‘Tootsie’ is a 1982 American romantic comedy film directed by Sydney Pollack. The film stars Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, and Al Pacino. It tells the story of a struggling actor who gets a chance to audition for a part in a soap opera when he pretends to be an inept street performer who can’t even make the change from $5 bills.
Contents
Plot
Michael Dorsey is a well-known actor, but no one wants to work with him since he is a perfectionist and tough to deal with. He supports himself by working as a waitress in a restaurant and offering acting courses. After months of being unemployed, Michael learns of a vacancy on the famous daytime soap opera Southwest General through his friend and acting student Sandy Lester, who auditions for hospital administrator Emily Kimberly.
In desperation, he dresses as a woman and auditions as “Dorothy Michaels,” winning the position. Michael accepts the position to fund $8,000 for the production of a play by his roommate Jeff Slater, in which he and Sandy would appear. Michael portrays Emily Kimberly as a militant feminist, which shocks the other performers and crew, who thought she was another fawning girl as scripted. His character swiftly rises to national prominence.
When Sandy discovers Michael in her bedroom half-dressed because he wants to test her clothing for ideas for Dorothy’s wardrobe, he lies and claims he wants to have sex with her. Sandy is amenable, and the two of them sleep together. To make things worse, he has feelings for one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols, a single mother in an unstable relationship with the show’s amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle.
When Michael (himself) approaches Julie at a party with a pick-up line that she had previously told Dorothy she would be open to, she throws a drink in his face. Later, when he makes tentative attempts, Julie, who had just terminated her relationship with Ron on Dorothy’s advice, declares that she is not a lesbian.
On the other hand, Dorothy has to fight with her admirers: elder cast member John Van Horn and Julie’s widowed father, Les. Les proposes marriage, requesting that Dorothy consider it before responding. When Michael arrives home, he encounters John, who nearly pushes himself on Dorothy until Jeff steps in. Sandy enters a few minutes later, inquiring why he hasn’t returned her calls. Sandy shouts and breaks up with Michael as he says he’s in love with another lady.
After a few weeks, Michael has decided to produce Jeff’s play. “The only reason you’re still alive is that I never kissed you,” he adds as he returns Les’ engagement ring. Les confesses that Michael was a pleasure to be with as Dorothy despite his rage, and Michael offers him a drink.
Michael afterward waits outside the studio for Julie. She is hesitant to speak with him, but he assures her that he and her father had a fantastic time playing pool. She eventually acknowledges that she misses Dorothy. “I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man,” Michael tells her, adding, “I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man.” Julie forgives him, and they walk away from each other, talking.
The Climax of The Movie
With his audition imminent, at the last-minute losing investor confidence in him and having lost work to a younger rival of similar abilities as soon as he arrives on location, Jeff Daniels is forced to conclude that he can’t get out of this one.
He makes $1 bottle caps into $10 pieces very flawlessly – avoiding detection by noting various perpetrators (including Busby Berkeley) trying unsuccessfully for years so misleadingly messed up when doing it before hitting upon the method).
It’s just what happens each time anything resembling an impediment gets in their way, like Mel Gibson, who has trouble fooling anyone with his work. Utterly convinced of the message being delivered, several passers-by initially believe he’s a street performer until one man declares, “Can we please talk about this some other time?” knowing it “won’t go anywhere.”
Then there are various uninvited drop-ins trying to convince him that his acting is good when nobody else does, which leads him to question whether anyone else will even see his portrayal given how mundane and boring so many actual performance videos you can find; on TV people don’t pay attention! Out of worrying that he’ll be rejected by the judge and unable to pay his rent, Jeff rushes back home, recalling all those other times it happened.
As expected, she was greeted with nothing but disapproval despite not knowing what was happening. In actuality, however, this movie is a parody based primarily on “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” starring George Clooney, which took place in Iraq and involved a force projection unit losing phone contact while trying to overcome psychological warfare techniques used against them.
The Story Behind the Tootsie (1982) Movie
The situation in this successful David S. Ward movie from 1982: An insecure and well-known television star named Michael Dorsey has been living a double life as if trying to make up for the shortcomings he often finds himself being stereotyped but thanks to the d from those same episodes!
The character of Dorothy Michaels, who plays against type as best she could (the perfect foil), he finally relaxes enough that something starts taking shape beyond him going through treatment sessions with such phony psychotherapists so much like those you’d use on your boys’ soccer team or Little League tryouts after losing a football game.
He even decides to quit the industry before cumulatively being rejected by kids, further destroying him and stalling whatever progress he’s made.
Movie Cast and Characters
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman is the actor who plays a con artist named Tootsie. The movie’s story revolves around his character and his struggle to become a woman. It is an old-school Hollywood movie that was released in 1982.
Jessica Lange
Jessica Lange is the actress who plays his wife, Dorothy. Like Michael Dorsey, she also has an insecure and mysterious personality that makes her appearance at several important events suspiciously coincidental as if to make it appear something is going on between them when in reality, all this time he always knew about everything!
Teri Garr
Teri Garr in Tootsie is a story of a woman who has been raped by her husband and how she has to face it. Teri Garr plays the role of Dorothy Michaels, a housewife who is raped by her husband, played by Dustin Hoffman. She tries to get away from her husband and the situation, but she realizes that she cannot escape from her husband’s control. She is trapped in a relationship that is based on violence and fear.
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack is an American film director, producer, and actor. He was born in New York City, New York. He is well known for directing films like ‘The Firm,’ ‘Three Days of the Condor,’ ‘Out of Africa,’ ‘Tootsie,’ and ‘The Way We Were.’
Geena Davis
Geena Davis is an American actress and producer. She made her acting debut in the film The Long Walk Home (1979). Her performance in the film was highly appreciated, and she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama nomination. She also received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination for her performance in Dangerous Liaisons (1988).
The Ending of Tootsie (1982) Movie
Tootsie (1982) is a movie that has an amazing story about one man’s efforts to become like the perfect father. The movie deals with aspects of gender identity and sexual orientation as well as a society giving different meanings to his desire for him.
There are many characters in Tootsie (1982), who have been struggling against each other until they get together, but when it comes time for their defeat, they all unite with Jerry because he represents them; helping them implement what little has already been set in motion within its existence.
The film portrays the need to be oneself and have one’s own identity. Tootsie is a Broadway play that revolves around Judy, who has dressed up as Dorothy so she can get hired by Michael Dorsey just to perform menial jobs in his department store.
Her disguise ends up getting her promoted due to immediate five star-stardom, eventually ending with her having your expectations of what people are not always what they appear to be or how we accept these appearances will lead us down the same paths where only Jerry at first seems destined for even more disappointment when he has him arrested for the bank robbery he committed in order to bolster his chances of being a real actor.
Overall reviews
Audience analysis
New York Magazine: An ingenious and incredibly moving movie, in which every character is completely brilliant.
New York Times: If there were a Movie of the Year award two decades ago, Tootsie would have won it. It’s deceptively simple, yet complex at the same time… Before you know where one storyline ends another begins, all are beautifully contrived, finely tuned scenes that, except for an occasional flaw, show how crafty film-making can be when our attention to detail enables their success.”
Gotham web review: “Somewhere deep within this 1983 Lindsay Anderson masterpiece is a beautifully dark and complex parable about what it means to be a man. It’s also one of the funniest movies ever made, with lines that could have come straight out of a Sondheim musical score.”
Roger Ebert: “The film is holding up remarkably well – thank heavens for laboratory work in which you can make calls right along on the screen alongside people who look just like Mel Gibson or John Barrymore! (This was done by makeup artists Rob Leakey, Michael Badalucco and David Palmquist.)
Critic’s analysis
Boston Globe: “Anyone who loves the best and most human of film comedies will want to see this sparkling reunion of writer-stars Dustin Hoffman, in one of his richest and very funniest roles ever.”
New York Merchants: “From beginning to end is an unending parade of surprises. It will be hard for anyone not already taken with Tootsie’s pervasive wit, subtle dialogue or even more subtle but feel-good moral underpinning on which it rests.
For those viewers still undecided about its value as a slice of life largely untouched by kitsch or formula, check out this subtly solid and heartfelt adult drama.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “This kind of goes beyond the limits of ordinary good taste; it’s breathtakingly rich in irony, innuendo and paranoia or just plain paranoia as Mel (Hoffman) is again plagued by visions that no one believes”.
London Observer: “A satire on Hollywood show business which has already had a multi-million-pound international sale Hoffman plays off Sir John Gielgud like Goofy with Donald Pleasence who appears to be playing himself, we can almost see the whole masterful Marx Brothers pattern at work – the millionaire producer was looking to boost his pet project by getting Hollywood stars together.”
Box Office Record
Breaker (amount $93.7 million) All-time Weekend box office gross (total $81,922).
Foreign gross according to Variety: Germany -$7.2 million.
Critics widely praised the film and its main star Hoffman received his first Oscar nomination since Tootsie in 1982 for best actor/nomination. But the emotional strain dragged him down. He went from making a hit with a little comedy about life imitating art providing an enhanced version of what we already imagine Hollywood is –to becoming one of history’s great scapegoats.”
Hoffman argued that he did receive some criticism for this film due to its look at material such as feelings of loneliness among peers and sexual favor-seeking in Hollywood. But stated: “It’s a very difficult thing to be David.
Visual Effects
Since the film has been released on home video, there are a number of remastered and restored editions available. Some have collected costume-design essays, storyboards or featurettes; others include a second disc with an extended version of “The Encounter”, which runs 46 minutes rather than 37:36 (“special features” only below.)
The original theatrical version is also being creatively revived by some cinematographers at the National Film Board (Canada), in such pieces as “Beyond Beyond/Hereafter” by Chris Howell, Terry Dunnage, directors Tom Taras and Stephen Hopkins.
The documentary “Memento Mori” by Peter Li, the Toronto Film Festival circuit, and at Fprograms.org. It works using more pixelated footage though it is still completely filmic in the overall aesthetic of lighting & framing (IMDb rated this differently than classics).
Newer digital technologies can create interesting effects that have made some people truly uncomfortable about how a film’s director intended it to be seen. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter back in 1998 when Memento was released, one reviewer believed Neil block would view his work “in Technicolor.”
Conclusion
Tootsie is a 1982 American romantic comedy film written and directed by John Landis. The film stars Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, and Murray Hamilton. The plot follows an advertising executive who poses as a woman to land a job in the all-male world of Manhattan advertising agencies but must live as a man for several weeks in order to get the job.
FAQs
What Is The Moral In Tootsie?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the moral of Tootsie may vary depending on the individual. However, some general themes that could be explored include:
- The importance of family and love.
- The power of redemption.
- The importance of self-acceptance.
Is Tootsie A Good Movie?
There is no one definitive answer to this question as everyone has their own opinion. However, some people may consider Tootsie a good movie while others may not. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to decide whether or not they think the movie is worth watching.
Why Is The Film Called Tootsie?
There are many possible answers to this question, but the most likely one is that the film’s title was inspired by a song called Tootsie by Barry Manilow.
The song was released in 1982 and told the story of a man who dresses as a woman to get work in the entertainment industry. The song has been covered by many artists over the years, including Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, and Whitney Houston.
In 1994, writer and director David O. Russell decided to make a movie about the song and cast actor Dustin Hoffman in the lead role. The film was released in December of that year and became a major success.
How Does Tootsie Fit Into The Larger Story Of John Hughes?
There is no one answer to this question as Tootsie is a unique film that stands on its own. However, it is worth noting that Hughes was heavily influenced by the 1970s and 1980s, which were a time of great change for Hollywood.
Tootsie is reflective of this era in many ways, including its depiction of women in positions of power. Hughes was a strong advocate for gender equality and saw Tootsie as an opportunity to break down traditional gender roles.
Another important aspect of Tootsie’s story is its focus on identity. Hughes explored the idea of identity through the character of Michael Douglas, who struggled to find his place in the world after losing his job and his identity as a star actor. Douglas’ journey represents the experience of many people during this time period, who felt lost and confused about their lives.
What Is The Best Film You Watched Last Week?
- “A Quiet Place”
- “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
- “Black Panther”
- “Incredibles 2”
- “The Meg”
- “Mission: Impossible – Fallout”
- “Winchester”
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