Butterflies Are Free (1972) User Reviews

Stage presence

[greenheart · 7/10 · 27 June 2012]

I bumped into this movie, a Goldie Hawn feature that I hadn't heard of. It turned out to bit of a gem. Clearly, written for the stage rather than the big stage, it did translate into a watchable couple of hours although I still consider that the stage is probably the most suitable home for this piece. The acting was terrific. Hawn was quirky, charming, frustrating, not to mention sexy. Such a confused and immature character, yet you couldn't help but like her. You wanted to sympathise with Edward Albert as the blind neighbour and yet, he didn't want people to sympathise with him. He displayed admirable courage and yet a fragility that could break at any second despite his noble. independence. Eileen Heckart won an Oscar for the mother. She was frustrating to start with and then her love and determination to look after her son shone through and you ended up being so full of admiration for her. Lots of talking and yet you get drawn in from an early stage so that you really, genuinely care. Don't let this butterfly pass you by.

I would love to see this story performed on stage

[littlejake4 · 7/10 · 8 March 2000]

I enjoyed this film very much; it appeals to the romantic in all of us, yet it is very candid. Goldie Hawn is perfect for the role of Jill, she seems so at ease with the character. Eileen Heckart is wonderful as the overbearing yet caring mother. She loves her son and it is hard for her to let go of him & to stop taking care of her son, Don, especially since he is blind. She feels that he needs someone to care for him and she thinks his new neighbor and love interest Jill is not the girl to do that. Heckart won the best supporting oscar that year for the film and she was much deserving because she is excellent. The film has some very touching scenes between each of the actors as Don struggles for independence from his mother and as he fights to convince Jill that they could have a relationship despite his blindness and how his mother has scared her away. I also love that the film has been adapted from a play and you can really sense that with simple apartment setting. A interesting note is that the Leonard Gershe who wrote the play was inspired by a real life person: Harold Krentz. Gershe heard Krentz talking on a radio show about being drafted for the military during the vietnam war, the odd thing is Harold Krentz has been blind since childhood. Harold Krentz wrote a book called "To Race the Wind" and he writes about being the inspiration for the story of Butterflies are free.

Overprotective Mama

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 12 October 2006]

This film version of Leonard Gershe's Butterflies are Free which ran for 1128 performances on Broadway from 1969 to 1972 transfers the location from Greenwich Village in Manhattan to the hippest areas of San Francisco circa the Seventies. Eileen Heckart and Paul Michael Glaser, later Starsky on Starsky&Hutch retain their original roles.

Replacing Keir Dullea and Blythe Danner in the leads are Edward Albert and Goldie Hawn. This was Edward Albert's film debut and Hawn was following up the Oscar she won for Cactus Flower. Both of them fit their parts perfectly.

But I can hardly see anyone else in the role of Albert's overprotective Mama than Eileen Heckart. Though she's only in the film in the second half, Heckart really dominates the proceedings. So much so she got an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress that year. Heckart also avoids the usual stereotyping as the mom, but she does register real concern for her kid going out in the world.

Edward Albert is her twenty something son who is trying to break free from his mom and is now living in an apartment that has a connecting door to the next apartment which is occupied by free spirited hippie chick, Goldie Hawn. Of course the key here is that Albert is blind, blind from birth. They develop into quite the romance that Heckart tries to break up.

Do love Goldie's fashion sense. See the episode where she takes Albert out of the apartment and clothes shopping. Remember those seventies fashions? Straight off the rack or the body of Barry Williams as Greg Brady.

**** One of Goldie's finest moments

[Bil-3 · 28 March 2001]

Need strong proof to support the argument that Goldie Hawn is the finest of actresses? Watch this classic one along with her masterpiece Private Benjamin. In Butterflies she's funny, tragic, serious and as endearing as she could possibly could be as Jill, the wacky new girl in town who finds herself surprised when her neighbour Don (Edward Albert, Eddie Albert's son) reveals to her that he's completely blind. They have lunch, go shopping, get to know each other, and worst of all meet Don's mother. Don't mistake Eileen Heckart or her awards in the role of the domineering matriarch, she ain't just any aging woman playing a mother. The character is annoying, callous, loving and wise and the relationship that develops between the three characters is very moving. All this presented with great dialogue provided by Leonard Gershe (based on his own stage play).

nice character work

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 15 September 2017]

Blinded since birth, Don Baker (Edward Albert) has a place in San Francisco. It's the first time he's living away from his overprotective mother (Eileen Heckart). His free-spirit neighbor Jill Tanner (Goldie Hawn) visits and is surprised by his blindness. She's a 19 year old aspiring actress divorcée. They get together and then his mother visits.

Goldie Hawn is the definition of free-spirit IT girl. It's a fine pairing that heightens when they are joined by Heckart. Her entry just elevates the humor to another level but it becomes more than a comedy. Goldie takes a turn that takes the story into good emotional drama. Heckart rides this roller-coaster role. This has a bit of characters-stuck-in-a-room feel from its source material as a play. Nevertheless, these are compelling characters.

Masterpiece Romantic Play

[kenandraf · 9/10 · 30 June 2002]

Masterpiece film that has great quality production and acting.The story is a romance/drama that incorporates very real love/life struggles that come with it.Also a very good snapshot of early 1970's free spirit experimentation of 20 somethings without having to exaggerate.Also a good example of Goldie's acting skills.One of the top 20 Romantic Dramas of All Time and one of the 100 Best Movies All Time in my book.Only for romance/drama/play fans and big fans of the lead actors......

Jill: "I played Yum-Yum." Mrs. Baker: "Yes, I'm sure you did."

[romanorum1 · 7/10 · 12 October 2012]

Goldie Hawn received much attention as a dancing bikini-girl in "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" TV show (1968), the one with all of the parody and flying jokes. Goldie was covered with funny slogans written in body paint. She would often flub her lines and giggle in a dizzy way. Voila, a star is born!

The "laugh-In" girl made some interesting pictures and did quite well on the big screen. At the very beginning of "Butterflies Are Free," the viewer gets the impression that Don Baker (Edward Albert) is a peeping Tom. Before long we understand that he is blind. Don had moved into his apartment building against the advice of his mother. Nearly the entire first hour of the movie is essentially a two-person play – with much dialog and little music – as neighbors Jill Danner (Goldie Hawn) and Don Baker (Edward Albert) get to know each other. Practically the entire setting occurs in Don's apartment (except when they go shopping for clothing). Goldie, as usual, is a delight to behold, with all of her zany expressions and sayings. She looks fine in her bikini, er, underwear, and comes across well as a freewheeling ex-hippy who falls for philosopher-neighbor Don.

More than halfway through the movie, we have a three-person act, as Don's domineering mother, Mrs. Baker, (Eileen Heckart) walks uninvited into the apartment while Jill and Don are hanging out in their underwear. It is apparent that Jill will not be a big hit with Mom. She does not believe that the giddy Jill is right for her son, who has already had a failed relationship. Furthermore, she disapproves of Don's neighborhood, and still wants her son to move back into her house. Mrs. Baker takes Jill out to lunch to discourage her from seeing Don, but to no avail. Then Ralph, a playwright, enters Jill's life; she gets the part of a nude in his latest play, and the waif is excited.

How will it all pan out with Don and Jill? No spoilers are given here. While it's not a "brainy" film it certainly is a charming and enjoyable romance feature. It's not too dated except that it does not contain the vulgarity of many recent films. Eckert and Albert won awards, the former the Oscar, and the latter the Golden Globe. The Golden Globe also nominated Goldie for Best Actress. Pleasant.

WOW!! What a great film!!!

[JamesLosAngeles · 9/10 · 8 October 2009]

So I got home last night and there was a Goldie Hawn marathon on TCM. I thought I knew all her films but I guess B.A.F. slipped through the crack somehow.

You can definitely tell this was a play because it looks like a play. Although there are a couple exterior and location shots most of it takes place in the same setting. But it works well as a film and it has held up well over the years even if many of the scenes are obviously visually dated.

Hawn and Heckart are great – and it's a well deserved Oscar for Heckart. However I was really blown away by Albert's performance. Although he only won a Golden Globe this is also an Oscar worthy performance and in my opinion they most hypnotizing out of the 3.

SPOILER**** I'm noting this as a 'SPOILER' but will try to be somewhat vague here to not actually spoil it for those who have not seen the film. There is a pivotal moment in the film where Albert's character realizes what's about to happen, and he has this moment of emotion. I was so incredibly choked up by his performance because we all have gone through a similar event in our lives. That one scene made the whole movie for me. He did an incredible job.

This is definitely a must see movie – especially if you are an actor in search of learning a real craft!!

Mother-son relationship comes into focus

[barryrd · 7/10 · 10 August 2020]

Eileen Heckart, Eddie Albert Jr. and Goldie Hawn play mother, son and girlfriend in this movie from 1972. The San Francisco location, guitar music, casual sex, and the mother-son generational divide all evoke the 1960's and 70's. The mother has a heartfelt (but essentially too protective) concern for her blind son who has left his suburban home to make it on his own. The script has great comic material for Eileen Heckart and Eddie Albert as well as Goldie Hawn, the neighbour in Albert's new apartment building. The two hit it off right away and learn about their different worlds. The mother strongly disapproves of her son's apartment and his free spirited girlfriend. Having seen the movie when it came out many years ago, I remembered how impressed I was with Eileen Heckart's performance as the mother and that impression didn't change. Eddie Albert's acting is also outstanding. How the mother comes to grips with her son's quest to live his own life is a major part of the story. The movie is a throwback to an interesting period 50 years ago and it is very instructive as to how a young man blind from birth adapts naturally to his surroundings. Thanks again to TCM for bringing this movie to the screen.

Excellent adaptation of a play, made better by the acting

[jalapenoman · 10/10 · 22 April 2006]

This is an incredible movie. It has everything: great acting, an Oscar winning performance (Heckart as the mother), believable characters, and a young, hot Goldie running around for thirty minutes in her undies.

The acting of the three principles deserved three Oscar nods, but only one was given (for the top performance). Mother Bird goes from being overprotective to having to push her son from the nest. The different emotions portrayed by the character are wonderful and we can all see ourselves as overprotective parents in her role.

Edward Albert's performance makes us wonder why he never became an A list actor.

With Goldies performance in this film, along with her other early performance and Oscar in Cactus Flower, I wonder why she lowered herself to the stupid comedies she made the next several years (Protocol, etc.). The ditsy, dumb blonde was and is a better actress, as is evidenced by her work here.

Why does Paul Michael Glaser seem to show up in bit parts in all the great 60's and 70's films? He was also in Fiddler on the Roof! This is one of the great romantic comedies of all time.

"As long as you don't move anything, I'm as good as anybody else."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 4 March 2024]

Probably the movie's best service for the casual viewer is how the Don Baker character (Edward Albert) insists on his blindness as no handicap, and generally no big deal. That's reinforced time and time again as he gets to meet his new next door apartment neighbor, Jill Tanner (Goldie Hawn). Hawn looks like she might have just stepped off the set of 'Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In', the series that brought her to the attention of America's masses. Hawn's role in this story was played for the most part in her underwear, but without all those goofy painted sayings on her body that was a staple of her Laugh-In character. Although somewhat air-headed, Jill Tanner did exude a sexy loveliness, with her character put to the test when Donny's overprotective mother arrived to check in on him. Mrs. Baker (Eileen Heckart) was adamantly opposed to her son going off to live on his own, but as all the characters got to know each other, they gradually began understanding each other's point of view. It almost all comes crashing down when Jill takes a shine to a producer (Paul Michael Glaser) who will offer her a part in his play. Her decision to move in with Ralph Santori nearly crushes Donny, but the story's happy ending would have to be satisfied by her returning to Donny's apartment in a quick reconciliation. As light entertainment, this film will take you back to an earlier era with a stereotypical Seventies look.

The golden days of Goldie Hawn. (spoilers)

[vertigo_14 · 9/10 · 2 January 2004]

I like watching 1970s comedies based on plays. They're so simple; usually three or four characters in one or two settings in a story with light-hearted quick wit comedy. Butterflies are Free is one of those movies.

This is the story of a young blind man (played by Eddie Albert, Jr.) trying to prove to his mother that he is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. He moves into his own apartment, adjacent to a young eccentric actress (Goldie Hawn). His overprotective mother is suspicious not only of him living alone, but that should he fall in love and then have his heart broken, he won't be able to deal with it.

Everyone in the film is terrific. I started looking for more Eddie Albert, Jr. movies as well as more Goldie Hawn movies from what looks to be her hayday (her movies nowadays just don't have the same effect). It's a very simple, very fun little film.

Pleasant light entertainment

[buonoart · 6/10 · 19 September 2017]

Butterflies Are Free makes an entertaining watch that is as light and fleeting as a butterfly itself. It's funny, has an appropriate amount of pathos and doesn't seem all too dated. Yes it's a bit of a contrivance, the plot and dialogue have some predictable twists and flips and the resolution is fairly obvious and in particular Mrs. Baker's volte-face, while comfortingly motherly is a stretch out of character, but the performances are all good regardless. Don't think too hard about this one just groove to the tie-dyed vibe and a precious Goldie Hawn.

Nothing is free in life.

[retpet · 4/10 · 18 August 2018]

If he weren't a drop dead handsome blind man, would Goldie have anything to do with him? Nay, I say!! Miss Superficial of 1972 posing as a free spirit doesn't come out as herself until her 80s films where she shows her materialistic and conniving sides. I think it was generally poorly cast. There was little magic here.

Masterpiece

[dsuggitt · 14 June 2009]

I just finished watching this movie. I woke up this morning believing I saw this movie years ago, and decided to give it a chance to see if it jogged any memories. Turns out I did see it years ago but now with me being much older, it held much greater significance for me. This film was not dated at all and it would be relative to almost any period in time. The issues dealt with in the movie are the same issues that people deal with all the time, except of course for the role brilliantly played by Edward Albert in which he plays a blind man. One of the beautiful aspects of this film is that the script tries, and succeeds at eliminating the stereotypes and limitations of the handicap to instead focus on the real emotional ups and downs of the human soul. Absolutetly brilliant film.

Warmed-over hippie tripe

[NORDIC-2 · 6/10 · 30 June 2014]

After listening to a witty radio interview featuring Harold Krentz—a blind man mistakenly classified as "1-A" by his local draft board—screenwriter Leonard Gershe (the 1958 Oscar winner for 'Funny Face') was inspired to write 'Butterflies Are Free', a play about a young blind man who moves from Scarsdale to Greenwich Village to get away from his overprotective mother and establish his independence. Opening at the Booth Theatre on W. 45th Street on Oct. 21, 1969, 'Butterflies' starred Keir Dullea ('2001, A Space Odyssey') as Don Baker, the blind protagonist; Eileen Heckart as Baker's mother; Blythe Danner as Jill Tanner, Baker's next-door neighbor and love interest; and Paul Michael Glaser as Ralph Austin, a friend of Jill's. A surprise hit, the play ran for nearly three years (1,128 performances) and earned Danner a 1970 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. In March 1970 producer Mike Frankovich ('Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice') paid Gershe $300,000 and a percentage of the film's future earnings for the screen rights to his play. Frankovich also hired Gershe to adapt his play to the screen and the play's director, Milton Katselas, to direct the film. Of the original cast, Eileen Heckart and Paul Michael Glaser were tapped to reprise their Broadway roles but television's favorite blonde hippie chick, Goldie Hawn ("Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In"), replaced the then relatively unknown Blythe Danner and 20-year-old Eddie Albert, Jr. supplanted 35-year-old Keir Dullea in an obvious bid to lend the film greater youth appeal. Likewise, the setting was switched from New York City to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, to marinade the story in hippie counterculture ambiance. Viewed now, decades after its initial release, 'Butterflies Are Free' can be regarded as a time capsule of a short-lived Aquarian Age, or more cynically, as a transparently slick exercise in sentimentality dressed up in hippie garb. Eileen Heckart's turn as Mrs. Baker earned her the 1973 Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. A final irony: although the title sounds like the quintessence of hippie philosophy, it was actually derived from Charles Dickens' 1853 novel, 'Bleak House'! VHS (1996) and DVD (2002).

One Of My Favorites Of The Era

[Jimmy_the_Gent4 · 10/10 · 10 August 2020]

A young blind man seeks independence from his over protective mother, he falls in love with a free spirited actress.

I love this film, it is set in the long gone hippie era of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is a comedy/drama with great performances. Edward Albert is touching as the blind man, you really feel his pain in some of the more dramatic moments. Goldie Hawn, as usual is cute and funny in her role but she also can be selfish and callous at times, making for a more interesting character. Eileen Heckart deserved her Oscar as the mother, the role is not a stereotypical over bearing mother, she is also very wise and loving. Plus she has some of the funniest lines. There is a scene where Goldie is walking around just in her bra and panties and tells Heckart that she is an actress. Heckart's reply "Might I have seen you in anything...besides your underwear?" And I love the folky music in it too, Albert sings the title song and a bit of John Denver's "Country Roads".

Not sure

[WilliamJE · 6/10 · 29 July 2022]

Eileen Heckart is great, none of the characters are portrayed as perfect, and Goldie Hawn spends much of the movie walking around in her underwear. That are the film's strong points.

Weak points- The film is tedious and sentimental schmaltz till Don's mother arrives on set half way through. From that point on, Butterflies are Free is more bearable. A movie I have very mixed feelings about.

it's not often that a character makes you tense up without getting aggressive

[lee_eisenberg · 8/10 · 31 December 2020]

I knew nothing about "Butterflies Are Free" when I started watching it, which made it even more of a treat. For starters, it was interesting to see Goldie Hawn play a role that isn't a ditz. True, she's a sweet-talker with a fine figure, but clearly competent. The movie actually surprised me in what it revealed about Edward Albert's character.

But despite these, Eileen Heckart's Oscar-winning performance as the mom is the one that really deserves the praise. Without getting hostile or threatening anyone, that character made me feel as if I was walking on eggshells. Heckart might not be the most well known actress, but man that woman could play a role.

The movie is based on a play by Leonard Gershe, and it feels like a play. I understand that the original play takes place in New York, but the movie transfers it to San Francisco, giving us a look at the city - or a few blocks of it - in the days immediately after the hippie era. What a time to be alive!

Anyway, it's not a great movie, but I recommend it.

Wispy-thin, but engaging on a minor level

[moonspinner55 · 7/10 · 28 June 2001]

Only a couple of days pass during "Butterflies Are Free", but Lives Are Changed Forever--or so they say--in the course of its story. Two neighbors (one blind) meet, fall in love without saying it, manage to take on his domineering mama, argue, and...well, you can guess the rest. Based on the popular play, the film uses its staginess to good advantage, making the blind man's apartment a character in the proceedings (with a bed up on stilts and a bathtub under the dinner table!), yet it's a one-note, one-idea movie which seldom takes its emotions very far. I wanted to be moved by the ending, but it's puzzlingly bland. All the acting here is very fine, Eileen Heckart won a Supporting Actress Oscar, but it isn't a picture that changed or improved careers. **1/2 from ****

Such a beautiful film!

[felicia-blake-1 · 10/10 · 20 December 2016]

I remember watching this film in my teens (I am 41 now) and being mesmerised! Its slow-paced, no action occurs whatsoever but I had to keep watching as it was completely gripping. I watched this with my boyfriend last night and he too thought it was good! Each actor excelled in their character guise and towards the end you really grow to love, care and respect each of their individual qualities. You can really understand why it was a play as the movie plays as such. My FAVOURITE scene is toward the end where Don's heart is breaking to see Jill fake a love for the random introduction of Ralph. The camera stays with him and we see him pretend to smile, struggle to comprehend what is happening to inevitable tears - stunning!! Very underrated classic. I gave this a 10 star! My main criteria - Could it have been any better? Simple answer = NO!

BUTTEFLIES ARE FREE (Milton Katselas, 1972) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 8 March 2014]

This is yet another film I ought to have watched or, at least, acquired well before now; given its subject matter of a blind young man (a debuting Edward Albert) falling for a free-spirited girl (Goldie Hawn) and meeting opposition from his possessive mother (Oscar winner Eileen Heckart), I expected melodrama of the worst kind – but the approach, which veered more towards character-driven romantic comedy, proved far less oppressive than it certainly could have been! On his first film, too, was director Katselas – who had a rather brief career, following this with 40 CARATS (1973; which, again, I own but have yet to check out), which reunited him with Albert and screenwriter Leonard Gershe.

Though the "Leslie Halliwell Film Guide" gives it no stars at all, which probably had more to do with my overlooking the movie all this time than anything else, it has received a number of accolades: apart from two other Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography and Sound (a vital element in view of the physical impairment concerned), it was also up for a number of major awards – albeit in the Musical/Comedy slot – at the Golden Globes (but, surprisingly, Heckart did not even make the Supporting Actress shortlist this time around!): film, actor, actress and the song "Carry Me", while Albert did emerge the winner in the "Most Promising Newcomer" category; Gershe, then, was a WGA nominee for adapting his own play to the screen. Interestingly, the male lead being the son of veteran character actor Eddie Albert, it should be noted that the latter was himself Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated that same year for THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972; which also lies in my "To Watch" pile)! Another odd coincidence between father and son is the fact that, when the 99 year-old old man was going through his final illness, the younger one – who, by then, was caring for his parent on a full-time basis – learnt of his own terminal ailment and would pass away only a year later (at age 55!)!

Anyway, the central triumvirate of characters virtually duplicate those of the recently-viewed A PATCH OF BLUE (1965), only here the blind person is male; we also have pretty much the same lack of sentimentality in dealing with such a sensitive subject – with the afflicted party longing for both independence (which he gets by surprisingly famously unless objects are displaced from the way he left them!) and love (though already disillusioned when we first meet him). Hawn is typically kooky (upon noticing Albert looking at her half-dressed, but without being aware of his predicament, she takes a leaf out of Luis Bunuel's TRISTANA {1970} and angrily flashes him!) and, at least initially, superficial – since she, an aspiring stage actress, has no qualms about moving out of the condominium and in with her director, played by Paul Michael Glaser (of "Starsky & Hutch"), after having led the blind man on! Perhaps allowing for the fact that Albert's character cannot see her, she spends a good deal of her time in his adjoining flat in her underwear; in fact, when Heckart turns up unexpectedly, the young couple had just spent their first night together (he eventually suggests – at Hawn's implication – that she change her morose expression, lest others take her for a lesbian)! Albert has managed to learn to play the guitar to accompany his lyric writing and adequate singing voice (at one point, he covers John Denver's popular "Take Me Home, Country Roads"!); this artistic bent (which also explains the myriad literate references throughout, the title – also utilized in a song – deriving from Dickens) was inherited from his mother: to alleviate her son's loneliness growing up, used to write children's books in which the protagonist was a blind superhero named Donnie Dark!!

The confined setting (only briefly opening up for Albert's change of clothing under Hawn's guidance and, then, her tete-a'-tete with Heckart – which inevitably ends in a row), considerable length (109 minutes) and talky nature do not necessarily work against the film, thanks to the characterizations being so finely-tuned to their social background (conventionally-bred Heckart's apprehension about Hawn's lack of commitment – who, at 19, is already a divorcée' – is proved right, at least for a short while) and liberated era (Albert's apartment had served as a hippie commune, while Hawn's all-important theatrical engagement involves copious nudity).

Butterflies Are Free and So Are We to See this Wonderful Film ****

[edwagreen · 10/10 · 8 October 2009]

A truly wonderful film of the highest order.

In a 24 hour period Goldie Hawn and Edward Albert are 2 free spirits who meet as neighbors and prove that love conquers all even in blindness.

There is a splendid Oscar-winning performance by Eileen Heckart as an over-protective, completely overbearing mother who meets her match with Hawn. Heckart who had been nominated before for 1956's "The Bad Seed" had to be terrific to beat out Shelley Winters' portrayal of Belle Rosen in "The Poseidon Adventure." She certainly was.

The dialogue in the film is crisp and some of the lines by the characters are so well delivered in round sequence.

My favorite line was when Heckart says to Hawn: "So your marriage lasted 6 days and the 7th day you rested." Hawn said: "No, on the 7th day I split!"

Edward Albert is masterful as the blind youth,refusing to allow his handicap to conquer him. Heckart, as the doting mother, will do anything to keep her sonny boy in tow until a memorable lunch with Hawn,changes all that.

This is certainly a classic film.

A belated adolescence?

[eabakkum · 7/10 · 8 December 2016]

The film Butterflies are free appeals to me notably because of the scenery, which is flower power life in the roaring (last) years of the sixties. You know you are in California, when your pet has its own psychiatrist. This does not imply that the story is outdated or not timeless. However, certain elements do personate the typical spirit of the time, such as the general acceptance of sexual licentiousness ("This would be fun with a few more people"). They are embodied mainly by the female character Jill. Even though she is nineteen years old, she has already been married, albeit for only six days. It were the two most glorious days of her life. She loves to experiment, and has been both a hippie and a young republican (she concludes: "There are no young republicans"). She dresses in the flower power fashion, and lives within the counter culture movement. The male character Don is plain and common, and is exceptional merely due to his blindness. He goes skydiving in order to scare the hell out of his dog (just kidding; he does not have a dog). Jill and Don meet in the apartment, that they share. The apartment is as colorful as Jill, thanks to its former inhabitants who were hippies. Don lives on his own, with the financial support of his mother. This impresses Jill. She falls for Don, and within half an hour she seduces him. However, already the next day she is vexed by second thoughts ("Do you know that the ceiling needs painting?"), and decides to move house again. This plunges Don into an emotional crisis. Let me reflect on that. In general I like to ponder about film scripts, in order to extract a hidden message or meaning. Unfortunately it is difficult to make sense of the Butterfly narrative. Although Jill dominates the relationship, she is evidently as immature as Don. The events are unbalanced, and volatile. Even the peeping toms are booing them. Is this a portrayal of a belated adolescence? Indeed, the naivete saves Butterflies from being perverse. Note that the film is an adaptation of a screen play, and little attempt has been made to enhance the dynamics in space and time and to include captivating cinematic effects. At least the reviews are worthwhile.

Surprising

[multidecoy · 5 August 2004]

I randomly put this movie on today, and I was pleasantly surprised. So much that I took the time to register and write the only review of a movie I've ever written. The movie feels more like a play, with a majority of the movie occurring in one space. The bulk of the movie is dialog, the main character Donny is blind. The movie is about his struggle for independence from his enabling mother and his interaction with his newfound roommate, Jill. I found all the actors delivery to be exceptional, and the interactions dynamic and entertaining. Most of the movie is conversations between the characters with quick replies and wit worthy of note. There's not much going on in the film outside of a simple plot, but the movie touches on some very serious, emotional moments as well as humorous. I think Donny's character is played excellently, and the other roles very convincing as well. Overall I found the movie to be really well done, entertaining and not at all bland, although it is definitely more like a play than a movie, so it might take a little more creativity and thought to make it as appealing, but that's what I enjoy anyway. Very impressed, haven't enjoyed a movie that much in a while. And it's 34 years old.