On Golden Pond

Plot synopsis:
On the beautiful Golden Pond (really Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire), elderly couple Ethel and Norman return to their summer cottage, where Ethel is immediately thrilled to hear the loons welcoming them back, although Norman claims he can hear nothing. They proceed to uncover the furniture and open the windows, while Normans failing memory reveals the onset of his senility.Ethel is more energetic and lucid, joking that they are only in late middle age since she is still in her 60s and hes still in his 70s. Norman expresses a certain preoccupation with dying, having retired as a college professor many years earlier.The couple take a canoe ride on the lake and are both quite excited to see loons on the water, when suddenly a speed boat disturbs their peace, prompting them to flash their middle fingers and yell at the boater. When they later gas up their motorboat, Norman confronts some teenagers who mildly ridicule him for being old. Thereafter, Ethel sends Norman out to pick strawberries nearby.While Norman is on his walk he becomes disoriented and scared, wandering off the trail and into the woods. After a short run that causes him to pant heavily, he finds his way back to the cottage without giving Ethel any suspicions of the incident.Norman settles down to read the baseball reports in a newspaper while Ethel reads aloud from a letter, in which their daughter Chelsea announces that she will soon be visiting with her new boyfriend, who is a dentist. They talk with the local postman who tells them that one of the oldest local residents, whom Norman suspects was a lesbian, has died at the age of 97, which he suggests is somehow unfair.After the postman leaves, Norman confesses to Ethel that he got lost on his walk and needed to rush back to her. She embraces him and reassures him they will go on that same walk together to regain his memory. He wonders why she loves him so much.Norman puts on a tie to prepare for the visit of his daughter on his 80th birthday, and Ethel cautions him to be nice to Chelsea and her boyfriend. Chelsea greets him by calling him Norman and he refers to her as fat. She then introduces a 13-year-old boy named Billy Ray, the son of her boyfriend Bill Ray, and asks her mother about Normans memory problems. Norman is brusque with Bill, who is clearly not comfortable in the rustic setting given his apprehensions about bears, and they make small talk about aging, with Bill noting that he is now 45. Bill is even more awkward in explaining that hes still recovering from his divorce, and how Chelsea has made his life better. Their friction increases as Bill tells Norman he intends to sleep in the same bed with Chelsea, which Norman sarcastically accepts. Bill tells Norman it will not be easy getting to know him, and he does not want to be taunted.Billy, who is fond of saying the word bullshit, reluctantly agrees to spend time with Norman while Bill watches Chelsea and Ethel skinny-dipping in the pond after dark. Norman asks Billy what he does for fun, and the boy boasts that he sucks face with girls. In response, Norman tells him to go off and read the book 'Treasure Island'. Norman thereafter tells Ethel their daughter plans to sleep with Bill, and she recalls that they did the same thing once. Ethel tells Norman that Chelsea would like to leave Billy with them for a month while she and Bill go to Europe, and he agrees. Later that night they assemble around a large birthday cake and Norman says he has little to say about living for four score years.The next day, after showing off her impressive body by swimming in a bikini, Chelsea is excited to see her old friend the postman, who still nurtures an understandable crush on her. Bill breaks the evident tension by falling into the lake.That evening, everyone but Chelsea plays Parcheesi. She suggests that Norman has a drive to beat people.The next day, Chelsea conveys her tormented feelings about her father to Ethel. Even though she is successful in Los Angeles, he makes her feel inadequate from a distance. Ethel wants her to quit being upset about her childhood, and tells her to move on with her life.After Bill and Chelsea take off for Europe, Billy quickly expresses his contempt about his situation. He suggests hell head out west on his own, but Norman dismisses this foolish idea and tells him to go fishing with him and Ethel. The trio head out on the motorboat; Ethel reads under a parasol while the men fish. Billy later tries to impress them by diving off a dock into the lake, but his attempts are rather sloppy.Some time later, Norman takes Billy out fishing again, explaining that a huge trout lives in the lake that he has been trying to catch for years, which he has nicknamed Walter. Ethel comes by later in a smaller boat and embarrasses them by bringing lunch. Norman catches and reels in a rather large trout, which Billy helps him bring into the boat, although he tells him that Walter is a much larger fish.That night Norman starts a fire in the fireplace that gets out of control, causing Ethel and Billy to put it out. Norman gets upset at Billy, even though he knows the fire was his fault. Ethel asks Billy to have patience with Norman, who is just doing the best he can.On another day, Ethel persuades Norman to let Billy take out the motorboat on his own, and she is then surprised when Norman gives her some immodest kisses. Having gained confidence in Billy, Norman later takes him to a special fishing area called Purgatory Cove, where the rocks eat boats. Billy carefully guides Norman through, even though heavy clouds have darkened the sky. While they are fishing, Norman ponders that he wont be around long enough to catch Walter, and Billy just then catches what he thinks is the treasured fish, only to find it is a dead loon. Billy asks Norman if he is afraid to die, and the old man is resentful to speak about it.Norman then trusts Billy to drive the boat while he guides him out of the rocks. They are moving along well until Billy accidentally accelerates and slams the boat into a rock, launching Norman into the lake. Billy dives in and helps Norman to a rock; Norman, who is bleeding from the head and traumatized, still manages to hang on to Billy and help him cling to the rock.After some hours, Ethel goes to the postman and convinces him to go out into the lake to find Norman and Billy. Spying them hanging onto the rock in Purgatory Cove, Ethel dives off the boat and into the water, swimming out to them. Norman swiftly tells her, You shouldn't be out this late at night.A week goes by in which the men stay indoors, and at last Ethel relents to let them go fishing again. Chelsea then returns, surprised to find that Billy and Norman have gotten along so well. (She comments that Bill is back on the west coast for work.) Chelsea laments that Norman was never her friend like he is with Billy, then quickly announces that she married Bill while in Europe, only she is sure that Norman will not be happy for her, because he is a son of a bitch. Ethel slaps Chelsea across the face, sternly telling her, That old son of a bitch happens to be my husband, motivating Chelsea to run off and jump in the lake.Meanwhile, out on the lake Billy hooks the mythical Walter, and Norman brings him up in a net. Back on shore, Chelsea apologizes to Ethel, and her mother tries to explain that Norman is just a frightened father, and implores her to be more kind. When Billy and Norman return, they are delighted to tell Chelsea how they caught and released Walter, and Billy runs to tell Ethel.Chelsea tells Norman she wants to have more of a father-daughter relationship, that she does not want to be so mad at him, that she wants to be his friend. She agrees to come around more often, and quickly tells him she married Bill. She is shocked that Norman is indeed happy for her, and he suggests that he will enjoy seeing more of Billy.Norman happens to mention that Billy had tried doing a backflip off the dock, and Chelsea proclaims that she could do so much better. Billy and Ethel nervously watch as Norman encourages Chelsea to go through with the dive, and even though she is scared, she clumsily goes heels over head into the water, with elation from all.As Chelsea is packing up the car to leave, Norman gives Billy a cherished fishing rod, and gives her a swimming medal he won in college 60 years earlier. As they depart, she says to Norman, Goodbye... Dad, whereupon they embrace.At the end of the summer, Norman and Ethel are packing up the cottage when he becomes faint after picking up a heavy box, and he collapses to the floor. She runs to get his nitroglycerin, forcing it into his mouth as she fears he will die. She gets the phone and frantically calls the operator for a doctor, but gives up with dread that it wont make a difference. He then surprises her by saying the pain has subsided. She confesses she thought he was really going to die, which gives her very dismayed feelings. He stands up with her help, feeling better.He hears the loons on the lake, who have come to say goodbye. Just two loons, he notices, who may also have kids that have moved away.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Mark Rydell's On Golden Pond was a surprise hit in 1981, finishing third in box office grosses after Rocky III and E.T. Such an occurrence was unheard of in Hollywood, considering the key players in the film, Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn,  each had not had a hit film in almost twenty years and were both hardly spring chickens in the business.
Earning a whopping ten Oscar nominations, Ernest Thompson's reflective screenplay won one of those Oscars, but, for me, it's Dave Grusin's soothing, glistening score that is the stronger selling point here, adding immeasurably to the film's ruminative tone and gently rustic surroundings.Henry Fonda plays brusque, cantankerous Norman Thayer, a one-time college professor approaching his 80th birthday with a mixture of anger, cynicism and fear as he shows signs of losing his faculties.
As a result, Fonda becomes the glowing centerpiece of `On Golden Pond,' and it is this portrayal, along with his `Grapes of Wrath' Tom Joad, that will remain indelibly etched in our hearts and minds for decades to come.Kate Hepburn is his Ethel, a loving, pragmatic anchor who obviously has played an important role in the lifetime success of this complicated man.
Fonda would pass away a few months after winning his only Oscar.A most welcome and satisfying diversion that touches with its unpretentiousness, `On Golden Pond' is a lovely, lovely little film that should resonate for ages to come..
This is an extremely well crafted film, although I believe a little overrated from a sense of nostalgia for its beloved talented and now aging stars, Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn.
Of course the cinematography is magnificent, with lovely country scenery and beautiful lakeside vistas, all well incorporated into the emotional aspects of the picture.The movie brings the viewer into what is probably the last of many summers spent at their Golden Pond cottage by retired professor, Norman Thayer, an ornery old codger, and his cheerful, loving wife, Ethel.
Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn give brilliant Oscar winning performances as the aging Thayer couple, Norman and Ethel.
The only relationship that doesn't come off well here is the strained father / daughter one between Norman and Chelsea that presumably is meant to reflect the real life tensions between Henry and Jane Fonda.
Hopefully, at least making On Golden Pond together helped to mend any real life fences between the two Fondas.In any case, the film examines skillfully the aging process from the very personal perspective of a loving couple going through it, and as such is a movie not to be missed..
Oh,the numerous memorable characters Henry Fonda brought to the screen over the years.His most memorable came in his final film,On Golden Pond.
This film brought to light two important realizations for me.Family togetherness is one of the most important things we have in life,and we had better resolve our differences as a family and get along because we can't go back and correct the things we come to regret.Secondly,I came to realize that elderly couples are more than the stereotype we sometimes force upon them.They don't cease to be affectionate and sexual merely because they have gotten older.Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn made a delightful couple here and make you wish they had worked together more often through the years,but unfortunately,this was their first and only film together.Also,the pairing of Fonda with real life daughter Jane was indeed a delight to see.Their own troubled relationship made them naturals for their parts as a father and daughter coming together after years of tension.You could sense that at times, Henry and Jane were not acting at all when it came to their scenes with one another,making these scenes more realistic and effective.Henry Fonda received a well deserved Oscar for this film.I watched the night he received it,and recall his reaction from his home(he was too ill to attend the ceremony),and the tears streaming down his face.I couldn't help but shed a tear or two myself.I'm sure I was not the only one.Great film..
Jane, however wanted one last chance for a close bond to her father and bought the rights to the play "On Golden Pond." In the film the Oscar winning performance by Henry Fonda (his only in a career spanning decades.) Jane fully deserved her Oscar nomination for her exceptional (and of course very realistic performance.) In the actual film the chemistry of Hepburn and (Henry) Fonda is perfect.
On Golden Pond not only showcases the stunning scenery of that region, but Henry Fonda & Kate Hepburn's dynamic performances truly capture the New England spirit.
Good Will Hunting and Perfect Storm got a lot of attention, but On Golden Pond, in addition to being one of the finest character studies in film history, perfectly captures New England: beautiful, contemplative, with an understanding that newer isn't necessarily better, and that still waters truly run deep..
It's got good dialogue, good acting, interesting relatable relationship themes, makes for a poignant take on life and death, and provides the framework as a story and plot and film ultimately to deliver those strong points.But I believe it's overrated in how this was cinema giant Henry Fonda's last gig, added his own real-life daughter plays the role of his daughter in the film and had other cinema-legend Katharine Hepburn playing alongside him...this film has harvested more credit than is due (thanks to status).It's a good film, but it's flawed.
But that doesn't mean youngsters can't enjoy it.The movie tells about an old couple, Norman Thayer (Henry Fonda), a retired professor and Ethel (Katharine Hepburn), who go to their cottage to spend their summer.Their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) comes to Norman's 80th birthday with her fiance Bill Ray (Dabney Coleman) and his son Billy (Doug McKeon).The next day Bill and Chelsea go to Europe where they get married.Billy has to stay at the Thayers but it's going to be more fun than he expected.On Golden Pond from 1981 is a very sweet and heartwarming movie.This drama has two of the most legendary stars in the lead; Henry Fonda, who was born in 1905 and died in 1982, pretty soon after this movie was made and Katharine Hepburn, who was born in 1907 and we sadly lost her this year.In this movie you still have a chance to watch these two amazing stars working together.And they work together so well!You can't be nothing but amazed.It's not any wonder that they both got Oscars from this.They deserved it more than anybody else.Other actors do fine work as well, but you can't compare them with the legends.In this movie there is also Henry's daughter Jane who does her job good.The young actor Doug McKeon is great and it's nice to watch how an old man becomes a friend with a young boy.This is a brilliant movie about aging.Life is a journey and it must end some day..
The loons are back again on Golden Pond and so are Norman Thayer (Henry Fonda), a retired professor, and Ethel (Kate Hepburn) who have had a summer cottage there since early in their marriage.
This summer their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) -- whom they have not seen for years -- feels she must be there for Norman's birthday.This film is a poor excuse for a multiple-Oscar winner.
There is little dispute about the greatness of this movie, so I wanted to comment on the DVD extras from the 2003 "special edition" which, as far as I know, is the most recent release.You'll find audio commentaries by the director and the writer, both thorough and enjoyable, although the director is a little too proud of his work.There is a short doc on Katherine Hepburn, made for this edition and not long after she passed away, which contains a lot of great images and appreciation of her, but it's nothing too special.What is special is the short doc "Reflections on Golden Pond", which features the cinematographer and much of the crew, and really delves into the beautiful natural lighting of the picture.
The actor has spanned all the way from the first Academy Award-nominated performance in "The Grapes of Wrath", to producing the classic "12 Angry Men", to playing one of the coldest villains of all time in "Once Upon a Time in the West", in comedies such as "The Cheyenne Social Club" and "Mister Roberts", and now to his final years, where he gives his only Academy Award-winning performance alongside the legendary actress Katharine Hepburn and Fonda's daughter Jane in "On Golden Pond".
But now I can appreciate it more than just for the fact that it has one of my all-time favorite actors in it."On Golden Pond" is a movie that can even make me, a member of the younger generation, think about how I am going to deal with my life in the future, especially when my years are coming to a close.
Jane Fonda got a nomination for her performance in the film and when I look at her and her father in this movie and how the plot develops to make us become attached to them and realize the drama of their family problems, I often times wonder if this was the real case with the Fondas.
Both Fonda and his co-star, Katherine Hepburn won Oscars for their performances, set in a summer cottage in a tranquil lake woods environment.Although the film deals effectively with the identity struggles of youth, middle, and older age, it is less adept at portraying the disagreements between Norman Thayer (Fonda) and his daughter (played by Jane Fonda).
One keeps expecting Will Geer to appear.And who better to interpret this type of thing, than the dessicated "Hank" Fonda and Kate Hepburn, both of whom had long since discarded their by now forgotten, (but oh how much more appealing!) suaver selves in the more moth eaten environs of the RKO prop department.Visually the film is suffused with Vermont travelogue optics--stereotypical slanting sunbeams on the lake ad nauseam, and it must be added, to the point that the whole thing looks like a very extended margarine commercial.The script follows suit--for amidst the unbearable sentimentality, it takes pains to contain all the Norman Learish style "hep" touches--scatological humor, profanities, etc.
Fonda finally won an Oscar for Best Actor in this bittersweet comedy/drama as an aged retired college professor facing the twilight of his life shared with his loving wife Hepburn (Best Actress) and estranged daughter (real-life daughter, who produced as well**) and a new step-grandson (McKeon).
Any old actress could have played the role given to Katharine Hepburn, and poor Jane gets this film's short end of the stick, playing a bratty daughter who doesn't know how to connect to a dad that would rather have had a son.
No worries though; everything ends happily and Jane is finally able to do back flips off the pier at her parents' lakeside home (or whatever it is she ends up doing), a talent that bears the symbolic import of encapsulating all the ways she feels like a failure in her father's eyes.I doubt the movie would have been half as well received by the movie public had it not had the gimmick of a real-life father and daughter (whose personal relationship was also known to be strained) playing themselves and had the world not suspected that Henry Fonda wouldn't be around much longer.
On Golden Pond is famous for many reasons, and if you haven't seen it yet, you're missing out on some of the most memorable moments of semi-modern, semi-classic film history.Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda play an old married couple who return to their lake cottage to celebrate Henry's 80th birthday.
Hard to believe, but according to both of them, Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn had never even met until the beginning of the making of On Golden Pond.This is a gentle story about a couple of people facing the twilight years, the man with more health problems than the woman.
A lot of people knew he was in failing health at the time of the voting and there is that famous picture of daughter Jane presenting her father with the award at home the next day.Not that it wasn't merited, but Katharine Hepburn winning her fourth Best Actress Oscar really came out of left field though.
"On Golden Pond" is a classic drama and a rare instance of a movie from its era with two legends of Hollywood in fine form.A curmudgeonly older man is not exactly a rarity in film, but Fonda certainly had the skill to make his character not only feel human, but also to set him apart from all the others.Unbelievably, this was the only Oscar-winning performance Fonda ever turned in.
Winning best actor and actress Oscars for Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn in their twilight years could have been seen as a sentimental round of voting, but this film really is sweet, moving, funny, and the two old-timers are wonderful.Norman and Ethel Thayer return to the summer home where they brought up their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda), a woman who has a difficult relationship with her father, realising he probably always wanted a son to fish, hunt, and swim with.
ON GOLDEN POND was the beautifully realized 1981 drama that made history by having three Hollywood icons sharing the screen for the first time- Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, and Jane Fonda.
Henry Fonda finally won the Oscar that alluded him his whole career for his work here and Hepburn won her fourth Oscar as well A timeless celebration of life and love that is always worth watching and if you've never seen it, sit back and behold a couple of acting legends commanding the screen with an authority that is so rare these days..
this dramedy was henry Foda's last feature,and i think he went out on a high note.this film is tender,heartwarming,funny and uplifting.i don't want to give to much away,but i will say it's sort of a coming of age film.change can occur at any stage in life,as this movie illustrates..i liked henry Fonda and his character,as well as the kid(Doug Mcheaon).Jane Fonda was OK,but had an almost nothing role.but Katherine Hepburn and her voice just grated on me from the get go.that is one major downfall of the movie,in my opinion.otherwise.it's pretty good.
Reportedly the man was emotionally distant from his children, as are characters of Norman and his daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) in On Golden Pond.
Compared to Henry Fonda's appearance in the film Meteor which he stared in two years earlier, he aged quite a lot in that short period of time.Katharine Hepburn is one badass old lady in On Golden Pond.
(Henry Fonda) and his wife Ethel (Katharine Hepburn) are back to their cottage on the 'Golden Pond' and the unforgettable enthusiastic "Come here, Norman!
In one extraordinary scene, Chelsea lets a bad word slip about her father, and although we could see the slap from her mother coming, it does resonate as a poignant and realistic moment.I guess I could go on and on the writing, and the directing, and there's no doubt they serve the film for good, but in "On Golden Pond", acting is the driving force and the main reason we believe in these characters and feel for them, genuinely, immediately and deeply.
Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn summer "On Golden Pond".
It not only has a fine script adapted by the playwright Ernest Thompson from his own play, but it benefits from the sensitive direction by Mark Rydell and a cast of superb actors.The story is rather simple: Ethel (Katherine Hepburn) and Norman (Henry Fonda) Thayer have returned to their summer home beside Golden Pond and while they are elderly, their lives are still significant.
A lovely film with excellent filmmaking and musical score to go with the brilliant performances from Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn.
His wife Ethyl on the other hand rarely thinks about death and is becoming quite angry at Norman for only thinking about it.On his eightieth birthday their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) comes by for a visit and brings her new boyfriend (Dabney Coleman) as well as his 13-year-old son Billy (Doug McKeon).
Everyone has their own ideas of beauty but I think this film captures all the spirits of life and rolls them together for one incredible movie that won't be easy to forget.Although the story is pretty predictable that really isn't a negative comment because this is a showcase for its stars Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn.
Love the chemistry between Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, great to watch two old pro's of Hollywood's golden era go at it and chew up some screen time.
'On Golden Pond' is a treasure for many reasons, but the best one, I think, is that I could believe it.The story of 'On Golden Pond' begins with the arrival of an old, long-married couple - retired professor Norman Thayer (Fonda) and his wife Ethel (Hepburn) - at the lakeside cottage where they have summered for many years.
(Chelsea's first marriage, which ended in divorce, was childless).The film stars not only Henry Fonda as Norman but also another great cinema legend, Katharine Hepburn, as Ethel, and both won well-deserved Oscars for their performances.
On Golden Pond was his last film role, and Jane Fonda would always say that she was grateful she could make that movie with her father.Henry Fonda's performance is absolutely brilliant- funny, touching, and dead-on.
The movie stars Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda together with Jane Fonda, Dabney Coleman and Doug McKeon.The screenplay by Ernest Thompson was adapted from his play of the same title.An aging couple, Ethel and Norman Thayer, spends each summer at their cottage on a lake called Golden Pond.
Chelsea returns, a little exasperated and envious of the fact that Norman seemingly has bonded with a stranger's child in a way he never quite did with her.On Golden Pond is a thematically rich drama exploring marriage, aging, family conflict, death and dying.Also, the team-up of Henry Fonda with his daughter Jane together with Katherine Hepburn makes watching the film rare and valuable.Finally,this movie do capture your heart..