Endless Love is a 1981 American romantic drama film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, starring Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt. The screenplay by Judith Rascoe was adapted from the novel by Scott Spencer. The original music score was composed by Jonathan Tunick.
It was the third high publicity film of Brooke Shields after Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon. Given the somewhat high critical opinion of Franco Zeffirelli and the source novel, the film was considered especially disappointing, although there was advance feeling that the sensibilities of Zeffirelli were a poor match for this book.
Although the film was not a success, the film's theme song by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, also called "Endless Love", became a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the biggest-selling single in Ross' career.
As of 2009, the film has yet to be released in the United States on DVD (Region 1).
Plot summary
In suburban Chicago, Jade Butterfield and David Axelrod, both teenagers, fall in love. Their consuming, passionate love becomes dangerously obsessive, especially for David. Jade's family is known in their community for a bohemian lifestyle; they allow the two to make love in Jade's bedroom. In contrast to the openness of her family, David's home life is dull; his parents are radical political activists who ignore him. One night, Jade's mother, Ann sneaks downstairs and, upon seeing Jade and David make love in her living room, she starts living vicariously. Jade's father, Hugh, watches the couple with increasing unease. Eventually, he catches her in the act of trying to steal a sleeping pill so that she can get some sleep and realises that her regular sexual encounters with David are depriving her of sleep and badly affecting her grades at school. Subsequently, he firmly tries to persuade David to stop seeing Jade until the start of the school holidays in a month's time. Although David is heavily opposed to this idea, Ann gently coaxes him into agreeing, telling him not to let her husband "do something he'll regret." Not long later, David accidentally burns down the Butterfields' house. For this, he is sent to a mental hospital for the next two years and is forbidden to contact Jade ever again.
When David is released on parole, he goes to look for Jade and remains obsessed with her. In Manhattan, Jade's mother tries to seduce David, but he refuses and tells her that he can make love only with Jade. In a chance meeting, Jade's father is hit and killed by a car after running into the street to chase after David. Later, Jade goes to see David to bid her goodbyes but David doesn't let her go and Jade admits that she still loves him. The two rejoin their love together. When Keith tells David and Jade to come downstairs, he tells Jade that David is at fault for their father's death. Jade refuses to believe this, and talks to David for the truth. David tries to explain to Jade that this was an accident, but when his first words come out, Jade is so shocked that she won't listen and doesn't get a chance to hear the truth. Keith pulls David over and fights with him through the motel, and David is arrested by the police. Sent to prison, David seems doomed never to see his beloved again. Jade, though, comes to realize that no one will ever love her like David does and goes to him.
Differences between the film and the book
The book and film differ enormously in several respects. A great deal of the film is a prequel to the novel in which the action begins with David burning down the Butterfield's house. The novel is set in the 1960s, and Jade is a classic Woodstock-era flower child, not the typically middle-class suburban girl of the film which is set in the 1980s. The novel is largely told from the point of view of David, while the film is largely told from the point of view of Jade. The two do not reconcile at all in the novel, but it is at least suggested that they will in the film.
Main cast
Production
Endless Love was the feature film debut for a number of actors, including Tom Cruise, Jami Gertz and Jeff Marcus, and features very early appearances by James Spader, as the elder brother of Brooke Shields, and of a pre-Beverly Hills 90210, Ian Ziering.
The film was shot on location in Chicago, New York City, and Long Island. The film was noted to have one of the most spectacular one-man stunt displays when Hugh Butterfield gets hit by a car in New York. The stuntman does a high end-over-end flip in mid-air.
Soundtrack
For further info see Endless Love (soundtrack).
Reception
Despite being panned by numerous critics (movie historian Leonard Maltin called it "a textbook example of how to do everything wrong in a literary adaptation...Scott Spencer's deservedly-praised novel is thoroughly trashed."), Endless Love was a financial box office success, it grossed $31,184,024 in the U.S. alone (the 22nd highest grossing film of 1981).
Awards and Nominations
- Winner: 1981 ASCAP Award, Lionel Richie, Endless Love
- Nominee: 1982 Academy Award for Best Song, Lionel Richie, Endless Love
- Winner: 1982 American Movie Award, Marquee Award, Lionel Richie, Endless Love
- Nominee: 1982 Golden Globe Award, Best Original Song - Motion Picture, Endless Love
- Nominee: Best Young Motion Picture Actor - Martin Hewitt
- Nominee: Best Young Motion Picture Actress - Brooke Shields
- Nominee: worst Actress - Brooke Shields
- Nominee: worst Director - Franco Zeffirelli
- Nominee: worst New Star - Martin Hewitt
- Nominee: worst Picture - Dyson Lovell
- Nominee: worst Screenplay - Judith Rascoe
- Nominee: worst Supporting Actress - Shirley Knight
External links
