Everything about Tootsie totally explained
Tootsie is a
1982 award-winning
comedy film that tells the story of a talented but volatile
actor whose reputation for being difficult forces him to go to extreme lengths to land a job. The movie stars
Dustin Hoffman and
Jessica Lange, with a supporting cast that includes
Teri Garr,
Dabney Coleman,
Charles Durning,
Bill Murray,
Sydney Pollack,
George Gaynes,
Lynne Thigpen and
Geena Davis (in her film debut).
Tootsie was adapted by
Larry Gelbart,
Barry Levinson (uncredited),
Elaine May (uncredited) and
Murray Schisgal from the story by Gelbart. It was directed by Pollack.
In
1998 the United States
Library of Congress deemed the film “culturally significant” and selected it for preservation in the
National Film Registry. Additionally, it was listed as #62 on the
American Film Institute's
100 Years, 100 Movies list and #2 on its
100 Years, 100 Laughs.
Plot
Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is a respected but
perfectionist actor on the verge of turning forty. Nobody in New York wants to hire him anymore because he's so difficult to work with. Not having worked in four months, he eventually hears of an opening on the
soap opera Southwest General Hospital (a parody of
General Hospital) from his friend Sandy Lester (Teri Garr), who initially tries out for the role but doesn't get it. In desperation, he
cross-dresses, auditions as ”Dorothy Michaels” and eventually wins the part.
Michael thinks it's just a temporary job to pay the bills, but he proves to be so popular as a feisty hospital administrator that, to his dismay, the producers sign him to a long-term contract. Dorothy is such a hit that she's even featured on the covers of a number of well-known magazines.
Complicating things even further, he's strongly attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange). She is already in an unhealthy relationship with the amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle (Dabney Coleman). When Michael (at a party as himself) approaches Julie with a line that she'd previously told Dorothy she'd be receptive to, she instead throws a drink in his face. Yet when he makes tentative advances (as Dorothy), Julie is shocked to think Dorothy might be a
lesbian and later tells “her” that she likes her, but not in a romantic way.
Meanwhile, Dorothy has her own admirers to contend with: older cast member John Van Horn (George Gaynes) and Julie’s widowed father Les (Charles Durning). Michael’s roommate, writer Jeff Slater (Bill Murray), and his agent, George Fields (Sydney Pollack), are in on the masquerade and watch in amazement as the situation barrels out of control.
Michael finds a clever way to extricate himself. When the cast is forced to perform a scene live, he improvises and reveals that he's actually the character’s twin brother who took her place to avenge her, just the sort of weird
plot twist for which soaps are noted (in particular the
General Hospital “Sally Armitage is really Max Hedges!” storyline). This gives everybody a more-or-less graceful way out. Julie is so shocked and outraged, she slugs him in the stomach (after the cameras are turned off).
Some weeks later, Michael waits for her outside the studio and touchingly confesses that “…I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man” and she forgives him.
Cast
Academy Awards
Win
Best Supporting Actress - Jessica Lange
Nominations
Best Picture - Sydney Pollack, Dick Richards
Best Director - Sydney Pollack
Best Actor - Dustin Hoffman
Best Supporting Actress - Terri Garr
Best Original Screenplay - Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal, Don McGuire
Best Original Song ("It Might Be You") - Dave Grusin, Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman
Best Sound - Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Rick Alexander (as Dick Alexander), Les Lazarowitz
Best Cinematography - Owen Roizman
Best Editing - Fredric Steinkamp, William Steinkamp
Production
The idea of having director Sydney Pollack playing Hoffman’s agent, George Fields, was Hoffman’s. Pollack initially resisted the idea, but Hoffman eventually convinced him to take the role.
Scenes set in the New York City Russian Tea Room were filmed in the actual restaurant.
Reaction
Roger Ebert praised the film, giving it 4 out of 4 stars and observing that:
Tootsie is the kind of Movie with a capital M that they used to make in the 1940s, when they weren’t afraid to mix up absurdity with seriousness, social comment with farce, and a little heartfelt tenderness right in there with the laughs. This movie gets you coming and going.
Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an 88% fresh rating.
Its opening weekend gross was $5,540,470. Its final domestic gross was $177,200,000,[ making it the highest grossing comedy of 1982.]
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tootsie'.
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