Release Year: 1981 Rating: PG Duration: 109 minutes Director: Mark Rydell Producer: Terry Carr, Bruce Gilbert
synopsis
Based on the play by Ernest Thompson, ON GOLDEN POND tells the deceptively simple tale of one family's summer. The story centers around the bickering but loving relationship between Ethel and Norman Thayer (Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda), an elderly couple who are spending their 48th summer at their New England country home and celebrating Norman's 80th birthday. When their independent, insecure daughter, Chelsea (Jane Fonda), and her new boyfriend, Bill Ray (Dabney Coleman), come for Norman's birthday, they also end up asking the couple to look after Billy Ray (Doug McKeon), Bill's teenage son, while they travel to Europe. Over the summer, Norman becomes closer to Billy Ray than he has ever been to his daughter, sparking Chelsea's long-repressed resentment when she returns. In this beautifully filmed story, there are many things going on along the surface of Golden Pond, including the presence of the loons--who represent all things wonderful about their summer house and their life to Ethel. Director Mark Rydell elicits deeply touching performances from his cast (particularly Henry Fonda in his final screen appearance), and the dialogue of Thompson's script is equally graceful. The odds were against this decidedly quiet, small ensemble piece when it was released in 1981, but the timeless material and the confident direction triumphed.
cast
Henry Fonda as Norman Thayer Jr. Jane Fonda as Chelsea Thayer Wayne Katharine Hepburn as Ethel Thayer
Screen legend Henry Fonda passed away fifteen years ago in 1982 and in all the time that has passed since his death, he will be remembered by many in this generation for his last film which brought him his long awaited Academy Award for Best Actor the year he died and that film is director Mark Rydell's 'On Golden Pond'. At the 1982 Academy Awards celebrating the films of 1981 his daughter Jane (who herself retired from film acting in 1990 with 'Stanley and Iris') accepted on his behalf and truly delivered moments of gracious respect for her father and shared her father's feelings about the award and his appreciation in winning it. It is one of Oscar's finest moments in the last two decades. Nominated rarely at other previous times in his career, most notably for Best Actor in 1940 for 'The Grapes of Wrath' and in 1957 as co-producer of the year's Best Picture nominee '12 Angry Men', Fonda would take his place in history as one of Hollywood's most easy going yet powerful leading men.
