the music rights for this and if so, how?

Apparently Paramount themselves were finally able to clear it, but that's not 100% confirmed as far as I can tell.

VS’ recent email confirms all of the original songs are intact

All of the songs are intact....except one, a version of "All of Me" sung by Sinatra that plays during the scene where Keaton goes to Weld's apartment and winds up watching a stag film with her friends has been replaced. This is now believed to be the hold-up for the film's release on any home video format past the 1997 VHS and not the disco/r&b hits that were heavily featured in the film.

[Matt]

I'm not a fan of videographic criticism in the first place, but it should be noted that the "Defining Autonomy: The Trial of Looking for Mr. Goodbar" visual essay by Brent Cowley on the VS release is literally just audio of him reading his essay over static section titles for 30 minutes. The movie, however, remains absolutely insane and looks fantastic on the UHD.

[j99]

On the subject of Looking For Mr. Goodbar, which I watched on Youtube last night. I noticed in a previous post that said Diane lived long enough to see it back in circulation. I see it’s available to stream, but has it been reissued on disc, and was it previously unavailable because of a music rights issue, or was it because of the content? It had been out of circulation for a long time.

[Guido]

Vinegar Syndrome released it last year — in UHD, no less.

[MichaelB]

On the subject of Looking For Mr. Goodbar, which I watched on Youtube last night. I noticed in a previous post that said Diane lived long enough to see it back in circulation. I see it’s available to stream, but has it been reissued on disc, and was it previously unavailable because of a music rights issue, or was it because of the content? It had been out of circulation for a long time.

It was indeed trapped in music-rights hell for decades, although this didn't prevent a streaming release - it was on the UK version of Paramount Plus pretty much from the start. But they've now been largely resolved, and it's out on BD and UHD as of about a year ago.

It's one of a number of 1970s films which were made at a time when "jukeboxing" (i.e. using popular songs in lieu of a through-composed score) was becoming increasingly common, but because this was before home video became a commercially viable thing these rights were only cleared for theatrical and broadcast. Streaming is deemed legally equivalent to broadcasting, but home video rights have to be cleared separately - and, often, expensively. Which is why so many films waited decades for their physical media debuts (Little Darlings is another one), and some have yet to be released at all, or at least intact.

California Split is a particularly notorious example, whereby the music rights were so expensive that even Sony preferred to cut the film (for their 2005 DVD release) rather than clear them. At the time, that was the only version available, and when Indicator licensed it they discovered that although Sony could make a high-def master of the full version available, they'd have to take on the job of clearing the outstanding music rights themselves. Unsurprisingly, this was wholly beyond the means of a small, single-territory boutique label - and although they could have released the 2005 cut version, by then the uncut version was available on streaming platforms and so it would have looked like a cop-out, which is why the release was scrapped altogether. And this was several years ago, and nobody else has picked up the baton - unsurprisingly, because they'd be faced with exactly the same challenges. Or bigger ones, as I imagine music rights clearances cost a fair bit more for the US.

[crimlaw]

I understand that Milos Forman’s ‘Taking Off’, 1971, is still similarly situated.

[GaryC]

A couple of other examples, both from Paramount as it happens. I'm advised that the cost to clear the music rights for American Hot Wax would cost more than the entire film did at the time. The film is a biopic-of-sorts of DJ Alan Freed, the man who coined the term "rock 'n' roll" and as you might imagine it's pretty much wall-to-wall pop and rock music.

Medium Cool was one of the films which established the precedent that music rights cleared for theatrical and television did not cover homevideo releases. This was subject to a lawsuit brought about on behalf of the late Wild Man Fischer, whose "Merry-Go-Round" should be heard over the roller-derby scene. So this track was replaced by a whistling rendition of "Sweet Georgia Brown" which changes the tone of the scene completely. The final title card was redone to reflect the change, but Masters of Cinema's Blu-ray release (and presumably Criterion's as well) has the music replacement but the original title card, which misspells the singer's surname as "Fisher". This rights issue shouldn't affect TV showings, but I've seen BBC screenings this century with the music replacement. So it's very hard now to watch the film in its original version unless you can get to see it in a 35mm print.

Neither of these two films are available to stream in the UK as far as I can tell.

[Calvin]

I understand that Milos Forman’s ‘Taking Off’, 1971, is still similarly situated.

Whatever issues there are with Taking Off seem to be exclusive to the US, as it has had UK and European releases without issue

[The Curious Sofa]

Am I the only one here who thinks this is a bad movie? I didn't care for it when I saw it sometime in the 80s, and I still didn't care for it when I revisited it a couple of years ago. The way it pathologizes Keaton's character feels simplistic, and at the time, did we really need more films about psycho gays killing people (even if it was based on a true story)? I have many of the same issues with this film as I do with Cruising. At best, they are confused films about the sexual revolution; at worst, they are deeply moralizing. Keaton's performance is the only appealing aspect of the film, which otherwise strikes me as a mess. It's a movie desperate to keep up with the times but it fails Keaton's character (and those like her), who gets herself killed for seeking out casual sex as if it's something that was bound to happen eventually. And Brooks' attempts at being artsy, with Roeg-style cross cutting and strob lighting, didn't convince me either.

[Matt]

Me, I think it's a merely good film. Roeg would have directed the hell out of it to be sure, and Bad Timing is roughly in the same ballpark as this. It's very icky all around in terms of its sexual politics, and it's clear that it was written and directed by a man who was much older than the generation he's depicting. That said, Keaton is excellent, Gere shows why he quickly became a star, and Tom Berenger is hot as hell.

As far as being a "true story," I'm sure the truth is stretched pretty thin. The source novel is based on a real case, but I think the author, Judith Rossner, was trying to write a Jacqueline Susann/Erica Jong-style sensational sexual revolution thrill ride, not gritty realism.

[colinr0380]

Interestingly around the time that Looking For Mr. Goodbar was about to turn up again, the 1983 CBS TV Movie 'sequel' Trackdown: Finding The Goodbar Killer turned up in full on YouTube.

In terms of the subject matter of Looking For Mr. Goodbar itself, I think it is important to put it in the context of both the 'true crime' genre of the 1970s (which was taking on outraged vigilante/grindhouse aspects of the Death Wish series, that would probably feed into Cruising's simultaneous fear of/fascination with that clubbing subculture and transgressive acts of both sex and violence intermingling) and also the general souring of the disco scene in general. Saturday Night Fever, with its somewhat flawed to say the least protagonist, is from the same time. Eventually you get to something like the disco shoot-up in the 1983 Scarface to put a capper on that period, although something like Spike Lee's Summer of Sam is definitely referring back to that era of heady highs and the worst come-downs imaginable.

(Plus I have a suspicion that Looking For Mr. Goodbar is a kind of unacknowledged remake of Pandora's Box, just updated for the disco era!)

[Lowry_Sam]

Am I the only one here who thinks this is a bad movie? I didn't care for it when I saw it sometime in the 80s, and I still didn't care for it when I revisited it a couple of years ago. The way it pathologizes Keaton's character feels simplistic

I never cared much for it either & would prefer any of the other "sex is dangerous" films of the mid 70s to early 80s that managed to capture the backlash to sexual liberation before the rise of AIDS, in spite of it havng such a good soundtrack. In contrast, Robert Altman managed to flip the script and present a much more progressive take on the subject matter a full decade beforehand in That Cold Day In The Park by

Spoiler

changing the plot of the novel from a gay man killing a woman to a woman killing a straight man.

[The Curious Sofa]

Me, I think it's a merely good film. Roeg would have directed the hell out of it to be sure, and Bad Timing is roughly in the same ballpark as this. It's very icky all around in terms of its sexual politics, and it's clear that it was written and directed by a man who was much older than the generation he's depicting. That said, Keaton is excellent, Gere shows why he quickly became a star, and Tom Berenger is hot as hell.

As far as being a "true story," I'm sure the truth is stretched pretty thin. The source novel is based on a real case, but I think the author, Judith Rossner, was trying to write a Jacqueline Susann/Erica Jong-style sensational sexual revolution thrill ride, not gritty realism.

Apart from Keaton, I thought Tuesday Weld was the only one who gave a good performance. It took me a while to appreciate Gere as an actor. In his two early movies, which I consider masterpieces, he is well cast as a blank slate. In Days of Heaven, all the adult characters are enigmas, given (unreliable) interiority by Linda Manz's narration. In American Gigolo, he is all surface by design. Otherwise, he often resorted to sub-Brando theatrics, which never convinced me. It wasn't until Internal Affairs, in which he exudes a quiet malevolence, that he gave a performance that made me think he could actually act.

[mfunk9786]

Am I the only one here who thinks this is a bad movie? I didn't care for it when I saw it sometime in the 80s, and I still didn't care for it when I revisited it a couple of years ago. The way it pathologizes Keaton's character feels simplistic

It's interesting, the more I sit with this the more I am moving toward your way of seeing it. Was a bit wistful about Keaton as I watched as she had died hours earlier, but ultimately the film depicts a character who does not just make sexually and emotionally irresponsible decisions (common and relatable behavior for most people at some point in their lives), but also made confusing, personally irresponsible decisions in tandem that did not make a lick of sense. If there's anything I've observed through the years, it's that those who have an outsized relationship with their sexual urges are often more cautious about the way that they approach those behaviors to reduce their level of risk. I refuse to believe that a concept like "don't invite strangers to your home over and over again until you find the wrong one" did not occur to Keaton's character since she was simply so worked up into a froth that it escaped her mind. It's more than a little bit insulting to people with common sense in the 70s to assume that the idea of not being reckless with your personal safety just recently came into vogue, too. It's just bad screenwriting, bad direction.

[Mr Sausage]

If there's anything I've observed through the years, it's that those who have an outsized relationship with their sexual urges are often more cautious about the way that they approach those behaviors to reduce their level of risk.

I've known lots of very sexual people who were reckless and displayed mind boggling levels of irresponsibility, from going off with strangers every night to inviting them home to not using condoms (not a few of whom would respond to the STD issue by saying "but that kind of thing doesn't happen to people like me", as tho' diseases observe class distinctions). Considerations like safety and responsibility were secondary to whatever was driving them on. For not a few of them, the risk was 'hot'. By contrast the people you're describing sound like responsible people who have enough control to be able to manage their urges healthily.

Northrop Frye has this great quote I sometimes think about:

Self-interest [ie. what we're ultimately talking about here] implies a good deal of control: in all extreme vices there is a mania in which one is hagridden by a "ruling passion". Self-interest may explain the profiteer, but not the miser.

I think the point about Goodbar isn't that people were just like that in the 70s (tho' boundaries were probably looser in many respects), but that Keaton's character was like that for reasons specific to her.

[therewillbeblus]

There's also a trend amongst people working passionately in human services (teachers, direct care staff, etc.) who engage in a reckless lifestyle after work hours. I think that's one of the most attractive thing about this movie for me - I don't think we're invited into Keaton's psychology that well, which keeps some people at arm's length, but it's admirable not to completely pathologize her (unless you think that by omitting that content, the film pathologizes her in a purely behavioral fashion, which I don't think is true). I like how the film peppers in little observations about addiction - the bartender has a few lines straight out of 12-step fellowships - which gives me the impression that people working on the film were familiar with this world. I don't think it's executed in a particularly even manner, and that can be inherently frustrating, but I also, in a way, love how unconventional it goes about engaging with its ideas. I'm not sure it adds up to something cohesively effective as the sum of its parts, and I don't fault anyone for disliking it, but it works for me