| The Prince of Tides | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Barbra Streisand[1] |
| Produced by | Barbra Streisand Andrew S. Karsch |
| Screenplay by | Becky Johnston Pat Conroy |
| Based on | The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy |
| Starring | Barbra Streisand Nick Nolte Blythe Danner Kate Nelligan Jeroen Krabbé Melinda Dillon George Carlin Jason Gould |
| Music by | James Newton Howard |
| Cinematography | Stephen Goldblatt |
| Editing by | Don Zimmerman |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 25, 1991 |
| Running time | 132 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Box office | $110,000,000 |
The Prince of Tides is a 1991 romantic drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Pat Conroy; the film stars Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte. It tells the story of the narrator's struggle to overcome the psychological damage inflicted by his dysfunctional childhood in South Carolina. Streisand acted as both producer and director while Conroy and Becky Johnston wrote the screenplay.[2]
The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, but lost the award to The Silence of the Lambs.
Contents |
Tom Wingo (Nick Nolte), a teacher and football coach from South Carolina, is asked by his mother, Lila, to travel to New York to help his twin sister's psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein (Barbra Streisand), after his sister Savannah's (Melinda Dillon) latest suicide attempt. Tom hates New York and reluctantly accepts, but largely to take the opportunity to be alone and away from a life that does not satisfy him. During their initial meetings, Tom is reluctant to disclose many details of their dysfunctional family's secrets. In flashbacks, Tom relates incidents from his childhood to Lowenstein in hopes of discovering how to save Savannah's life. The Wingo parents were an abusive father and an overly proud, status-hungry mother. The father was a shrimp boat operator and, despite being successful at that profession, spent all of his money on frivolous business pursuits, leaving the family in poverty.
Tom is also torn with his own problems, but hides behind what he calls "the Southern way"; i.e., laughing about everything. For example, his wife Sallie is having an affair and her lover wants to marry her. Tom and Lowenstein begin having feelings for each other. After Tom discovers that she is married to Herbert Woodruff, a famous concert violinist, Lowenstein introduces Tom to her son Bernard, who is being groomed to become a musician as well but who secretly wants to play football. Tom starts coaching Bernard along with attending sessions with Lowenstein to help his sister. Tom discovers that Savannah has been in such a dissociated state that she even had a different identity, Renata Halpern. As Halpern, she wrote books to disguise the Savannah side of her troubled life. Tom confronts Lowenstein over not revealing this information before and they argue, during which she throws a dictionary at him. To apologize, she asks him to dinner and their relationship becomes closer.
Tom has a fateful meeting with his mother and stepfather, bringing up painful memories. Tom reveals that, when he was 13 years old, three escaped convicts invaded his home and raped him, along with his mother and sister. His older brother, Luke, killed two of the aggressors with a shotgun, while his mother stabbed the third with a kitchen knife. They buried the bodies beneath the house and never spoke of it again. Tom suffers a mental breakdown, having now let loose a key piece of Savannah's troubled life. After a session of football, Herbert orders Bernard to return to his music lessons and prepare to leave for Tanglewood. Tom is invited to a dinner at Lowenstein's home, along with poets and intellectuals. Herbert is overtly rude and reveals that Tom's sister is in therapy with his wife. Infuriated, Lowenstein voices her suspicions about her husband's affairs. Tom takes Herbert's "million dollar" violin and threatens to throw it off the balcony unless Herbert apologizes.
Tom spends a romantic weekend with Lowenstein at her country house. Savannah recovers and is about to be released from the hospital when Tom realizes that he wants to be closer to his wife and children, despite having fallen in love with someone else. He returns home, but his last thoughts are of Lowenstein.
While the film was a box office hit and raised Streisand's reputation as a director, its numerous changes from the original novel upset some Conroy purists.[3] Streisand jettisoned most of the novel's flashback scenes. The character she plays in the film, a psychiatrist, appears only in the present, not in any of these flashbacks. They describe Tom Wingo's relationship with his siblings in great detail. In the novel, these flashbacks form the main plot and take up more of the novel than the romance between Streisand's character, Dr. Lowenstein, and Tom Wingo. The jettisoning of the flashbacks makes the relationship between Wingo and Lowenstein the central story in the film, whereas in the novel, it is not.[4][5] Another character in the novel - the second Wingo brother, Luke, who appears only in flashbacks onscreen - is vitally important to the novel, and his death is a major plot point. In fact, the title of the book derives from a poem written by Savannah about Luke and his struggle against the government after the seizure of Colleton. In the film, "The Prince of Tides" is the title of a book of poetry written by Savannah and dedicated to Tom. Luke only appears intermittently, and only as a child, and his death is only vaguely described.
The Prince of Tides was a box office success, opening at number four with a grossing of $10,035,412 behind Hook, Beauty and the Beast, and Father of the Bride, and remained in the top 10 for seven weeks. [6] Eventually the final gross was $74,787,599.[7] $36,100,000 in rentals accumulated, and gave the film a final gross of $110 million.
Although the film, its cast, and its crew received many nominations for Academy Awards, "Best Director" was not among these, while "Best Picture" was. At the following year's Oscar ceremonies, host Billy Crystal "wondered aloud if the picture had directed itself."[8] The following year, when A Few Good Men joined Prince of Tides and the previous year's Awakenings in being nominated for the latter award, but not the former, Columbia Pictures president Mark Canton issued a statement, "This is unfortunately the third year in a row that Columbia has had a film nominated for best picture [sic] that seemingly directed itself."[9]
Streisand initially hired English composer John Barry to write a score for the film, but Barry eventually left due to creative differences. In a 7 March 1996 Cinemusic conference interview, Barry explained his exodus from the film, stating, "I was asked by Barbra Streisand to do The Prince of Tides—I live in New York, she lives in Los Angeles—and I went and met with her, and she showed me some footage, and she said, 'Why aren't you moving to Los Angeles?' and I said, 'Absolutely not.' And she said, 'Well, I like to know what's going on'—Barbra's an extreme case, by the way—and I said, 'Even if I did move to Los Angeles, I have no desire to meet with you once I know what I'm going to do. I can't work with someone over my shoulder, absolutely no way.'"[12] Barry later retitled his theme for The Prince of Tides "Moviola" and it was released on his 1992 movie theme album of the same name.[13] The theme also appeared in Barry's 1995 score for the 3D IMAX film Across the Sea of Time, retitled "Flight Over New York".
The final film score was composed by James Newton Howard and released 12 November 1991.[13] It garnered Howard his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, though it lost to Alan Menken's music for Beauty and the Beast. The soundtrack contains two songs by Streisand, although they did not appear in the film. The film also includes songs and music that do not appear on any soundtracks.