GOODBYE COLUMBUS

US, 1969, 92 minutes, Colour,
Richard Benjamin, Ali Mc Graw, Jack Klugman, Nan Martin.
Directed by Larry Peerce.

Goodbye, Columbus is based on a short novel by Philip Roth (of Portnoy's Complaint fame) written in the late 50's. Here it is updated to the late 60's and the hero and heroine are certainly children of their times. The story is a love story set within a Jewish- American context and with disillusion in its wake.

The film traces the growth of love between Nell, middle-class, ex G.I. librarian and Brenda, wealthy, from a self-made family. The growth of love is traced with perception and some humour (and frank vulgarity) until it is forced to a moral showdown and it breaks.

The film was compared with The Graduate when it was first released. It has something of its mood and the clever techniques of its style, but there the similarities end. Goodbye, Columbus marked Richard Benjamin's emergence as more than a he and she comic and introduced Ali Mc Graw before she became known to everyone through Love Story.

Goodbye, Columbus, Is a genuine enough picture of contemporary situations and crises.

1. Was the main point of this film typical enough of young people toddy? Why?

2. Did you like Neil - was he a strong character? Why did he have so few ambitions? Was he really selfish? Did he have any ethical or moral stance to fall back on in his relationship with Brenda?

3. Did you like Brenda? Was she a strong character? Had she found herself? How did she fit into her fashionable, self-made Jewish atmosphere?

4. Was this Jewish background presented sympathetically - especially in Brenda's father? (What of their way of eating their meals?)

5. Why did Brenda and Neil fall in love? What did they have in common? (How was this shown visually?) Who took the initiative, Brenda or Neil?

6. What was the point of the party sequence in the development of Brenda and Neil's love for each other? In Brenda's diving into the pool naked?

7. When Neil moved into Brenda's home, did they really love each other? How could you tell?

8. How important was the issue of the contraceptive? Was this selfish on Neil's part? Did Brenda feel it was an imposition on her as a woman?

9. Even though they were not married, do you think their progress in love, with its intensity, its differences of opinion, paralleled closely love between husband and wife?

10. What was the point of introducing Brenda's brother and his marriage?

11. How true were Brenda's father's comments on the younger generation that he gave to Neil in the office?

12. How did the lengthy Jewish wedding contribute to the atmosphere of the film? Why was Brenda unhappy at the end of it?

13. When Brenda went back to college, did she think the affair was at an and? Did Neil?

14. Why did Neil follow her? Was he still in love with her?

15. Why was her parents finding the contraceptive so important for Brenda? Did she want her mother to find it? Was she still worried by her moral standards?

16. Why did Neil go away? Was he selfish? What had each learned?

17. What positive values did the film portray?