An Unmarried Woman (1978)

By Grand Rapids Anonymous and RM
sunday, may 18, 2025 at 1:31:00 a.m. edt

An Unmarried Woman (1978)

For a change of pace (I hardly ever watch movies anymore, though I’d like to) I caught, for the first time, An Unmarried Woman on Movies (antenna channel 54).

It came out in 1978, and starred Jill Clayburgh and Alan Bates, directed by Paul Mazursky, a kind of Mary Tyler Moore Show variation—if Mary was married—then dumped by her husband.

I like movies from the 70s, the music, the way the movies are crafted, the atmosphere, the actors and actresses. If Clayburgh’s character would have been a man, he’d be Woody Allen, chasing Diane Keaton at an art gallery. It kept my attention, as I lasted the full 2 1/2 hours.

Like Mary never did, Clayburgh’s character doesn’t give up her independence for “the perfect guy,” which was the message of the day. I’m not sure what the message of movies these days is, besides staying away from someone who looks like the Incredible Hulk—or that White people aren’t important in Hollywood anymore.

But in 1978, they certainly were and An Unmarried Woman gets ☆☆☆ out of 4 and zero monkeys—no blacks were seen throughout the entire film.

--GRA


By RM

sunday, may 18, 2025 at 2:38:00 a.m. edt

Long, long ago, The New Yorker used to have weekly contests where the readers would supply clever responses on a given topic. One was to supply an ironic capsule description for a movie being shown on TV. I thought this response was pretty cute:

:

CHANNEL 0- "AN UNMARRIED WOMAN." (1978) A woman struggles for respect and recognition in a male-dominated world. Stars Alan Bates. (2 hrs.)

-RM