Taking Off

Until recently, I had only seen the film Taking Off once, yet it has always been one of my favorites. I've seen it only once because, bizarrely, it has never been released on VHS or DVD.  I say bizarrely because it was a critical success and the first American film by Milos Forman--a hero of the Czech new wave cinema of the 60's who, after relocating to America, went on to direct 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (he received the Best Director Oscar for that), 'Amadeus' and many others. I was finally able to see it once again on The Sundance Channel, and now  Taking Off can be seen on You Tube in 9 clips of about 10 minutes each.

Released in 1971, Taking Off centers on a 15 year old runaway (15 and a half as she notes at one point) and the the frenzied reaction of her parents--played by Lynn Carlin (whatever happened to her?) and Buck Henry, whose deadpan comic instincts have never worked to better advantage. 'Taking Off'  is one of the best takes on the generation gap of the 60's and 70's; one critic termed it the 'sweetest of generation gap movies'. There's a telling scene early in the film where the parents and another couple enter the missing daughter's bedroom in a search for clues to her whereabouts; they look and behave like a group of explorers on some far distant planet. It's interesting that a foreigner would pull it off such an accurate--at times poignant, at other times hilarious--portrayal of America at the time when so many native born American directors tackled the same subject in ham-handed ways.  (Sissy Spacek and Henry Winkler are probably still trying to forget their involvement in 1975's 'Katherine'.)

Taking Off reminds me of one of my more current favorites, Little Miss Sunshine; they both they both weave comedy & drama in pitch perfect fashion.  99% of the time, blending the two is a disaster (think Adam Sandler) but when it works, it is truly sublime.

Finally, here's the scene where the parents enter the strange, new world of their daughter's bedroom.