Terms of Endearment - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Terms of Endearment



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Terms of Endearment is a film of many hats, and just as many opinions about the quality of the picture itself. It was widely known as the tear jerker that won the 1983 best pictures awards and a stone cold classic, but also has a large audience who views it pretty much like Crash. E.g., the best worst picture ever. Much like Crash, I’m going to fall on the “don’t really love it for the reasons everyone else does” category. It’s a well put together film, and showcases some great acting by the ensemble cast (including a crazy cameo by Danny Devito), but really the film is one of the most unlikable watching experiences ever, as the entire story is basically one giant look into the effects of mental instability and the effects that ripple down throughout time.

Widowed Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacClaine) is a highly neurotic and narcissistic mother who basically crushes the entire spirit of her young daughter Emma (Debra Winger). She’s so obsessive and obsessed that every little thing becomes a form of self abuse, including an opening scene where she’s CERTAIN that her daughter is dead in her crib, and against the frustrated wishes of her husband, wakes her young baby up “just to be sure”, leaving her in the dark to scream her way to sleep. This doesn’t stop there either. By the words of Emma herself, Aurora has spent her entire life seeking validations from men without ever returning affecting (there’s an entire dinner party scene where a group of desperate suitors are fighting over the cold hearted woman), doing everything she can to insert herself into her daughter’s life, even going so far as forbidding Emma from marrying her beau Flap (Jeff Daniels). But of course has to call her 50-60 times a day just to check in her daughter and talk about herself.

Seemingly oblivious to the psychological damage that her mother is inflicting, Emma goes against Aurora’s wishes and marries Flap anyways, yet still manages to be attached to the hip to Aurora’s beck and call, oblivious to her own co-dependency. Well, it looks like one narcissist knows another, as Flap turns out to be a cheating son of a…..ahem...”gun”, literally lying his tail off to his pregnant wife while schtooping a grad student all week. Unfortunately being raised and married to a narcissist has left Emma about as badly damaged as both of them, who starts having an affair with married banker Sam Burns (John Lithgow in an incredibly cute seeming nerdy role). Before you know it, both are having their separate fun, while Aurora (who has spent an entire life avoiding sex after becoming pregnant with Emma) has decided to have a fling with the misogynistic ladies man ex astronaut next door, Garrett (Jack Nicholson)! Seriously will these people ever learn? Now Aurora is head over heels (much to her surprise) for the slimy ladies man (with of course some pieces of his heart being gold), Emma is using her relationship with Sam as a way to feel good about being abused by her mother, and now her husband. Even when she and Flap “make up”, Flap’s philandering behind her back. Then the unthinkable happens. A routine examination at the Doctors office uncovers a malignant tumor, and now the entire messed up family has to figure out a way to cope with death, when they can all barely cope with life.

Terms of Endearment is sold as a tearjerker romance dramedy that is supposed to lionize bad people doing bad things, but in the end doing what’s right. But if you look critically at the film, the premise is almost repulsive. Aurora steps up and does the right thing at the end when in reality a narcissist like here would never have acted that unselfishly. The same could be said for Jack Nicholson’s Garrett. He’s the typical “bad boy that can be good only for me” type character. We know he’s a ladies man player who has no intentions of changing, but Aurora’s pouting somehow manages to slowly tame the beat. Aurora is lauded at the end for becoming the good mother figure she should have been 40 years ago, and the only character that actually ACTS according to his character is Flap. He’s a well meaning guy who just is a slime ball underneath. He knows that he’s a slimeball and gives up his children to Aurora because he knows at the end of the day he’s not going to stop chasing tail and actually be the father his children deserve. Or at the very least ATTEMPT to.

From a romantic dramedy angle Terms of Endearment is the worst “Best Picture” film I’ve ever seen. But if you look at if from a psychological standing, it becomes a masterpiece of watching an entire family implode under mental illness, and the passing on to future generations the scars of that abuse and illness. Aurora is your typical obsessed narcissist (I’m using the term as it’s meant to be applied. Narcissistic Personality Disorder, not the common usage today where anyone who is selfish or mean is a “narcissist”) who ruins the life of everyone around her. She lives vicariously through her daughter, while simultaneously crushing Emma’s confident and soul along the way. Emma is extremely co-dependent and frightened, eventually acting out against her mother’s domineering nature and marrying someone equally as bad as her parental figure. Now she’s stuck in a miserable marriage, coping by self soothing and self medicating with a milk sop character who gives her the affection and attention she desires, but was never given. It’s incredibly heartbreaking to watch, and one of the most painful attempts at lionizing mental illnesses and psychological abuse in your typical Hollywood way.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Terms of Endearment debuts on 4K UHD with a stunning looking 2160p transfer that comes from a brand new master being struck off of the negative (approved and tweaked by James L. Brooks) himself. The image is not going to shock and awe you, but the design was intentional by Brooks himself (as he’s said in interviews). The film opens with an amazing looking gauzy/hazy shot that is almost dreamlike in it’s pink and white appearance as Aurora starts “checking in” on her baby, only for the film to suddenly sharpen up and look much more natural as the present day story progresses. The film will never be digital glossy and clean due to the photography, but it has a very organic and dreamlike touch to the filmography, getting cleaner and clearer as we come closer to Emma’s demise. Depth of field is very strong, with great background details and a foreground emphasis that is really clean. Colors lend itself towards the pastels and light greens and blues thanks to the time period and the clothing used, but black levels are deep and inky, and primaries are more than saturated when used correctly (such as the Iowa green grass at Sam Burns house). All in all this is a very impressive looking 4K UHD transfer that quite literally blows the doors off the already great looking 2013 Blu-ray that we’ve had the last decade.








Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is the same 5.1 mix found on the 2013 Blu-ray, meaning it’s a very straight forward and VERY front heavy dialog driven mix. The majority of the heavy lifting is done by the center channel, with the mains adding in the ambient noises (such as a college campus, or scene with Garrett in the corvette). Short bursts of activity bring the surrounds into play (such as the vette blasting down the interstate, or the roaring of the engine as they speed along the beach), but the score is really the biggest factor in the rear and low end channels. Again, nothing that’s going to blow your socks off, but it’s a very capable sounding 5.1 dramatic mix.












Extras:

• NEW Filmmaker Focus with James L. Brooks.
• Commentary with director James L. Brooks, co-producer Penney Finkelman Cox, and production designer Polly Platt
• Theatrical trailer
• Collectible packaging featuring a foldout image of the film's theatrical poster and an interior spread with key movie moments

Final Score: ​

Can anyone guess what my undergraduate and graduate degree was based upon my analysis of the review lol? Well, as I said earlier, Terms of Endearment is the worst best picture film I’ve ever seen, but I absolutely do love watching it from the point of view of it being a Greek Tragedy more than a tearjerking dramedy that it was sold as. That being said, the 4K UHD disc is certainly WAY better than the aging Blu-ray Paramount has had out for years, and fans of the movie will definitely be pleased with the extras and technical specs of the film.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels, John Lithgow
Directed by: James L. Brooks
Written by: Larry McMurty, James L. Brooks
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, German, French, Italian DD 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Dutch
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Rated: PG
Runtime: 132 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 14th, 2023

Recommendation: Solid Watch