Event Details
Veteran TV writer-producer James L. Brooks made his feature directing debut with this hilarious yet heartbreaking adaptation of the novel by Larry McMurtry (The Last Picture Show, 1971), following the complicated relationship between a strong-willed mother (Shirley MacLaine, winning her only Oscar) and her daughter (fellow Best Actress nominee Debra Winger). Jack Nicholson won his second Oscar for his supporting role as a free-spirited astronaut who romances MacLaine, with John Lithgow also nominated as Winger’s well-meaning suitor. Another member of the top-notch cast, chosen by Brooks and legendary casting directors Ellen Chenoweth and Juliet Taylor, was Jeff Daniels, in his breakout role as Winger’s feckless husband.
The film also earned three Oscars for Brooks himself—for Best Picture, Directing, and his adapted screenplay....
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.
1983 | 129 min. | USA | Color | English | Rated PG | 35mm
DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: James L. Brooks
WITH: Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, John Lithgow
New print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.