On Golden Pond (1981 film)


On Golden Pond is a 1981 American drama film directed by Mark Rydell. The screenplay by Ernest Thompson was adapted from his 1979 play of the same name. The film stars Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda in the lead roles along with Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon, Dabney Coleman and William Lanteau appearing in supporting roles. The film's narrative revolves around an aged couple, cantankerous retiree Norman Thayer and his conciliatory wife Ethel, who spend summers at their New England vacation home on the shores of idyllic Golden Pond. This year, their adult daughter, Chelsea, visits with her new fiancé and his teenage son, Billy, on their way to Europe. After leaving Billy behind to bond with Norman, Chelsea returns, attempting to repair the long-strained relationship with her aging father before it's too late.
On Golden Pond was released theatrically on December 4, 1981, and grossed $119.3 million domestically, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 1981. The film received critical acclaim for Rydell's direction, Thompson's screenplay and Hepburn and Fonda's performances.
The film received ten nominations at the 54th Academy Awards including Best Picture and won three: Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. Henry Fonda won his only competitive Oscar with this film and at the age of 76 became the oldest winner in the Best Actor category, while Katharine Hepburn won her fourth Best Actress award, extending her own record for the most Oscars won by a thespian.
On Golden Pond is also one of the few movies to earn the nominations for the Big Five Academy Awards.

Plot

An aging couple, Ethel and Norman Thayer, continue the long tradition of spending each summer at their cottage on a lake called Golden Pond, in the far reaches of northern New England. When they first arrive, Ethel notices the loons calling on the lake "welcoming them home". As they resettle into their summer home, Norman's memory problems arise when he is unable to recognize several family photographs, which he copes with by frequently talking about death and growing old. They are visited by their only child, daughter Chelsea, who is somewhat estranged from her curmudgeon of a father. She introduces her parents to her fiancé Bill and his thirteen-year-old son Billy. Norman tries to play mind games with Bill, an apparent pastime of his, but Bill won't hear of it, saying he can only take so much. In another conversation, Chelsea discusses with Ethel her frustration over her relationship with her overbearing father, feeling that even though she lives thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, she still feels like she's answering to him. Before they depart for a European vacation, Chelsea and Bill ask the Thayers to permit Billy to stay with them while they have some time to themselves. Norman, seeming more senile and cynical than usual due to his 80th birthday and heart palpitations, agrees to Billy's staying. Ethel tells him that he's the sweetest man in the world, but she is the only one who knows it.
Billy is at first annoyed by being left with elderly strangers with no friends nearby and nothing to do. He resents Norman's brusque manner, but eventually comes to enjoy their Golden Pond fishing adventures together. Billy and Norman soon grow obsessed with catching Norman's fish rival, named "Walter", which leads to the accidental destruction of the Thayers' motorboat. Chelsea returns to find out her father has made good friends with her fiancé's, now husband's, son. When she sees the change in her father's demeanor, Chelsea attempts something Billy accomplished that she never could: a backflip. Chelsea successfully executes the dive in front of a cheering Norman, Billy, and Ethel. Chelsea and Norman finally fully embrace before she departs with Billy back home.
The final day on Golden Pond comes and the Thayers are loading the last of the boxes. Norman tries to move a heavy box, but starts having heart pain and collapses onto the floor of the porch. Ethel tries unsuccessfully to get the operator to phone the hospital. Norman then says the pain is gone and attempts to stand to say a final farewell to the lake. Ethel tells him she has always known about death but for the first time it felt real, thinking Norman was going to die on the spot. Ethel helps Norman to the edge of the lake where they see the loons and Norman notes how they are just like him and Ethel, that their offspring is grown and gone off on her own, and now it is just the two of them.

Cast

purchased the rights to the play specifically for her father, Henry Fonda, to play the role of the cantankerous Norman Thayer. The father-daughter rift depicted on screen closely paralleled the real-life relationship between the two Fondas.
Screenwriter Thompson spent his summers along the shores of Great Pond, located in Belgrade, Maine, but the film was made on Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire. The house used in the film was leased from a New York physician and was modified significantly for the shoot: an entire second floor was added as a balcony over the main living area at the request of the production designer. After the shoot, the production company was contractually obligated to return the house to its original state but the owner liked the renovations so much that he elected to keep the house that way and asked the crew not to dismantle the second story. A gazebo and a small boathouse were also relocated during the shoot.
Despite their many common acquaintances and long careers in show business, Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn not only had never worked together, but had never met until working on the film. On the first day of shooting, Hepburn presented Henry Fonda with her longtime companion Spencer Tracy's "lucky" hat, which Fonda wore in the film. Hepburn, who was 74 at the time of filming, performed all her own stunts, including a dive into the pond. The scene in which Norman and step-grandson Billy run their boat into the rocks was filmed repeatedly. The vintage 1951 mahogany Chris-Craft boat, used strictly for the crash scene, was so sturdy that it kept bouncing off the rocks without any damage. The crew had to modify the boat so it would break away in the wreck. The water level in Squam Lake was so low during the summer of production that Fonda and Doug McKeon could have stood during the scene in which they were supposedly clinging to the rocks for fear of drowning. The September water was barely knee-deep, but it was cold enough that the pair had to wear wetsuits under their clothes. Hepburn, on the other hand, dove into the water without the aid of the wetsuit because she wanted the scene to keep its authenticity. Some of the scenes in which Billy takes the boat out on his own were filmed on nearby Lake Winnipesaukee. While filming the scene where Fonda and Hepburn were watching the loons on the lake, the speedboat that zoomed by and disturbed them was so forceful it overturned their canoe in one take; Fonda was immediately taken out of the water and wrapped up in blankets as his health was fragile by that time. The speedboat was piloted by the screenwriter, Ernest Thompson.
When visiting Holderness, New Hampshire, one can take a boat tour of Squam Lake and view the filming sites from the movie. There is also a restaurant called "Walter's Basin", which is named after the trout called "Walter" that Billy catches with Norman. For filming, "Walter" was brought in from a trout pond at the nearby Castle in the Clouds estate. He was released after his capture back into Squam Lake. Leftover footage of Fonda and Hepburn driving through the New Hampshire countryside, as seen in the opening credits, was later used for the opening of the CBS television sitcom Newhart.
The studio behind the film was ITC Entertainment, the British company presided over by Lord Grade, the television and film mogul. It was Grade who largely raised the financing for the film.

Reception

Box office

With a box office take of $119,285,432, On Golden Pond was the second-highest-grossing film of the year, following Raiders of the Lost Ark, which earned $209,562,121.

Critical Reception

On Golden Pond garnered widespread critical acclaim with critics highlighting the performances of Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda.
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 93% based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 7.55/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn are a wondrous duo in On Golden Pond, a wistful drama that movingly expores the twilight years of a loving marriage."
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said:
received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Ethel Thayer, marking her fourth win in the category and making her the most awarded thespian in the history of the Academy Awards.|alt=Portrait of Katharine Hepburn, circa 1941
In his The New York Times review, Vincent Canby said:
TV Guide rates it 3 ½ out of a possible four stars, calling it "a beautifully photographed movie filled with poignancy, humor, and superb acting... there could have been no finer final curtain for than this." Channel 4 sums up its review by stating:
Not all reviewers were impressed. David Kehr of the Chicago Reader: Time Out London says, "Two of Hollywood's best-loved veterans deserved a far better swan song than this sticky confection." Mad magazine satirized the film as On Olden Pond.

Accolades

American Film Institute recognition