The story centers around a group of seven (originally eight) 1960s idealists who were close friends at the University of Michigan but have drifted apart since graduation. It is now 1983 (about fifteen years since their college days) and the seven are drawn together for a funeral when the eighth member of their group, the never seen Alex, kills himself. After the services the seven friends, most of them spouseless, spend a long weekend in a large southern vacation home straight out of Pat Conroy. During their stay they have long talks, reminisce, drink wine, rekindle relationships, wonder about the dreams of youth, and wonder what drove Alex to take his own life.
[Side Note: Kevin Costner, one of my favorite actors, was cast as Alex and that is him as the corpse in the opening scenes. There were originally flashbacks with Costner but Kasdan eventually felt the flashbacks did not add to the present day story and cut the scenes]
I first saw the movie in the late 1990s, I was in middle school or early high school. My parents gave me the 15th anniversary edition VHS tape for Easter (pictured above). My mom and I watched it later that day, I was excited because my parents had repeatedly told me how much they liked the film and how good it was. During my first viewing I was less than enthralled, I did watch it all the way to the end, but I remember not enjoying it. Memory fails me as to why I did not care for the movie back then, it could be that the film is more of a character study and a series of scenes than a traditional narrative. It is not structured with a truly forward moving plot and when the vacation ends most of the characters return to the lives they had at the start of the film (except William Hurt's character, the pill popper, who decides to clean up his life) there is not a lot of change. Which may be Kasdan's point.
Several of Kasdan's films are what could be called concept stories where the audience is left to find the catharsis or climax on their own. For instance Continental Divide (1981), which he wrote but did not direct, about a cross country romance has a long drawn out ending where the characters keep catching trains extending their romance but end up exactly where they started promising to cross the country again. Wyatt Earp (1994) ends with a flashback that I believe is supposed to bring up the questions of legend and the history of the West but seems an odd climax to such a long film (I will say without the flashback the film would have no ending at all). Yet in Grand Canyon (1991) when his cast of characters finally reaches the natural wonder of the title the final shot and the looks on the actor's faces provides an immense catharsis for the viewer and I myself cannot explain why that ending works as well as it does.
Anyway back to The Big Chill, in the past few months of 2019 I caught the film on one of those unedited and without commercials TV channels. It was just starting with Glenn Close's character getting the phone call and segueing into the "Heard it Through the Grapevine" montage which expertly introduces each of the main cast. I sat and watched the entire film for the first time since that Easter Day of my youth and I was completely enthralled, even moved by the film.
I am sure this newfound connection is cause by the fact that I am now an adult and closer in age to the characters in the film than when I watched it as an adolescent. I have had a number of experiences and met people very similar to those depicted in the movie.
[Side Note: the characters are all caucasian, educated, upper class individuals. I have a feeling if you are a member of this demographic the film will hit you, it may be a miss if you are not I'm not sure.]
Kasdan and Benedek have created a group of seven characters so familiar that they are able to embody any number of real people that the viewer has known from their own past, which some critics have deemed causes them to be cardboard or shallow. The shallowness is most likely on purpose because all the characters have sold out to become upper middle class yuppies
Another major benefit is that Kasdan and his casting director selected a group of actors who became engrained in the popular films of the 1980s and 1990s (this film was at the start of many of their careers so this was also a bit of luck). For instance I cannot for the life of me remember any of the character names, I see them simply as William Hurt, Glenn Close, JoBeth Williams, Tom Berenger, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, and Jeff Goldblum. Each brings their everyday charm to their roles and considerable screen presence while still seeming like your next door neighbor.
The camaraderie of the cast shines through and while watching the film I truly believed they were all friends in college. This bond that comes through the screen is a credit to the filmmakers since none of the actors had previously worked on film together and save for Hurt none had worked with Kasdan before filming. This would be the beginning of a collaboration between Kline and Kasdan that to date has produced six movies together. The friendship depicted again conjures up my own memories of friends I could talk to all night, and stay in a vacation home with.
This movie more obviously than his other films, encompasses Kasdan's love of the past and a longing for an earlier time that runs through all his work. His screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) called on the Saturday Matinee Adventure Serials of the 1950s. Body Heat (1981) fully recreated film noir of the 1940s and 1950s and help solidify the neo-noir boom of the 1980s. Silverado (1985) was the first major studio western in nearly a decade and kickstarted the genres brief resurgence in the 1990s. The Bodyguard (1992) was conceived and written as a 1970s Steve McQueen vehicle, it would have sat nicely next to Bullitt and The Getaway. His most recent film Darling Companion (2012) focuses on a long married couple who must examine their past and forgive each other during a vacation weekend and could be seen as a bookend to The Big Chill.
While I may not see my own group of young friends often or ever again, when I watched The Big Chill they are enlivened on the screen in the words and faces of the actors. Here Kasdan with his love of the past has created a film that speaks to a whole generation of Baby Boomers (and seemingly generations to come) that were and are wondering where the days of youth have gone.
