Quarter 2 MYST: Beaches

Beaches is my mom's favorite movie which we watched this weekend. I've seen this film probably a thousand times, but since I started Film Studies I started to focus on more of the cinematic features and content. Beaches is one of those films that when you leave the theater, you have cried, laughed, and learned a few things about life. But, this is not surprising due to this film being directed by Garry Marshall who also made both Princess Diaries, Pretty Woman and most recently New Years Eve. 

Originally a novel by Iris Rainer Dart, this film is filled with drama, music, and comedy with CC Bloom (Bette Midler) and Hillary's (Barbara Hershey) friendship being the center. The girls meet and become best friends instantly while in Atlantic City as children because they yearned one thing, a friend. Throughout the film its obvious that the girls were totally different and direct opposites. CC is a struggling but aggressive Jewish singer from the Bronx while Hilary is a shy privileged rich debutante from San Francisco. Beaches shows the high and low points of their relationships through marriages, fighting over the same man, pregnancy, and career changes. Yet, their relationship was what they had left in the end. John Heard and Spalding Gray also appear in the film as love interests for the girls.

This movie came out in 1988, which in this era Steven Spielberg and John Lucas' blockbusters were big. But, also on the rise were the dramas, teen movies, and comedies. For example, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Mr. Mom, and Steel Magnolias. 

Dante Spinotti who has been the cinematgrapher for movies like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Superman Returns, and The Contract. He uses many cinematic elements, from long shots to close -ups. He used them all. But, one specific scene stood out to me out of the entire movie. This scene is When CC Bloom is performing "Oh Industry". The way the stage was set up, she came out in the center with a backlight of red fire. Her back-up dancers wore masks of the industry and when they took them off, the camera was at the same eye -level. The camera then directs itself towards CC on the floor in a scared/fetal position afraid of the "industry". But when she rises up to overcome her fear in the song, the camera goes into a low-angle showing her to be powerful and strong. Also, the spotlight is on her with the red fire in the background and the gray/green lights around the stage. Throughout the film, the big city and bright lights were emphasized for CC while Hilary was filmed and characterized as the more dull or normal lighting and settings. Bright colors and lights compared to neutrals and dim/gray lighting.

Overall, Beaches is definitely a chick flick to enjoy with your girlfriends on the weekends. But, even though it may be in the chick flick category you walk away with a lesson about friendships drama, marriages, family drama, and everyday struggles and disappointments in life. I honestly love this movie, especially with the comic relief of Bette Midler's character CC Bloom. It was a perfect mixture of drama, comedy, and tragedy.