Shoot the Moon

In Marin County, California, writer George Dunlap and his wife Faith are an unhappy couple who live with their daughters Sherry, Jill, Marianne, and Molly in a farmhouse that George has refurbished. George is preparing to attend an awards banquet in his honor, when he makes a phone call to Sandy, a single mother with whom he has begun an affair. Sherry, the oldest of the four children, picks up the phone and listens in on the conversation. After the children leave for school the next morning, Faith expresses her suspicions of the affair, prompting George to leave and move into his beach house. Sherry refuses to speak to George, while her sisters visit George on weekends. Jill, Marianne and Molly also meet Sandy, who harbors cynicism towards them and views them as a distraction in her sexual affair with George. Faith falls into depression, but is elated when she begins a relationship with Frank Henderson, a contractor she has hired to build a tennis court on the grove of the farmhouse. One day, George visits the farmhouse, aggressively requesting to Faith that he be able to give Sherry her birthday present, a typewriter. George grows frustrated upon meeting Frank and seeing the construction work being done to the yard. George returns to the home later that night, again demanding that he be able to give Sherry her present. When Faith refuses to let him in, George breaks the door apart, pushes her out of the house, and blocks the entrance door with a chair. After Sherry refuses the gift, George spanks her repeatedly. The other children try to fight him off, but George does not relent until after Sherry threatens him with a pair of scissors. After Molly lets her back into the house through a side door, Faith comforts a sobbing Sherry, and George leaves ashamed. George and Faith go to court to begin the first stage of their divorce proceedings, which involves joint custody of the children. After the court hearing, Faith tells George that her father has been hospitalized. At the hospital, they both downplay the disintegration of their marriage, but Faith's father senses that they are lying, and dies shortly thereafter. After the funeral, George finds Faith having dinner at a restaurant and joins her. They have a heated, passionate exchange, arguing about their relationship before getting drunk. They go to a hotel room where Faith and the children are staying, and have sex. After Sherry enters Faith's bedroom and finds them lying in bed, Faith asks George to leave. When the tennis court is completed, Faith and Frank throw an outdoor party at the farmhouse. Sherry scorns her mother for having sex with George and Frank before running away. She runs to George's beach house where she sees her father playing a game of hearts with Sandy and her son. George looks out the window and sees Sherry sitting on a pier. He goes to comfort her and as they reconcile, he gives Sherry the typewriter. George returns Sherry to the farmhouse, where Faith invites him to visit the tennis court and meet Frank's friends. Under a seemingly friendly facade, George praises Frank for his work on the tennis court. He then goes into his car and crashes into the court repeatedly until it is demolished. Enraged, Frank pulls George out of the car and beats him relentlessly before walking away. As the children try to comfort their father, George reaches out for Faith to take his hand. ==Cast==

Development , pictured in 2008 Shoot the Moon was Bo Goldman's first attempt at writing a screenplay and was originally developed under the title Switching. He began writing the script in 1971, influenced by his encounters with dysfunctional couples and how their disputes affected their children. "When I started to write this screenplay years ago," he said, "I looked around me and all the marriages were collapsing, and the real victims of these marital wars were the children." Alan Ladd Jr., president of Fox, sent the script to Alan Parker, as the director was beginning pre-production on Fame (1980). After filming Fame, Parker met with Goldman, and the two worked together to rewrite the script. Diane Keaton was cast as Faith Dunlap, George's wife. Parker had first discussed the role with her as the actress was preparing to film Reds (1981). He also discussed the role with Meryl Streep, who declined due to her pregnancy. The production dismantled the house into four pieces, which were then transported to the Nicasio Valley region of Marin County, California. The filmmakers spent six weeks restoring and decorating the house, as well as constructing a driveway, gardens and a tennis court. Scenes set in Sandy's beach house were filmed in Stinson Beach, California. George and Faith's divorce proceeding was shot at the Napa County Courthouse Plaza in Napa, California. The filmmakers also filmed scenes at the Wolf House, Jack London's estate in Glen Ellen, California. In San Francisco, the production shot scenes at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. Other filming locations included California Street, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, Sea Cliff and St. Joseph's Hospital. Filming concluded on April 9, 1981, after 62 days. Parker spent six months editing the film in London, England with 300,000 feet of film. Music After working on the musical Fame, Parker had decided not to employ an original score for Shoot the Moon. Goldman selected the song "Don't Blame Me" from MGM's music library to be used in the film. The song is featured as a minimalist piano score that acts as a leitmotif. Parker stated, "I had it played on a piano with one finger—like a child would play, with innocent simplicity." The film also features pre-recorded songs, including "Play with Fire" performed by the Rolling Stones and "Still the Same" performed by Bob Seger. Parker explained that the songs were "selfishly chosen because they were contemporary songs that meant a lot to me personally." ==Release==

Parker had hoped to release Shoot the Moon before the end of 1981 for awards consideration. MGM gave Shoot the Moon a platform release, opening it in New York City, Toronto and Los Angeles on January 22, 1982, grossing $9,217,530 against a production budget of $12 million. In 1986, the distribution rights to the film were transferred to Turner Entertainment Co., which acquired MGM's pre-May 1986 library of feature films. Currently, the rights are owned by Warner Bros., after its parent company Time Warner acquired Turner's library of MGM films in 1996. Home media Shoot the Moon was released on DVD on November 6, 2007, by Warner Home Video. Special features include an audio commentary by Parker and Goldman, and the film's theatrical trailer. ==Reception==

Critical response Shoot the Moon received mostly positive reviews from critics. On the Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 86% based on 14 reviews. Film critics Pauline Kael and David Denby, who had been dismissive of Parker's previous films, praised Shoot the Moon as his best directorial effort. Kael wrote: "There wasn't a single scene in the Parker's first three films that I thought rang true; there isn't a scene in Shoot The Moon, that I think rings false." She goes on to say "When you see Shoot The Moon, you see yourself in it." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times appreciated the storytelling, stating, "Despite its flaws, despite its gaps, despite two key scenes that are dreadfully wrong, Shoot the Moon contains a raw emotional power of the sort we rarely see in domestic dramas." In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby commended the acting, notably the performances of Finney, Keaton, Allen and Peter Weller, and compared the film to Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Ordinary People (1980), describing it as "a domestic comedy of sometimes terrifying implications, not about dolts but intelligent, thinking beings." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune called the film "an exceptionally strong family drama, with enough surprises to qualify as lifelike." A negative review carried by Variety termed the film "a grim drama of marital collapse which proves disturbing and irritating by turns." Dan Callahan of Slant Magazine praised the performances, but criticized Parker's direction, writing, "Unfortunately, Shoot the Moon has some serious problems that get in the way of [Keaton and Finney's] unforgettable performances ... Though Parker's way of going for the jugular can be very effective in the big moments, he lets lots of small, deliberately banal domestic scenes just dribble away." Accolades Shoot the Moon received several nominations, with particular recognition for Finney and Keaton's performances. In May 1982, the film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. It was one of two films directed by Parker to appear at the festival, the other being Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), which was shown out of competition. At the 36th British Academy Film Awards, Finney received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor, but lost to Ben Kingsley, who won for Gandhi (1982). ==References==