Breezy

Rating:
Summary: a touching romantic drama
Review: Breezy (1973)

Breezy has been a film I have known about for about sixteen years but have never seen until last week when I finally got the DVD.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, the film has been pretty much forgotten about over the years, not helped by the unavailability of it on home video, mainly here in the United Kingdom.
But now it's here, at last.

Eastwood, fast becoming the most popular movie star in the early seventies after the success of his Spaghetti Western trilogy (1964,'65,'66) and his roles in Dirty Harry (1971) and High Plains Drifter (1973) turned his eye to directing and directed the highly acclaimed Play Misty For Me in 1971.

For Eastwood's third directorial effort Breezy in 1973, Eastwood decided to stay behind the camera instead and the leading man duties were handed over to William Holden.
Eastwood felt he was to young to play the role of Frank Harmon, although he was 43 at the time and more than twice the age of Kay Lenz who played the role of Breezy, Lenz was only twenty. Incidentally William Holden was 55.

Filmed entirely in Los Angeles this low key effort is a story set to a May - December romance between a successful businessman Frank Harmon (Holden) and a free spirited hippy chick named Breezy (Lenz).
I can recommend the DVD to anyone interested in an often touching romantic drama with consistently well acted performances from the films two leading actors.

Here is the basic synopsis of the film.

Frank Harmon (William Holden) and Breezy (Kay Lenz) are polar opposites: he is a successful, middle-aged real estate executive disillusioned by love; she is a young, outgoing free spirit with a trusting heart. Following a chance meeting, Frank reluctantly befriends the eccentric young woman, and eventually their friendship evolves into a love affair. The relationship gives Frank a renewed outlook on life but also fills him with doubts about their age difference, and he eventually breaks it off. The painful separation from Breezy forces Frank to decide whether or not to take a risk that may give him his one true shot at happiness.

Eastwood as director has a tendency to let his actors just get on with it and do their thing and in this film William Holden and Kay Lenz really shine through.
Both actors are marvellous to watch and give truly outstanding performances.
Eastwood was proud of the film but unfortunately it did not do very well upon it's release and received harsh reviews.
One wonders if the film may have been more a success if Eastwood himself took the starring role. But personally I believe William Holden delivered a charming side to his character that I don't think Eastwood would have been capable of at the time.

Eastwood during this period was fast becoming inpatient with the way Universal were handling his movies and made one more for the studio, The Eiger Sanction (1975), before sealing a partnership with Warner Bros. that has lasted for nearly thirty years.

About the DVD.

The film is presented in an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 format in the original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1. The picture looks quite superb.
The sound is delivered in 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono which is just fine for this type of film and sounds good for it's age.
The only down side to this DVD is the lack of any extras. No trailer, nothing except the standard menu options, scene access, language and subtitle options etc.

Notes:

Sondra Locke auditioned for the role of Breezy but was turned down. She would later go on to star in six Eastwood movies and the couple had a twelve year relationship, but that's another story.

Breezy was the first film which Clint directed but did not star.

The film cost $750,000 to make.

Rating:
Summary: Beware - full screen version cropped to fit widescreen
Review: Here the studio cropped the top and bottom of the full screen version to make it fit anamorphic widescreen format, so you lose more of the picture than the full screen version.
Universal is deceptive in not saying picture has been modified to fit your 16x9 inch widescreen tv's. This is not a true widescreen and should state that the original apect ratio was modified to fit 16x9 tvs.
Cool movie though, and the transfer quality looks very clean on DVD. It Just is a shame to have to sacrifice watching a movie that chops off the image of leggs and heads, or ground and sky!

Rating:
Summary: Clearing up any misinformation...
Review: The first customer review states "Universal is deceptive in not saying picture has been modified to fit your 16x9 inch widescreen tv's. This is not a true widescreen and should state that the original apect ratio was modified to fit 16x9 tvs."

In truth, "Breezy" is presented in a widescreen matted format that conforms to the original aspect ratio of the film. Clint & Co. never intended for it to be seen in any other way, so buy this disc without reservation.