1980s films revisited: The Big Chill and Crossing Delancey, Part 2

For Part 1, see previous post.

Success and climbing the career ladder

Most of the characters in The Big Chill have achieved success after graduating college [1], and it is understood that the characters who have fallen by the wayside have done so for psychological reasons. Alex, while a "scientific genuis", holds a number of jobs revolving around manual labor, and never finds success in the same way his college friends did. He suffers from depression and eventually takes his life.

Alex's example is joined by Nick, who is a drug addict. But theses are seen as unusual blips, individual problems that can be solved by doctors and professionals. The moral underpinning of The Big Chill is: if you have a problem, it's you, not the system. This is exactly the reassuring message the audience craved.

If The Big Chill broadcasts the message, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.", Crossing Delancey sings, "There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza."

We get a scene where Izzys' friends, mostly career women, complain about the lack of eligible bachelors, and a brief reference to the so-called "man shortage". Another one of her friends is challenging the nuclear family arrangement by raising a baby in a separate living quarters from the father. And the short clip of a Guerilla Girls piece we see on TV is a reminder of feminism and its impact on all aspects of American life (a rare nod for a mainstream movie). So there's an atmosphere of upheaval and change that's acknowledged.

There's a scene in Crossing Delancey where Sam Posner (played by Peter Riegert) confronts Isabelle (Amy Irving) about her career snobbery, and says something like, "I'm not good enough because I work with pickles?! Do you think this defines me?!" It's a moving scene because it's the one moment where 80s career obsession is directly questioned. Sam verbalizes one of the main tensions building in the movie: is a flashy career all that matters?

His speech is not only a critique of 80s careerism in general, but how men are traditionally defined by their jobs. This prompts a few questions:

• If the roles can change for women, why can't they change for men, too?


• Or are women simply working towards becoming exactly like men—and men will stay the same? Why should that be?

This is pretty challenging stuff for the genre of "romantic comedy".

The Big Chill largely ignores the tremendous upheaval to gender roles, beyond noting that women can now achieve as well as men (Glen Close plays a doctor; Mary Kay Place is a lawyer).

With regard to male characters, the film mistakes career for character. Harold Cooper (Kevin Kline) owns a sneaker company. Owning a shoe company isn't an aspect of his character—it is his character. [2]

[Continued in Part 3.]

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Footnotes

[1] Six characters of the eight living characters are successful by external measurements. Karen is questionable. She's achieved traditional markers of success (house, husband, kids), but feels unfulfilled. She may pursue a writing career. Meg and Nicks' status is ambiguous. Although they're both mentally in dark places (she's mourning the loss of her partner, he's an addict), by the end of the film it is hinted that they will land on their feet.

[2] 1980s audiences would've immediately understood that Cooper's "Running Dog Shoes" was modeled on the real-life success of Nike and Reebok, both of which enjoyed an explosion in sales that decade. I prefer writing to be a bit more disguised.