Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
by Paul Mazursky
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Actor: Dyan Cannon, Elliott Gould, Horst Ebersberg, Natalie Wood, Robert CulpDirector: Paul Mazursky
Brand: WOOD,NATALIE
Cinematographer: Charles Lang
Writer: Paul Mazursky
Editor: Stuart H. Papp?
Producer: M.J. Frankovich
Writer: Larry Tucker
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-16
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: CBS Television
DVD Reviews of Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
DVD Review: Still Sharp Comedy Resonates as a Provocative Time Capsule of the Sexual Revolution
Summary: 4 Stars
It's tempting to call this archetypical 1969 comedy severely dated, but that would be too superficial a judgment. Taken as a period piece when the sexual revolution was completely redefining the country's moral code, the film is a shrewdly observed, sharply comic character study among the Southern California bourgeoisie. It also marks the auspicious directorial debut of Paul Mazursky, a former actor who ended up making two decades' worth of insightful films focused on personal foibles and sympathetic satire (An Unmarried Woman, Down and Out in Beverly Hills). He cleverly uses the "Hallelujah" chorus of Handel's Messiah to open the film as documentary filmmaker Bob Sanders and his wife Carol drive through the canyons outside LA to an Esalen-like couples' retreat where narcissism runs rampant with participants encouraged to express how they "feel" through group hugs, crying, mutual staring, even pillow punching.
The experience transforms Bob and Carol into a touchy-feely couple so intent on being completely honest with each other that they accept each other's acts of adultery. This level of supposed enlightenment initially appalls their best friends, Ted and Alice Henderson, who hold on tenuously to their more traditional values. However, a weekend in Vegas becomes a cathartic showdown among the two couples, and the outrageous brashness of their liberated behavior comes to a crescendo that manages to be unexpected and predictable at the same time. Mazursky ends things on a surreal note with Jackie DeShannon's classic rendition of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's What the World Needs Now Is Love. Through it all, the four principal actors give sharp performances that wisely leave the motivations for their characters ambiguous enough for the audience to draw their own conclusions.
Coming off his hit TV series I Spy, Robert Culp effectively plays Bob as a hippie-wannabe closing in on middle age and recognizing an innate need to give in to the new moral order to belong. As Carol, Natalie Wood at thirty never looked so sexy nor came across so relaxed onscreen. She brings such an alluring knowingness to the role that it becomes difficult to believe why Bob would want to cheat on her in the first place. In his first major role, Elliott Gould makes Ted as an amusing, sympathetic figure who keeps dancing between disgust and envy with increasing alacrity. Dyan Cannon comes closest to stealing the picture since she carries the biggest character arc as Alice. The scene with her psychiatrist is extremely well played. It is her character who does the abrupt about-face that spurs the climax (...you should pardon the expression). The 2004 DVD contains a sometimes entertaining, sometimes too self-conscious commentary track featuring Mazursky, Culp, Gould, and Cannon, as well as a twenty-minute interview with Mazursky from 2003.
DVD Review: Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
Summary: 5 Stars
Let's do the Time Warp!
One of the iconic movies of the 1970's, "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice" is another view of the sexual revolution. Even if you only know Robert Culp as Debra's father on "Everyone Loves Raymond" and never heard of Dyan Cannon or Natalie Wood, you'll still enjoy this send up of pop psychology and pseudo-honesty.
Is it dated? Clothes and language, yes but some concepts still hold true.
Spoiler alert: If you're morally offended by the concept of adultery, you may not enjoy some the action as much as the underlying message. Marriage and fidelity gets the same treatment here as in "Same Time Next Year"
DVD Review: This is why I don't miss the sixties
Summary: 2 Stars
This well acted but very silly film tries to make swinging seem like an act of honesty and love. A couple (Natalie Wood and Robert Culp, who both turn in great performances) attends a group grope weekend. They get in touch with their emotions (actually, they are subjected to CIA-like manipulation and deprivation techniques which lead to emotional breakdowns) and decide that total and brutal honesty in all relationships is "beautiful" (tell that to a wife who has gained fifteen pounds or to a husband who is having erectile dysfunction). They decide to have an orgy with their best friends (a very hirsute Elliott Gould and lovely Dyan Cannon). After an hour of emotional and conversational back and forth, they all jump into bed together. We don't see any sex (what a tease). Afterwards, they leave the hotel and join a crowd of people outside who are all staring into each other's eyes and, I am guessing, experiencing each other's inner essence while the Burt Bachrach song, "What the world needs now is love" plays in the background. I, for one, don't think that what the world needs now is love, sweet love. I think what it needs is some common sense - something that this film is desperately lacking. Every one of the premises of the film now seems absurd. Being frank is mean. Venting your emotions rather than mastering them is childish and weak. Swinging is a great way to get AIDS and destroy your marriage. BCTA is a lot of tease, a lot of exploitation, some great acting (the actors appear to be improvising, they are so good), and an enormous amount of sixties foolishness. DVD Review: Classic Movie
Summary: 2 Stars
Bad movie tape. It will not track on a standard VHS player. Jumps all over the place and is not adjustableDVD Review: Wild House
Summary: 3 Stars
Strangely enough I got this DVD because I recently purchased a house in Hamilton New Zealand that was built by a local builder who was inspired by the Spanish style house in the movie. He built it in 1974 for him and his family. He and his wife seperated in the early eighties (probably had swinger parties, which as was shown in the movie always end in tears)Anyway I thought the movie was quite funny and the house is as groovy today as it was back then.
Cheers
Description of Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
A California couple in the late sixties decide to test the strength of their marital trust and honesty by experimenting with mutually tolerated affairs, much to the amusement of their friends.Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 4-APR-2006
Media Type: DVD
While its particulars remain rooted in the sexual revolution of the late 1960s, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is remarkably timeless as a classic comedy of manners. Making an impressive, high-profile directorial debut after success as a screenwriter, Paul Mazursky took the pulse of California society better than anyone, especially with this well-cast, sharply observant comedy that begins when sophisticated couple Bob and Carol (Robert Culp, Natalie Wood) attend a weekend retreat that opens their eyes to the possibilities of open marriage and mutual acceptance of extramarital affairs. When they reveal their newfound liberties to straightlaced couple Ted and Alice (Elliott Gould, Dyan Cannon), the subtle, behavioral richness of the largely improvisational screenplay (by Mazursky and Larry Tucker) rises to the surface, conveyed through the kind of natural rhythms and pauses that were dramatically in vogue in the fast-changing Hollywood of 1969. The film hasn't lost any of its punch, perhaps because American sexual politics have returned to the conservatism that existed before Bob and Carol emerged as the signature comedy of the swinging sixties. The absence of the late Natalie Wood is the only drawback to the DVD's excellent commentary, which reunites Mazursky, Culp, Gould, and Cannon in a casual atmosphere of humorous reminiscence. --Jeff Shannon
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