Taking Off
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Milos Forman
Lynn Carlin
Buck Henry
Georgia Engel
Tony Harvey
Audra Lindley
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
While a hypnotherapist helps Larry Tyne control his urge to smoke, Larry's fifteen-year-old daughter Jeannie, who has run away from her suburban Connecticut home, joins an audition in Manhattan for girl singers. As the hundreds of hopefuls try out, Larry returns home, where he and his wife Lynn realize their daughter is missing. Just as their friends Margot and Tony come over to commiserate, the phone rings, but no one speaks on the other line. The adults search Jeannie's room, which, despite having the frilly décor of a young girl, contains marijuana cigarettes hidden under the bed. Meanwhile, Jeannie, finding herself too stage-struck to complete her audition, speaks with another teenager in the crowd, who has just taken some LSD. At home, Lynn begs Larry to go out and search for Jeannie, and although he and Tony find no sign of her, the police offer him a list of bars that young people commonly frequent. While Larry and Tony begin drinking at one of the bars, Lynn is shocked to learn from Margot that she and Tony still have sex several times a day. One night, Margot relates, Tony asked her to sing and dance, so she performed a rowdy rendition of "De Camptown Races." Later, Jeannie returns home. Lynn immediately calls the family doctor, who counsels her to demand that Jeannie tell her what drugs she has taken. Jeannie remains stoic and silent in the face of her mother's questioning, and when her father returns in a drunken stupor, she slips out again through the back door, unnoticed. The next day, Larry returns to the city, searching the Lower East Side for Jeannie. At one bar, he passes around a photograph of Jeannie, and when the bartender slips it into a box of photos, he asks to look through them. Recognizing one girl in a photograph as the young lady sitting in a booth only feet away, Larry asks the bartender to call the number on the photo, but the bartender refuses to get involved. Incensed, Larry calls the girl's mother, Ann Lockston, who rushes to the bar. Before she gets there, however, the girl and her male friends get up to leave, and when Larry tries to talk to her, the men threaten him. He follows them onto the street, just as Ann arrives, jumps out of her taxi and runs after her daughter. Despite Larry's attempt to help, the girl soon eludes them, and Ann and Larry retreat to a coffeehouse. There, Ann, whose daughter ran away seven months earlier, informs Larry about The Society for Parents of Fugitive Children (S.P.F.C.), of which she is a member. When she states that she considers even the negative aspects of life an opportunity to learn and grow, Larry asks if they can spend the day together, and she agrees. When he calls Lynn to lie that he has a lead on Jeannie's whereabouts, however, she reveals that the upstate police have called to say that Jeannie is being held for shoplifting. They rush to the police station, but instead of Jeannie, find her best friend, Corinna Divito, who confesses to having used Jeannie's name in order to delay having to see her parents. In the car, when Lynn begins to cry, Larry announces that because Jeannie is off having fun, they should, too. They stop at Grossinger's Resort, and while watching Ike and Tina Turner perform, Lynn drinks herself into a stupor. Eventually, Larry, feeling tired, leaves her to go to their room, after which two swingers try to pick up Lynn. When she departs abruptly, one of them, Norman, follows her to her room and has taken off his pants before realizing that Larry is in the bed. After Norman runs off, Lynn sings "De Camptown Races" for Larry. Soon after, they attend a S.P.F.C. meeting, where they meet Ann's husband Ben. As Jeannie returns to an empty home, the S.P.F.C. president introduces a doctor and a marijuana specialist who pass out joints and painstakingly instruct the parents how to sample the drug, so that they may better understand their children's experiences. Although the members at first insist they feel nothing, soon they are singing, examining body parts and discussing the vibrations of the universe. The Tynes invite the Lockstons to their house, where they drink heavily and begin a game of strip poker. Soon, they are all in various stages of undress, and a naked Larry stands on the table to sing an aria. Jeannie, who has gone to sleep, awakens and stands at the top of the stairs, and when the adults notice her, they hurriedly dress. Larry enters Jeannie's room, and upon soliciting the confession that she has spent the past days with a boy, insists she invite him for dinner. The boy, Jamie, dutifully shows up, but remains almost silent. Finally, over dinner, Larry asks him about his work, and Jeannie states that he is a musician. Larry asks him if he makes any money, and Jamie responds that last year he made $290,000 and is now saving to buy an intercontinental ballistic missile "to change the balance of power." Shocked, Larry asks him to play after dinner, and when Jamie refuses, Larry sings "Stranger in Paradise" to the impassive pair.
Director
Milos Forman
Cast
Lynn Carlin
Buck Henry
Georgia Engel
Tony Harvey
Audra Lindley
Paul Benedict
Vincent Schiavelli
David Gittler
The Ike And Tina Turner Revue
Linnea Heacock
Rae Allen
Frank Berle
Phillip Bruns
Gail Busman
Corinna Cristobal
Barry Del Rae
Robert Dryden
Allen Garfield
Madeline Geffen
Anna Gyory
Jack Hausman
Carrie Kotkin
Herman Meckler
Ultra Violet
Sari Freeman
Jamie Freeman
Nina Hart
Michelle Scheideler
Debbie Robbins
Nancy Bell
Nancy Ferland
Jane Bedrick
Susan Chafitz
Meryl Schneiderman
Janie Rosenberg
Kay Beckett
Bobo Bates
Carly Simon
Mary Mitchell
Catherine Heriza
Shellen Lubin
Jinx Rubin
Caren Klugman
Lillian Halpert
Crew
Larry Barr
Bobo Bates
Claude Berri
Marion Billings
David Blumgart
Fran Boehm
Irving Buckman
Elinor Bunin
Jean-claude Carrière
John Carter
Peter Cornell
Alfred W. Crown
Anton Dvorak
Tom Eyen
Peggy Farrell
Edward Folger
Milos Forman
George Forrest
Stephen Collins Foster
Phillip Goldfarb
John Guare
Nina Hart
Michael Hausman
Michael Hausman
Catherine Heriza
Mike Heron
John Klein
Mike Leander
Shellen Lubin
Milton Moshlak
Miroslav Ondricek
Sanford Rackow
Louis San Andres
Tim Saunders
Eddie Seago
Carly Simon
John Starke
Renata Stoia
Ike Turner
Lee Victor
Robert Wightman
Robert Wright
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were S.P.F.C. and Dropping Out. The closing credits include an acknowledgment of the New York County Medical Society, Dept. of Commerce and Industry and the New York City Police Department. Taking Off marked the American debut for Czechoslovakian director Milos Forman, who had risen to fame for films such as Loves of a Blonde (1965) and The Firemen's Ball (1968, ). His first film, 1964's Audition, is widely credited as having launched the Czech New Wave movement. That picture's device of the live audition scene is repeated in Taking Off, which begins with a lengthy scene of women singers auditioning. The footage, which Forman described in his autobiography as included partially "to disguise my thin knowledge of American life by incorporating a straightforward documentary into my fictional film," is intercut with scenes of "Larry and Lynn Tyne" discovering that "Jeannie" has run away, and reappears interspersed throughout the film.
In October 1968, New York Times reported that Forman was completing the script to the film, which would be produced by Paramount. He wrote in his autobiography that he was inspired to write the first draft of the screenplay, with collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière, by a newspaper interview with a father of a runaway daughter. As Forman described in a February 1970 Show magazine article, Paramount turned down the finished script but charged him $130,000 to repay pre-production costs. In March 1970, New York Times announced that Universal had picked up the film, and a March 29, 1970 Variety article explained that the studio had paid Paramount $40,000, with the remaining monies deferred as a percentage of profits. That article also noted that the American unions were making two allowances for Forman: they allowed crews of minimum members and permitted Forman to hire his longtime Czech cinematographer, Miroslav Ondricek.
As noted onscreen, the film was shot entirely in New York. In addition to Manhattan and Long Island locations listed in press notes, a Beverly Hills Citizen-News news item stated that the Ike and Tina Turner footage would be shot at Grossinger's Resort in upstate New York. Forman indicated in a LAHExam profile in May 1971 that he discovered Linnea Heacock, for whom Taking Off marked her only film role, on the street. He also discussed in the article his custom of showing the actors only one scene at a time, then allowing them to ad-lib many of the lines. Modern sources include Jessica Harper and Benjamin Kestenbaum in the cast.
The film contains a song entitled "Ode to a Screw" that includes multiple occurrences of a swear word for fornication. The Life reviewer noted that the film's R rating was probably based on the song. In May 1971, Variety reported that for one week Universal had screened a version of the film with the word "bleeped out," and that although Forman was originally upset by the censoring, he accepted the option. That version was not used for general theatrical release; however, in March 1972, Daily Variety noted that songwriter Tom Eyen, who wrote the song along with Peter Cornell, had been asked by the studio to "clean" the song for the film's television broadcast.
Taking Off marked the first film for noted playwright John Guare, who later wrote the play and film versions of Six Degrees of Separation. It also marked the feature film debut of Georgia Engel, who is perhaps most famous for her role as "Georgette" on the The Mary Tyler Moore Show; the first significant film role for Audra Lindley, who went on to play "Mrs. Roper" on the television program Three's Company; and the debut of Vincent Schiavelli, frequently cast in Forman's films. The auditioning singers include Carly Simon, who was dating Forman at the time, and actress Kathy Bates, credited onscreen as Bobo Bates. Both were unknown at the time and responded to the casting call along with all the other amateurs, and made their feature film debuts in Taking Off. Jack Hausman, who played "Dr. Bob Besch," was the father of associate producer Michael Hausman.
The film was named to the 1971 Ten Best lists of The Washington Post, Newsweek and the Chicago Sun-Times. In addition, Forman won the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize of the Jury and was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy. Taking Off was also nominated for the following BAFTA awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (Lynn Carlin), Best Supporting Actress (Georgia Engel), Best Film Editing and Best Screenplay. Despite the accolades and positive reviews, some American critics took offense at a foreign filmmaker critiquing American culture.
Miscellaneous Notes
Re-released in United States June 18, 2008
Released in United States 1996
Released in United States September 2000
Restored print re-released in New York City June 18, 2008.
Released in United States Winter January 1, 1971
Re-released in United States June 18, 2008 (New York City)
Released in United States Winter January 1, 1971
Released in United States 1996 (Shown in New York City (Film Forum) as part of program "Out of the Seventies: Hollywood's New Wave 1969-1975" May 31 - July 25, 1996.)
Released in United States September 2000 (Shown in New York City (BAM Rose Cinema) as part of program "Buck Henry: The Buck Stops Here" September 7-22, 2000.)
