Terms of Endearment (1983)

Real-life mother and daughter Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis were considered for roles of Aurora and Emma.

I hope this never gets remade. I don't think it could ever match what they did in this movie.

Still watch it every year. Still love it . Still cry when she dies.

Great movie.

The Sissy Spacek-Jennifer Jones version would've been interesting but not as campy.

Debra Winger's mistake was putting herself in the Best Actress category up against Shirley MacLaine. She likely would have won for Supporting.

10 Fascinating Facts About Terms of Endearment

They were both great-

Debra Winger and Shirley MacLaine fought on the set of Terms of Endearment. Richard Gere clashed with her on An Officer and a Gentleman. She argued with director Ivan Reitman on the set of Legal Eagles, and had problems working with Lynda Carter on the set of Wonder Woman.

The child actors deserve some credit for the film’s success (especially the final goodbye in the hospital), if only for surviving what must have been an incredibly contentious set.

I did not like Lisa Hart Carroll in her role as “Patsy”.

No way, OP. Winger's dying scene was stupendous and MacLaine's reaction was fake and forced. It's like she was caught off guard and thought "Oh right, now I have to act."

I loved the sequel Evening Star as well.

Adult Tommy looks like a bossy bottom.

I have to admit this scene was a masterpiece.

I took a friend to see this. At the end, she punched me and said "You didn't tell me she died!" I thought everyone knew.

Didn't Shirley call her "turbulent" Debra Winger in her acceptance speech?

The novel by Larry McMurtry is a great read and a very different experience than the movie. The movie invented the Jack Nicholson character from scratch. And in the novel the Danny DeVito character has a large role and is not a comic relief character like in the film. The Donald Moffat and Marion Ross characters from The Evening Star are also major characters in the novel.

Turbulent brilliance!!!

Adult Tommy on Househunters International!

Goodness, the wife sure is a plain Jane R19.

I watched it a couple weeks ago and other than her death scene, the rest of the movie Debra Winger is hammy and has sometimes awkward line delivery.

I like her in Officer and a Gentleman and other movies, but in Terms it seems like there would have been better takes to use. It usually indicates problems with the director.

She and Shirley MacLaine are not similar at all, probably since they were fighting the whole time. They are not in sync.

When I read the book in 1979, I pictured Bea Arthur as Aurora, and Julie Kavner as Emma.

Debra Winger SUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!!!

Her whole career in the 80's completely baffled me!!!! Her tone-deaf line delivery is so distracting, I don't know how any competent Casting Director gave her her big break, unless she was amazing on the "casting couch"!

I'm a big fan of all three main characters (Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson), yet never really grasped the appeal of this movie. I mean, the movie is OK but nothing terribly special IMO. For whatever reason, I feel little emotion whatsoever when watching it (particularly the death scene that everyone raves over). All three actors did a fine job with what they had to work with (Nicholson is certainly more charming here than usual) but I just do not find the material particularly deep or intriguing.

It's the book, r24, only "lite."

I cannot stand the scene where they first show a grown up Emma sitting on the front yard watching the astronaut move in. Both the look on her face and the fact that her legs are splayed wide open while the movers stare at her make her seem mentally retarded. I just tried watching this again 2 weeks ago and could not get past that. Shirley IS way better than Debra. I used to love this movie but can't do it anymore.

Burt Reynolds turned down the astronaut role that went to Jack Nicholson. It's easy to picture Burt doing the comedic scenes, but can't imagine him getting serious for the dramatic parts.

R24 probably you never had a mother who loved you. Empathy never comes to those who never experience it.

i liked the movie and everyone in it except Wing guh

Why did they dub the older son's voice? Some voice actor (female) dubbed all of the kids lines! Why didn't they dub DEBRA with someone who could actually act! They did it to Andie McDowell in Greystoke! Glenn Close dubbed all of her lines! How embarrassing!

Mary Kay Place dubbed the actress in the car who drops him off when he's drunk.

I liked Patsy and think she acted as well as everyone else in the movie.

The actress who played Patsy sucked too! Ugh!!! She was married to a Studio Executive so that's how THAT dumpster fire ended up in the film!!!!

On the night before her marriage, Emma gets stoned with Patsy as they listen to Ethel Merman sing "Anything Goes."

Aurora had more in common with Patsy. I could see the two of them being a big part of the daughter's life.

This would have been a great vehicle for Judy and Liza.

A cliche ridden mess---the death scene being the worst. Maclaine played most of her later roles the same way---a brittle version of the kooks she played when she was younger. Jeff Daniels was horribly unbelievable as a college professor. He can play one now, but was too lightweight to play one then.

i have been told i am Daniels doppelganger, then AND now

Shirley, Deb & Jack

I love this film, all three are perfect. I love Debra in this film. Her performance and character are authentic. I love the tension between her and Shirley. It works so well.

Emma's deterioration is fast but lots of observant moments in them. Like the scene where Aurora is going on about her love life and Emma's like "I'm sick" and doesn't give a shit. Felt natural.

The kids are wonderful. Jeff Daniels doesn't get enough credit as Flap. He's kind of a jerk but Emma still loves him but can talk to him straight up without sugarcoating like in their last scene together, which is a beautifully acted and written scene.

Winger was just as deserving as MacLaine but at least Winger didn't commit category fraud. She is a co-lead so she did submit in the correct category.

R4 There was never a Jennifer Jones-Sissy Spacek version of the film planned.

Jennifer Jones did own the rights to Terms during the 70s but couldn't get any takers and it ended up with James L. Brooks. James L. Brooks first casting choices were Elizabeth Taylor & Burt Reynolds. That never worked out and Shirley was offered the role in the very early 1980s. Brooks then cast Sissy Spacek but she dropped out because as filming was about to start she had just had a baby. Winger was then cast (others consider for the daughter role include Mary Steenburgen).

Even with MacLaine on board Brooks still wanted Burt Reynolds who turned down the role. Enter Jack Nicholson.

Matthew Sweet was a student at the college in Nebraska during filming and walks by when Flap and Emma are arguing on campus.

The greatest tearjerker off all time, but I would understand it may not touch the hearts of people who were abandoned or unloved as a child.

The only TEAR-JERKER moment of the film was the "GET MY DYING DAUGHTER HER MEDS!" moment where Shirley ATE the scenery! Otherwise the entire movie was..... blah.

IMO the movie works because it doesn’t succumb to schmaltzy tear jerking moments like “Beaches”. Well written and extremely well acted. I can’t believe people here are knocking the performances of Winger and Daniels, both of whom are perfection.

Daniels had a southern accent for a couple of minutes in this movie. Then it went away.

And Winger kept her annoying mid-Western accent for the entire movie (and every movie she’s been in, actually). It’s very strong.

Jeff Daniels moved back to Michigan after this movie because he didn't think his career would have longevity.

Winger was born in Cleveland but probably spent most of her growing-up in LA.

Young Jeff Daniels was very attractive IMO.

In the mid 80s, I taught for three years at Kearney State College, the school they move to because Flap can’t get a job anywhere else—so it stands for the bottom of the barrel. The place is so ugly and depressing that the scenes set there were actually filmed at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. We always joked that Emma’s death was a happy ending because at least she got out of Kearney. What s hell-hole with some of the most racist? Homophobic Bible-thumpers I ever met. There was a group of middle-aged married men, all ugly as the Plains themselves, who got together for daytime “parties.” We called them “The Sister’s.” I still have PTSD three decades after leaving.

I think Jeff Daniels was very sexy. Particularly in Something Wild. Nice ass shot.

Winger's annoying Lewis Skonick laughter in this part ruined it for me. Thankfully, there's a lot more to this film, than Deborah Winger.

*Lewis Skolnick

On the DVD commentary James L. Brooks said one actress they were considering for Emma dropped out of consideration because of the "here comes the bride" line.

I can't imagine who would have been that uptight about that joke. Marie Osmond maybe? She was trying to get film roles at the time. I read she almost got the Elizabeth McGovern role in Ordinary People.

I saw it in a theatre when it was released in '83. As I read this thread, all of a sudden I remembered John Lithgow having a small but, for me, strong performance as Debra W's character's fling. I did not remember the fact that he was in competition with Jack Nicholson for Best Supporting Actor. What I remember of his performance was his character being very needy and innocent and that I found his small part in the film very compelling. I guess I would like to see it sometime again, but the soap opera-ish sadness of the ending of the film puts me off to watch it anytime soon. With 2020 being so goddamn awful, I find that I must avoid things like movies, music, television that has so much sadness interwoven into them.

Lithgow joined the film mid-shoot when they fired George Dzundra. (don't know if that was because of Winger or not)

Anyway Lithgow ended his biography right before he got to Terms teasing it as his most popular film and how he joined the most chaotic atmosphere he ever witnessed on a set. I wish he'd finish part 2 of his bio.

That Oscar nom for him was also because he did Twilight Zone the same year. It was thought they didn't want to recognize that film and all the controversy so he slipped in here.

I wish Jeff Daniels had gotten that nomination instead.

[quote]Debra Winger and Shirley MacLaine fought on the set of Terms of Endearment. Richard Gere clashed with her on An Officer and a Gentleman. She argued with director Ivan Reitman on the set of Legal Eagles, and had problems working with Lynda Carter on the set of Wonder Woman.

And I hear she held down and shit on the pigeon from Forget Paris after he fluttered his line sixteen takes.

Siskel and Ebert made a big push for Daniels to get nominated but it didn't happen.

Winger also hated the woman who played Patsy which sort of goes against the theory that she was method acting. MacLaine said she had to be in a real fight with her and Daniels in order to do scenes where they were fighting. You'd think she'd have wanted to get along with Patsy. The actress was pretty inexperienced and hired locally I think.

Winger also fought with John Malkovitch on The Sheltering Sky and David Mamet on a play just a few years ago.

What exactly is wrong with Debra Winger? Didn't she fart in Shirley's face?

Was that method acting too?

that's just DL lore r62.

She did climb under the sheets during one of MacLaine and Nicholson's love scenes though.

Poor Debra. Alec Baldwin asked her how come she didn’t know she was good and she said I couldn’t see it. She had severe mental health and drug problems in the 80’s.. To this day she doesn’t get offered much.

Winger did, in fact, expel noxious fumes barreling from her colon onto MacLaine's nostril region, who accurately identified Winger's egg sandwich-n-hash browns breakfast as the source of the offending odor.

Debra has said she was really insecure too which people mistook for being difficult. She took a few years off between Terms and Legal Eagles. Rumors were it was to clean up from drug use, but I think she was trying to get her head on straight when it came to fame. I love Debra and she is genuinely talented, but I don’t think she gets a lot of satisfaction from acting.

Other than the hospital scene where she says goodbye to her kids at the end, Debra Winger's acting wasn't above average or Oscar-worthy.

Isn't Turbulent Brilliance the name of the new Madame X perfume?

R64 has she ever admitted to her drug problems though? I think to this day she’s remained one of those unselfaware actresses who attributes her problems to being an “outspoken woman.”

She has had a long lasting marriage though, so I’ll give her that at least. And they live a genuinely low key life. Maybe she saves most of her crazy for work?

Thank you r14. That was my favorite as well.

Because of this thread, I rewatched it this past weekend

And what did you think R71?

Larry McMurtry based Aurora Greenway in part on Polly Platt.

Both MacLaine and Winger are marvellous.

Yeah she's an insufferable bitch but I thought Winger was brilliant and should have won the Oscar. Her off kilter acting, voice, personality made her seem real.

[quote] Jeff Daniels was horribly unbelievable as a college professor. He can play one now, but was too lightweight to play one then.

Which was literally the whole point to the character.

And was why his performance was great.

She said in an interview that she did a lot of psychedelic mushrooms in the 80s and they were beneficial.

YOU'RE PARKED IN MY DRIVEWAY YOU'RE BREAKING THE LAW!

Daniels was terrible. Unconvincing even as a failed English professor at a crappy school and couldn't do a consistent accent.

Winger many not be Oscar worthy, but unlike Maclaine, she doesn't repeatedly give the same performance. She was better in that CS Lewis film than in "Terms". She tied of cancer in both but had better material and a better cast in the CS Lewis film.

Terms came out the same year as "Big Chill" and is equally overrated.

Winger used to escape Hollywood and stay with family in Ohio after her 80s films. May have simply been a cover for rehab.

R71: It’s about my 3rd or 4th time watching it. Still one of my favorite movies.

Minority opinion, but I felt Winger gave a beautiful performance that was much more honest than Shirley's. I do think Shirley hits it out of the park in the second half (when things end with Jack, and when Emma is sick), but Winger felt much more real the entire movie.

I get why people gravitate to Shirley's work more, but Winger made it look easy in the early 80s, and people didn't appreciate that enough (plus she was "difficult" and then Legal Eagles happened, and she seemed to get the blame for that dreck much more than Redford or Hannah, both much more deserving of the scorn).

Having Burt Reynolds as a single horny neighbor into casual hookups would be ideal.

Not during the "Give Her the Shot" scene. She might as well be Elizabeth Taylor and Butterfield 8!!

I wish Flap had been written into “The Evening Star”. I guess Larry McMurtry had nothing left to say about the character, but a scene between Shirley McLaine and Jeff Daniels 20 or so years after Emma’s death seemed like a no-brainer to me.

I am not an easy crier by any stretch but Emma's goodbyes to her boys reduces me to puddles.

If anyone's seen the odious "Rachel Getting Married," Debra gives a fantastic performance in that as Hathaway's mother. Winger should have gotten a nomination for it (and Rosemarie DeWitt was also fantastic as Winger's other daughter), but instead they nominated Hathaway for a truly terrible performance.

my fav line when she’s talking to the baby and Debra on the phone “how are you, I sent you a blouse..” The end scene with the boys kills me...the little one is blubbering and wiping snot away...they must have really gotten them going before filming.

Jamie Lee Curtis as Emma and Shirley MacLaine would probably produce a similar movie.

R88 and their facial features are more pointed and angular.

Shirley MacLaine would never birth a Debra Winger with her fair hair and pale complexion.

WOW! Holy shit!! I'm watching this on Showtime and just came to the car on the beach scene. They go from Shirley walking over to him in the water to him walking away from her. They cut the kissing part, the part where he grabs her tit and they fight. What the fuck???

They cut that scene out? On Showtime? What the hell?

I even remember them leaving that scene in when I used to watch it on TBS and TNT as a kid.

r90: that's like a major plot point of their relationship

I don’t know what’s going on with Showtime. I know this movie backwards and forwards and there are a few scenes cut.

Debra Winger was also very good in the movie about C.S. Lewis: "Shadowlands"

Anthony Hopkins played Jack Lewis.

I'm still watching. They also cut the scenes where Winger's oldest son mouths off to her, they argue and she spanks him. They cut a good five minutes or so out of the whole film. I don't get it.

Awesome movie. I thought all the actors were fine.

Nice insights into the love/hate dynamics between mothers and daughters

Team Winger here. She gave a perfect performance while MacLaine played herself-not a bad thing but not a great feat of acting, either. The goodbye to the boys scene is my favorite followed closely by GO TO THE CAR HONEY scene.

Shirls Oscar speech. Rock Hudson a year and a half before his death and Liza presenting. She kisses Debra and tells her you deserve half of this and Debra says I’ll take it.

Hated it

I'm impressed with Winger's performance. She was the most real and compelling actor in the movie. Shirley has played a grumpy aging woman in a few movies, but I always enjoy her performance.

She chewed up the scenery in the "Get her the shot!" scene. It reminds me of Sally Field's "I wanna know why!!" funeral scene in Steel Magnolias.

John Lithgow is one of the least sexy human beings ever. It would have been fun to see Burt in Jack's role.

I think people are so impressed with MacLaine in this because it was such a departure from her vulnerable waif performances when she was younger. Little did they know she'd be playing essentially the same character for the rest of her career. She plays it better than anyone else, though. Gotta give her that much.

Mary Kay Place would have been a good choice for Emma, and probably would have been better in some scenes.

It would have been hard to believe that Flap would cheat with a plain mousy teacher when he had Jamie Lee Curtis' straight man candy boobs waiting at home.

Old people film

Terms of old deer meat

Actually, Maclaine was playing a brittle, semi-alcoholic version of her old waif character. Waifs get brittle when widowed or divorced and they no longer have the fund of their youth. And yes she played that "Terms" character for the next 30+ years, probably more times than Shelly Winters played annoying Jewish mothers.

R105: you're going to die young?

r99 I don't hear MacLaine saying she'll give Winger half. Did she say that later?

shortly after this they both did Barbara Walters interviews badmouthing each other.

R105 Sorry we aren't discussing Twilight.

I want to know more about Showtime showing an edited version. Was it Showtime on demand through cable or was it their streaming app?

Used to love Winger but now I watch her,. especially in this, and she does this little cutesy thing playing coy that is so not her and, thus, so fake. In every film. (See the stupid cashier check out scene where Lithgow, another annoyance, scolds the woman).

I still love the "Debra Winger, nobody else here even knows who you are, get your butt over here and sign this autograph" story from the Oscars.

R112 Yes, that's what I was talking about in R26! That stupid fucking look on her face. She did it quite a bit in Officer and a Gentleman too.

[quote] I want to know more about Showtime showing an edited version. Was it Showtime on demand through cable or was it their streaming app?

It was the Showtime Anytime app.