Like the 1985 small-tiwn comedy Back to the Future, Coppola’s Peggy Sue Got Married was also inspired by universal fantasy, posing vewers an existential question: Given the opportunity to relive one’s life, what changes would one introduce?
The title of the movie and the name of the main character refer to the 1959 Buddy Holly song of the same title, which is played over the film’s opening credits.
Grade: B
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Theatrical release poster
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It is a bright idea, built on the seductive thought of many adults, “Knowing what I know now, if I had the chance to do it all over again, I’d sure do things a lot differently.” Who could resist the opportunity to relive the past with the present’s knowledge? Indeed, in yext and subtext, Peggy Sue deals with the periodic need of individuals to reassess their lives and reestablish their self-worth.
Reportedly, writers Jerry Leichtling and his wife Arlene Sarner had scripted Peggy Sue before Back to the Future. In an interview, they said that they had always wished to explore the notion that “We alone are responsible for our destiny.”
The tale introduces Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) as a middle-aged woman on the brink of divorce. Charlie Bodell (Nicolas Cage), the only man she has ever dated, got her pregnant at age eighteen. He had singing ambitions, but not much talent.
Now, he is a “Crazy Eddie” type, an appliance store owner with TV commercials like: “Hi, I’m Crazy Charlie, and I’m not just smashing TV’s, I’m smashing prices! I’ve got the lowest prices in town. Her daughter Beth tries to console her, “lots of people are separated and divorced.” “Not from the guy with the lowest price in town,” says Peggy Sue.
Preparing for her twenty fifth-school reunion, Peggy sports a late 1950s “flip” and wears her prom dress. “In all that time, haven’t you at least tried another hairstyle” asks her friend Carol. “I just did it for the reunion,” says Peggy, “I thought it would be fun.” Carol thinks that Peggy should have left town years ago, as she did. “It’s not so bad,” says Peggy, “I have two wonderful kids, my own business.” But it is bad: she is facing a severe midlife crisis.
At the reunion, we learn about Peggy Sue’s schoolmates, sort of a “representative” mixture of types. Madeline Hutton and Arthur Naggle were high-school sweethearts who married right after graduation; a “polyester couple,” they’re still together. Maddy wishes she could wear Peggy’s dress, but she lacks “the nerve and the figure.”
Carol Heath and Walter Getz were also high school steadies, but they went their separate ways. A successful dentist and still a good dancer, Getz’s slogan is “taps and caps.” “How does it feel to have missed the sexual revolution” asks Beverly into the mike. Beverly has done well for herself, “graduating from the school gossip to a broadcast bitch.” Richard Norvik, the class’s genius, is a “fucking millionaire whose fucking computers put many out of business.”
The committee has decided to choose the two people who best represent the spirit of Buchanan High, Class of l960. Everyone is sure about the male choice, Richard, he has earned “fame and fortune and the respect of this country’s scientific and business communities.” But it’s a surprise when Peggy Sue is selected.
The excitement and heat prove to be too much for her and she faints, waking up at her senior year.
Grounded by her father, Jack Kelcher (Don Murray), a traditional father-husband, she protests: “I don’t wanna go to my room. I wanna play. I wanna import Japanese cars. I wanna go to Hollywood and make love to Marlon Brando while he’s still gorgeous.” Her mother, Evelyn (Barbara Harris), is a submissive wife, a victim of patriarchal marriage without knowing it. “Peggy, you know what a penis is,” she tells her daughter, “stay away from it!” In the car, when Peggy wants to “go all the way,” Charlie is shocked. “Jeez,” he says, “That’s a guy’s line;” a girl was not supposed to talk in such way back in l960.
Peggy sports a ponytail and wears bobby socks and pedal-pushers. In class, she shocks her teacher when she announces: “I happen to know that in the future I will never have the slightest use for Algebra, and I speak from experience.” Given the power to fantasize about what she was denied as a teenager, she goes to bed with the class’s beatnik poet, drinks a stiff whiskey, and even uses foul language (“you machoschmuck”).
In the film’s most emotional scene, Peggy Sue exercises what amounts to many children’s wish– visiting her grandparents, who died when she was young.
Grandmother Elizabeth tells her that “being young can be just as confusing as being old,” and Grandpa Barney says that, “if I had a chance to do it all again, I’d take a better care of my teeth.”
However, the gimmick–the viewers know Peggy is adult, but the characters believe that she is one of them–does not work: Kathleen Turner looks ridiculous, a mature woman in a tight dress. The film fails to establish any recognizable reality, 1960 or 1985. Lacking concern for narrative time, Peggy looks too old to have a mother like Barbara Harris, and too young to have a 22 year old daughter. The film also suffers from structural weaknesses and a superimposed happy ending, tacked on by the studio after the film was shot. The reconciliation between Peggy and Charlie lacks credibility, a pat resolution and compromise that make the tale’s resonance pointless.
Visually, the opening and closing sequences are particularly significant. In both, Peggy sits in front of her mirror, and the camera gradually pulls back. The tension between the two spaces, her real self and her reflection in the mirror, are used as symbols of her present and past. In this symmetrical beginning and ending, her daughter is present, a possible reminder of the centrality f the family as an institution; the value of family unity is thoroughly stressed over personal fulfillment.
Preaching sacrifice and resignation, the film is rather conservative in its ideology, favoring marriage (it’s not clear whether the philandering Charlie will ever change) over divorce, and family life over singlehood.
However, the resolution also suggests that Peggy is incapable of applying the knowledge of her past to the present. Accumulated knowledge, based on actual experience, does not necessarily lead to action or change, when strong feelings are concerned. In the final battle, heart wins over head.
Containing a richer emotional texture than Back to the Future, Peggy Sue shows a similar role reversal: Like Marty, Peggy’s grown-up daughter assumes emotional responsibility for her parents. In both films, the children are more mature (and have more control) than their parents. But unlike Back, Peggy travels backward to her own past, and she is not given magical powers of transformation (Marty changed his parents from losers to winners).
A Capraesque heroine, Peggy Sue, like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, is given the chance to go back to her past and erase her destiny. But, unlike George, who never doubted his love for Mary, Peggy Sue continues to have doubts about her marriage and is uncertain that a brighter future is ahead of her. Suffused with sentimentality, Peggy Sue is about survival and patient endurance, placing emphasis on the preciousness of the most mundane moments in life: breakfast with family, love among siblings.
Unlike other small-town American movies, Peggy Sue embodies a fatalistic philosophy: one can’t change one’s fate and, given the choice, most people are likely to make the same decisions and repeat the same “mistakes.” Thus, gaining increasing awareness does not necessarily result in making different kmds of decisions, because decisions are also based on conscious emotions as well as subconscious instincts.
It is a sad, melancholy movie, which has reduced many viewers to tears, recommending people to come to terms with–and make the best out of–their present precious lives, whether fulfilling or not.
Greeted with positive reviews, the film was a box office success.
My Oscar Book:
It was nominated for three Oscars: Best Actress (Turner), Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design.
Credits:
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Written by Jerry Leichtling, Arlene Sarner
Produced by Paul R. Gurian
Cinematography Jordan Cronenweth
Edited by Barry Malkin
Music by John Barry
Production: American Zoetrope
Distributed by Tri-Star Pictures
Release date: October 10, 1986
Running time: 103 minutes
Budget $18 million
Box office $41.5 million
