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Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
In director Robert Benton's Best Picture-winning marriage-related
drama about divorce and gender roles:
- the early shocking scene of unhappy, suicidal wife
Joanna's (Oscar-winning Meryl Streep) announcement to workaholic
Manhattan adman husband Ted (Oscar-winning Dustin Hoffman) that
she was leaving, and her description of the provisions she had
made to prepare for her departure: ("Ted, I'm leaving you.
Ted, keys, here are my keys. Here's my American Express, here's
my Bloomingdale's card, here's my checkbook. I've taken $2,000
dollars out of our savings account, because that's what I had in
the bank when we first got married...Here's the cleaning, laundry
ticket. You can pick them both up on Saturday...I paid the rent,
I paid the Con Ed bill, and I paid the phone bill, so...So that's
everything"); and her explanation that it wasn't his fault
when he asked what the problem was: ("It's not you...It's
me. It's my fault. You just married the wrong person, that's all");
and then she admitted that she wasn't a good mother for their young
son Billy (Oscar-nominated Justin Henry): ("I'm not taking
him with me. I'm no good for him. I'm terrible with him. I have
no patience. He's better off without me"); as the elevator
door shut, she added: ("And I don't love you anymore")
- the scene of separated/divorced husband Ted's attempt
to make a breakfast of French Toast for Billy shortly after his wife
Joanna had left, by cracking an egg one-handed into a mug marked "Ted"
("Okay, you can be my number one helper. OK, now watch this. One
hand. Here we go. Did you know that all the best chefs are men? I'll
betcha didn't know that, did ya? Isn't this terrific? This is terrific!
We gotta do this more often") - although Billy noted that he had
dropped some egg shell in the cup; Ted kept trying to convince himself:
("We're havin' a good time!"), and kept chattering while
forgetting one important ingredient - the milk: ("When you're
having a good time, you forget the most important thing, right? I just
wanted to see if you were paying attention. It's been a long time since
I made this. That's fun, isn't it?")
Ted's Breakfast Preparations for Billy
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- the scene of Ted's difficult, tearjerking reading
of Joanna's letter as "Mommy" to Billy: ("My dearest,
sweet Billy.... Mommy has gone away. Sometimes in the world, daddies
go away and mommies bring up their little boys. But sometimes,
a mommy can go away too and you have your daddy to bring you up.
I have gone away because I must find something interesting to do
for myself in the world. Everybody has to, and so do I. Being your
mommy was one thing, but there are other things too and this is
what I have to do. I did not get a chance to tell you this, and
that is why I'm writing you now. I will always be your mommy and
I will always love you. I just won't be your mommy in the house,
but I'll be your mommy at the heart. And now I must go and be the
person I have to be")
- their dinner scene in which Billy acted out, was
continually distracted, ignored his father's instructions to eat
his main dinner meal of salisbury steak ("What is this crap?...I
hate it...I hate the brown stuff. It's gross...I think I'm gonna
throw up...it's yucky"), and went instead to get dessert (chocolate
chip ice cream) from the refrigerator - and completely disregarded
Ted's warnings: ("If you take one bite out of that, you're in
big trouble. Hey, Don't you dare. Don't you dare do that. Do you
hear me? Hey, stop, hold it right there. You put that ice cream in
your mouth and you are in very, very, very big trouble. Don't you
dare go anywhere beyond that. Put it down right now. I am not going
to say it again. I am not going to say it again!"); Billy forced
Ted to take his "spoiled, rotten little brat" son to the
bedroom as Billy screamed: ("I hate you!...I want my Mommy");
Ted retorted: "I'm all ya got!"
- and later that night, Ted's tender, whispered bedside
reconciliation with his son and explanation about why Joanna left,
when Billy blamed himself for his mother's abandonment: ("Your
mom loves you very much and the reason she left doesn't have anything
to do with you. I don't know whether this is gonna make any sense,
but I'll try to explain it to you, okay? I think the reason why Mommy
left was because for a long time now, I've kept trying to make her
be a certain kind of person, Billy. A certain kind of wife that I
thought she was supposed to be. And she just wasn't like that. She
was, she just wasn't like that. And now that I think about
it, I think that she tried for so long to make me happy and when
she couldn't, she tried to talk to me about it, see? But I wasn't
listening 'cause I was too busy, I was too wrapped up just thinking
about myself. And I thought that anytime I was happy, that that meant
she was happy. But I think underneath she was very sad. Mommy stayed
here longer than she wanted to, I think, because she loves you so
much. And the reason why Mommy couldn't stay anymore was because
she couldn't stand me, Billy. She didn't leave because of you. She
left because of me.")
- also the hilarious scene in which Billy encountered
his father's nude overnight guest - the embarrassed and flustered
Phyllis Bernard (Jo Beth Williams) in the hallway as she was enroute
to the bathroom; she stuttered while introducing herself: "I'm
a friend, uh, business associate of your father's"; Billy non-chalantly
asked her if she liked fried chicken: ("Do you like fried chicken?");
afterwards, she told Ted in the bedroom: "Kramer, I just met
your son"
- the scene of a more peaceful and adjusted Joanna resurfacing
after 15 months, and summarizing her original problem: ("All
my life, I've felt like somebody's wife or somebody's mother or somebody's
daughter. Even all the time we were together, I never knew who I
was. And that's why I had to go away"), and then explaining
to Ted that in California, she had found herself by getting a job,
a therapist - and then her sudden declaration: ("Well, I've
learned that I love my little boy. And, uh, that I'm capable of taking
care of him....I want my son")
- the courtroom scene when Joanna emotionally explained
why she was seeking custody of her son Billy: ("Because he's
my child and because I love him. I know I left my son. I know that
that's a terrible thing to do. Believe me, I have to live with that
every day of my life. But in order to leave him, I had to believe
that it was the only thing I could do, and that it was the best thing
for him. I was incapable of functioning in that home. And I didn't
know what the alternative was going to be, so I thought it was not
best that I take him with me. However, I have since gotten some help,
and I have worked very, very hard to become a whole human being.
And I don't think I should be punished for that. And I don't think
my little boy should be punished. Billy's only 7 years old. He needs
me. I'm not saying he doesn't need his father, but I really believe
he needs me more. I was his mommy for five and a half years and Ted
took over that role for 18 months. But I don't know how anybody can
possibly believe that I have less of a stake in mothering that little
boy than Mr. Kramer does. I'm his mother. I'm his mother")
Courtroom Battle Regarding Child Custody
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- and the dramatic scene of Ted's heart-felt plea
at a child custody hearing that Joanna must not take Billy: ("I'd
like to know, what law is it that says that a woman is a better
parent simply by virtue of her sex? You know, I've had a lot of
time to think about what is it that makes somebody a good parent?
You know, it has to do with constancy, it has to do with patience,
it has to do with listening to him. It has to do with pretending
to listen to him when you can't even listen anymore. It has to
do with love, like, like, like she was saying. And I don't know
where it's written that it says that a woman has a corner on that
market, that, that a man has any less of those emotions than a
woman does. Billy has a home with me. I've made it the best I could.
It's not perfect. I'm not a perfect parent. Sometimes I don't have
enough patience 'cause I forget that he's a little kid. But I'm
there. We get up in the morning and then we eat breakfast, and
he talks to me and then we go to school. And at night, we have
dinner together and we talk then and I read to him. And we built
a life together and we love each other. If you destroy that, it
may be irreparable. Joanna, don't do that, please. Don't do it
twice to him")
- the final scene in their apartment building lobby
highlighting Joanna's change of heart, after she had her rethought
her position even though she had just won custody of their child
in a difficult divorce settlement and was about to take him away.
But she decided that their son Billy should remain with Ted in his
true home: ("I woke up this morning, kept thinking about Billy
and I-I was thinking about him waking up in his room with his little
clouds all around that I painted. And I thought I should have painted
clouds downtown, because then he would think that he was waking up
at home. I came here to take my son home. And I realized he already
is home. Oh, I love him very much. (They hugged) I'm not gonna take
him with me. Can I go and talk to him?...")
- Ted suggested that Joanna should go up in the elevator
by herself and see Billy, and he would wait downstairs; she asked
him just before the elevator doors closed, after wiping the tears
from her eyes: "How do I look?" and he responded: "You
look terrific"
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Joanna's Announcement of Marital Departure
In Elevator: "And I don't love you anymore"
Reading of Joanna's Letter to Billy
Difficult Dinner Scene
Ted's Bedside Reconciliation With Billy
Billy's Encounter with Nude Phyllis in Hallway
Joanna After 15 Months: "I want my son"
Joanna's Change of Heart: "I'm Not Gonna Take Him
With Me"
- "How do I look?"
- "You look terrific"
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