The Stepford Wives
Published: September 1972
Characters: Joanna Eberhart, Bobbie Markowitz, Walter Kresby
Genres: Horror Film, Satire, Speculative fiction, Thriller
Adaptations: The Stepford Wives (2004), More
The Stepford Wives (1975 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Stepford Wives is a 1975 science fiction–thriller film based on the 1972 Ira Levin novel of the same name. It was directed by Bryan Forbes with a screenplay by William Goldman, and stars Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Forbes' wife Nanette Newman and Tina Louise. The film was remade in 2004 under the same name, but was written as a comedy versus a serious horror/thriller film.
While the film was only a moderate success at the time of release, it has grown in stature as a cult film over the years. Building upon the reputation of Levin's novel, the term "Stepford Wife" has become a popular science fiction concept and several sequels were shot, as well as the remake of the film in 2004.Why that is,is beyond me,since my opinion,the first was shit,obviously based on a shitty
book.Going off,topic,this Sometimes movies are crap-often made in the 1970's.And people wondered why just a few short years later,the world needed Star Wars.Because too many people were propucing garbage of this type,in books,comics,on tv and movies.
Plot[edit]
Joanna Eberhart (Katharine Ross) is a young wife who moves with her husband Walter (Peter Masterson) who is a none weak kneed nobody,prop character of a cardboard standy and two children -more props from New York City to the idyllic Connecticut suburb of Stepford. Loneliness quickly sets in as Joanna, a mildly rebellious aspiring photographer, finds the women in town all look great and are obsessed with housework, but have few intellectual interests. The men all belong to the clubbish Stepford Men's Association, which Walter joins to Joanna's dismay. Neighbor Carol Van Sant's (Nanette Newman) sexually submissive behavior to her husband Ted, and her odd, repetitive behavior after a car accident also strike Joanna as unusual.
Things start to look up when she makes friends with another newcomer to town, sloppy, irrepressible Bobbie Markowe (Paula Prentiss). Along with glossy trophy wife Charmaine Wimperis (Tina Louise), they organize a Women's Lib consciousness raising session, but the meeting is a failure when the other wives hijack the meeting with cleaning concerns. Joanna is also unimpressed by the boorish Men's Club members, including intimidating president Dale "Diz" Coba (Patrick O'Neal); stealthily, they collect information on Joanna including her picture, her voice, and other personal details. When Charmaine turns overnight from a languid, self-absorbed tennis fan into an industrious, devoted wife, Joanna and Bobbie start investigating, with ever-increasing concern, the reason behind the submissive and bland behavior of the other wives, especially when they learn they were once quite supportive of liberal social policies.
Spooked, Bobbie and Joanna start house hunting in other towns, and later, Joanna wins a prestigious contract with a photo gallery with some photographs of their respective children. When she excitedly tells Bobbie her good news, Joanna is shocked to find her freewheeling and liberal friend has abruptly changed into another clean, conservative housewife, with no intention of moving from town.
Joanna panics and, at Walter's insistence, visits a psychiatrist to whom she voices her belief that all the men in the town are in a conspiracy of somehow changing the women. The psychiatrist recommends she leave town until she feels safe, but when Joanna returns home, the children are missing. The marriage devolves into domestic violence when Joanna and Walter get into a physical scuffle. In an attempt to find her children, she hypothesizes Bobbie may be caring for them. Joanna, still mystified by Bobbie's behavior, is desperate to prove her humanity but intuitively stabs Bobbie with a kitchen knife. But Bobbie doesn't bleed or suffer, instead going into a loop of odd mechanical behavior, thus revealing she is a robot.
Despite feeling she may be the next victim, Joanna sneaks into the mansion which houses the Men's Association to find her children. There, she finds the mastermind of the whole operation, Dale "Diz" Coba, and eventually her own robot-duplicate. Joanna is shocked into paralysis when she witnesses its soulless, black, empty eyes. The Joanna-duplicate brandishes a cord; it is implied that she strangles the real Joanna to death. In the final scene, the duplicate is seen placidly purchasing groceries at the local supermarket, along with the other "wives" all wearing similar long dresses, large hats and saying little more than hello to each other. The final shot focuses on Joanna's now-finished eyes. During the closing credits still images show a very cheerful Walter along with his now conservatively-dressed children in the back of the station wagon, picking up his "Stepford wife" from the supermarket.
ThemeMen wanted stupid robot women instead of the real thing.
Throughout most of history women commonly have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men.[1] Women were seen as wives and mothers, not lawyers and photographers. The most effective aspect of the story's plot is an examination of the drastic measures some men will take to control women. The men create replicas of their wives and kill their original human counterparts, even while they just as well could have filed for divorce. The new wives don’t have opinions or careers, they undertake and enjoy all aspects of housework and will forever remain beautiful.[2] In the film the men create these women to fulfill their own fantasy desires. The robots exist for their personal pleasure only.Whoopy-a ten year olds fantasy and thats about it.
The men utilize their talents to create wives that lack character, brains, ambition, creativity, and independence. Their goal is to create women they can control; wives that enjoy housework and fulfilling their husband's every need.[2] The duplicates are "new and improved" versions of their wives. They have larger breasts, narrower waists and higher cheek bones.[2] These robots are sexual objects, so they are intended only to accommodate their husbands' desires while having none of their own.
Modern women stand as potential threats to the male-controlled order, because they are outspoken, self-centered, and aggressive.[2] The two women that are seen as the threat throughout the movie are Bobbie and Joanna, who were the only women wearing shorts, overalls, and pants; by the end they dressed and behaved like Stepford housewives. Joanna tries to start a women's association where real issues and emotions are discussed, while the robots are only programmed to talk about housework. All of the wives of Stepford were once female activists who had goals and ambitions until the men felt that there was a need for change.[3] The women become isolated from the real world; they are attractive, sexualized property. These women are helpless, incompetent, and no longer able to defend themselves.[2]The plot also continues a theme of patriarchal critique dating at least from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel "Frankenstein", which, unlike most movies of the same name, is intimately concerned with the implications of men's control of the manipulation of life, a concern of outstanding relevance today. Ira Levin made this a theme in other science fiction novels he wrote, including This Perfect Day (1970) and The Boys From Brazil (1976).Having this all on Wikipedea,the movie still stinks.It is a 115 minute bore-a-thon of shit ideas.Any man,that would want a fracking Dysney robot over the one he dated and married,needs to go Stepford and get his ball cut,off,before he has children.
Cast
Cast notes[edit]
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