The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 171 Days to go: 171
Movie #206: Outrageous Fortune
Sisters are doing it for themselves!
I remember watching Outrageous Fortune many, many times on HBO as a kid, and while it was a little bit over my head in places (I didn’t understand the line “he screwed me too” could mean not sexually and I didn’t know what “left me in drag” meant, among maybe a handful of other idiomatic expressions), but I really loved it. The buddy cop movie was a big thing in the ’80s, and here was essentially a buddy cop movie only with chicks, and even though they weren’t cops but actresses, they still worked an investigation together.
Lauren (Shelley Long) and Sandy (Bette Midler) are polar opposites. Lauren is a classically trained actress, having grown up with every advantage. Sandy is a the foul-mouthed star of Ninja Vixens. Yet both find themselves studying acting with the legendary Stanislav Korzenowski (Robert Prosky) and, unbeknownst to each other, both are in their own hot and heavy relationship with local school teacher Michael Santers (Peter Coyote). When Michael is seemingly killed in an explosion, both ladies come independently of one another to the morgue where they first discover each other’s relationship with Michael and then discover the corpse is not him. (“Michael was not a guy other guys would’ve made fun of in the locker room.”)
In a move that can either be considered feminist and independent or submissive and dependent, based on your particular way of looking at it, the two decide to team up to find Michael and find out which one of them he actually has feelings for. My husband thinks this is nuts, considering at the very least they know he was cheating on both of them with the other, but back in the day I thought it was pretty inventive and a way of them taking charge of the situation. They’re going to confront him with his deception, help him if he needs it, and one of them will perhaps reconcile with him in the end. As a story’s premise, I’ve certainly heard worse.
The movie then gets increasingly awesome as Lauren and Sandy use their wits and talents to track down Michael, outsmart the many people who are tracking him down, and ultimately save themselves and the world. (As always happens in these kinds of love triangles.) They are never helpless or lacking in ingenuity. They always find a way to get themselves out of a jam, be it through their own will and determination and creativity or even by enlisting the help of honorary Indian guide Frank (George Carlin), who just so happens to be friends with a Native American dirt bike archery gang. However, all the dirt bike gang does is help Sandy track Lauren down when she’s been kidnapped and provide momentary distraction. Despite all the men on the sidelines, Lauren and Sandy take care of themselves, and I really love that.
One of the most interesting things about Outrageous Fortune, though, are how old Shelley Long and Bette Midler are in the film. Long was 37 and Midler was 41 when it was filmed, and it wasn’t considered a niche flick or a mature ladies’ flick or even a chick flick. It was a mainstream comedy, and it would never get made like that today. Today, if such a film were to be made at all, the women would either be much younger, or the fact of their ages would be a notable plot point. Sandy’s sexuality wouldn’t be so easily accepted as promiscuous and okay (“We are WAY into double digits here”) and Lauren’s probably wouldn’t be so overtly playfully lustful. That’s unfortunate to me, because these are fascinating and fabulous, well-rounded, real women. They are diverse and interesting and could exist in the world. They are smart and funny and idiosyncratic and they treat each other — especially by the end — like true friends. Save an occasional Bridesmaids, that doesn’t happen too much in movies anymore. And the world is the worse for it.
I mean, really, would it be so bad to have a chick play Hamlet sometime?
Viable Option 