ON GOLDEN POND

US, 1981, 104 minutes, Colour.
Henry Fonda, Katherine Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Doug Mc Keown, Dabney Coleman, Chris Rydell.
Directed by Mark Rydell.

On Golden Pond won popular and critical acclaim. It was the peak of Henry Fonda's career. As Norman Fayer Jr., he embodied perfectly the crusty old man with all the idiosyncrasies of old age. He won, at last, an Oscar recognition of his acting ability and his status as an American actor. Katharine Hepburn won her fourth Oscar for her performance as his wife Ethel. Hepburn had won Oscars for Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter. She matches Fonda's performance and they are an archetypal American couple.

Jane Fonda is effective as their daughter Chelsea. The sequences involving Jane and Henry Fonda have echoes of their clashes and their reconciliation in real life. They are quite moving. Dabney Coleman, an excellent character actor, is very good in the role of Chelsea's friend. Young Doug McKeown? has to carry a lot of the second part of the film with Henry Fonda and highlights the generation gap as well as the bonds between the generations.

The film was nominated for many Oscars and won one for Ernest Thompson who adapted his stage play for the screen. Direction is by Mark Rydell (The Fox, Cinderella Liberty, The Rose, The River). There is an attractive score by Dave Grusin.

With its treatment of the themes of old age and generation gaps and relationships, the film is an excellent piece of popular cinema. It was remade for television with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in 2001, directed by the author, Ernest Thomson.

1. The entertainment impact of the film? Message? Its popularity and acclaim? A film of the '80s? Audience response for Americans, universal response? Across the generations?

2. The film's capitalising on the beauty of New England? The lake, the seasons, the village, the home? Nature? The American lifestyle with its affluence? The range of melodies for the score and moods?

3. Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn and their acclaim, their performances? Their embodying the Fayers? But also embodying Americanism? Figureheads of American cinema? Understanding the characters in the light of the lives and careers of the players? The experience of marriage, ageing, death? The impact of the film in its time? Later?

4. The relationship between Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda? Antagonism and reconciliation in real life? As dramatised on the screen with emotional insight?

5. The quality of the screenplay: the stage basis of the film, its being opened out, development of characters, interaction? The blend of sentiment, humour and irony? The blend of the sweet and the tart? An acceptable blend for the popular audience?

6. The portraits of Norman and Ethel? The film introducing them, their listening to the loons (as also at the end)? The opening up of the house, the present and the evocation of memories, regrets? The past judged in the light of old age experience? Happiness, mannerisms, resentments? The 80th birthday occasion? A healing of memories?

7. The mannerisms of the stars to communicate old age: their skill in impersonating the old? Katharine Hepburn and her quiver, her shake, her tears? Wise words, sensitivity? Support, love? Tough and wise? operating shrewdly behind the scenes? A peacemaker? Her love for her husband? For her daughter? Henry Fonda and his skill in embodying the crusty and moody old man, gestures, manner, antagonism, suspicions, childish behaviour? A deep understanding of ageing, fears, anticipation of death? Regrets?

8. Norman and Ethel together - the house, their work, the stuck doors, the fishing, Norman with the phone and his crusty answers, buying petrol at the garage, his driving the motor boat, his going off to pick strawberries and his feeling lost and abandoned and hurrying home? His attitude towards Chelsea, telling Charlie he should have married her - but had forbidden it? The preparations for the visit? For his birthday celebration?

9. Jane Fonda's performance as Chelsea: the burdens of the past, her distance from her parents, the marriage and its break-up, the perennial clash with her father, love for her mother? Audience prepared for her arrival? The coming, the questions about the car and her not knowing the details? The preparation for Bill and his work as a dentist? The arrival of Bill and his son? The greetings and the ironic elements? The women going for a skinny-dip swim? Enjoying it, talking together, mother and daughter and their bonds? Chelsea's clash with her father? Her return, the plea that the young boy stay with the family? The absence of Bill and Chelsea in Europe? Her return? The memory of the diving, the continued challenge, her attempting it, the reconciliation? The intense emotion in the final embraces?

10. Bill as a middle-aged man, his relationship with Chelsea, dentist career, his son? Having to cope, the antagonism from Norman, the frank talk about sleeping arrangements, Norman taunting him, Bill calling his bluff? His going with Chelsea to Europe? His relationship with his son, appreciation of the changes in his son? Reconciliation?

11. Billy and the broken marriage, relationship with his father, love for Chelsea? Loud talk, crass manner and language? His relationship with his mother and talking about it? His not wanting to stay? His being reconciled to staying? His talk about cruising chicks, his swagger, sucking face? Reading Treasure Island? His feeling of being dumped? Norman's beginning to challenge him, Ethel's support? His holding off, gradual appreciation, learning, the experience, active, affection? His becoming tender? The motor boat, going out on the lake, fishing and his inexperience? The accident and his drawing on his resources to save Norman? Upset? His still being direct but his mellowing? The bridging of the generation gap? His effect on the older generation?

12. The generations and their different perspectives, the growing conservatism as people grow older, the adaptation to more permissive styles, crasser styles? The oldies beating the young at their own game - in language, the swear word etc.?

13. The bond between Norman and Billy? Gradual communication, jargon, swearing, books, fishing? The importance of the accident? Norman having the opportunity to father Billy, be an effective grandfather?

14. Ending, the experience of illness, the possibility of death? Norman and his fright? Greater dependence on Ethel? His life coming before him? His having the opportunity celebrate his 80th. birthday but, more importantly, to be reconciled with his family?

15. An American film? American family style, difficulties? Reconciliation? Yet the universal appeal? A romantic presentation within the beauty of nature and flora and fauna of New England? The symbolism of the title?