The Sterile Cuckoo [VHS]

The Sterile Cuckoo [VHS]
by Alan J. Pakula

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Category: VHS Video
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Product details

Actor: Elizabeth Harrower, Jawn McKinley, Liza Minnelli, Tim McIntire, Wendell Burton
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 107 minutes
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: Paramount Home Video
Studio: Paramount Home Video

VHS Movie Reviews of The Sterile Cuckoo [VHS]

Movie Review: I want my DVD
Summary: 4 Stars

This is an absolute classic film with an Oscar nominated performance by Liza Minnelli. The film was directed by Alan J. Pakula (who directed "Klute," "All the President's Men" and "Sophie's Choice") - so where is the DVD? What's the hold up? There is so much garbage out there on DVD (and I'm talking foul smelling stuff that no one wants in their home) - so please, PLEASE, give Pookie/Liza her due.

Movie Review: running with scissors
Summary: 5 Stars

I just got through reading a book about Liza the other today (the book was lousy) but it described "The Sterile Cuckoo" which I have never seen or heard of before. I looked online for it and all I could find was the used copies on this site for eighteen bucks. So imagine my surprise when it came on TCM this week. What luck, right?

Wendell Burton was the perfect actor to play the role of Jerry because he did everything I expected him to do and in a way he did everything that I wanted him to do. And Liza did such a first-rate job as Pookie because she gave this young lady life and body and comedy and character and sorrow. There was something very touching (and perhaps even rather tragic) to this creature. Because Pookie was the type of person that drew people to her with one hand (she craved attention and affection) while simultaneously pushing them away with the other. It was like breathing, she just couldn't help it.

My favorite part was the scene when they went to that little roadside motel and had sex for the first time. It was absolutely hysterical because Pookie was so into it and good girls (especially girls from the nineteen-sixties) were always supposed to suppress their feelings. To see such a brazen act on film was a real shocker. I love how she ordered Jerry to "peal the tomato." When I first saw Pookie with those black granny-glasses she totally resembled Paul Pfeiffer from "The Wonder Years". But after she hops into that squeaky bed I saw an innocence in her that otherwise went undetected. And after it was all finished she felt sad. No, not guilty-sad, but pensive-sad. Like Pookie explained to Jerry "it's too perfect" and as we all know there is no such thing as perfect.

The movie is very haunting, perhaps because there is something extraordinarily familiar about both Pookie and Jerry. Jerry reminded me of every guy I've ever known. And Pookie was like that crazy girl in college that never wanted to do what anyone else did and always showed up late everywhere and was always terribly disorganized but was still capable to cleaning up her act every once in a while.

It's no surprise that Liza was nominated for her first Oscar because her alter-ego runs the gamut of funny, obsessive, hysterical and desperate. The scene with her on the phone with Jerry, pleading to spend Easter vacation with him (while he studies because he received some "flunk-notices") really showed the type of person Pookie truly was. She was so terrified of being alone. She was downright afraid of being one of the countless causalities in this world that swallows people up whole and throws them away, without a second thought. I could feel her anguish and frustration as she begged and pleaded with Jerry. But Pookie really didn't need to say a word for the audience to get it because everything was clearly written all over her plaintive face.

The soundtrack music was incredibly penetrating. I don't know if it was original music for this movie but it sure sounded like a perfect fit. BTW the song included on the soundtrack is "Come Saturday Morning" by The Sandpippers. According to Wikipedia the song peaked at #17 in 1970. And, it is available on this CD.

"The Sterile Cuckoo" tells me so much. Not blatantly or overtly because both Jerry and even Pookie were more or less introverted when it came to sharing their true emotions and feelings. Sure, Pookie could run around and act like a clown because that was a lot easier than letting society meet that scared and insecure person that lived within her body and mind. You have to read between the lines though and everything is as plain as night.

There must have been a very pronounced part of Pookie that probably felt unloved and incomplete because she saw the world so differently. Everyone around her was weird and strange. I think that was her way of putting up a wall because she didn't know how to allow anyone into her world because deep down she knew that she was the oddball. She finally let Jerry see her like no one else ever did before. And he said he loved her. But did he really? Do any of them love any of us that much? Or do they just want to feel a warm body and hear a heartbeat?

Movie Review: Where's the ending?
Summary: 2 Stars

Despite it's Oscar nomination this movie bombed at the box office and for good reason. The plot has little substance, is slow paced and ends with a big "yawn". The story centers around (Pookie) a pathetically insecure college freshman determined to lose her virginity to the first boy she meets (Jerry). Upon Jerry's rejection, Pookie assumes the role of a lying psychotic stalker to eventually get him in bed. Her success is short lived however because Jerry is obviously more interested in his hunky roommate (Charlie). Pookie and Jerry's relationship dies on the vine as quickly as it had started. Jerry goes on with his life while Pookie falls into a creepy mental depression. Ironically, Pookies feels that everyone is a "weirdo" except for herself. There is no real ending to this movie, it just stops and the credits being to roll.
As bad as the movie was, Liza did a wonderful job acting. She was 22 at the time and campaigned hard for this roll. She gave up a lead part on Broadway and put her concert schedule on hold for this film. Unfortunately, her superb acting wasn't enough to save the movie. Fortunately, they decided not to make a sequel.

Movie Review: Comming soon to Amazon....get in line!
Summary: 5 Stars

Amazon has finally announced the Pre-Release of this wounderful movie!! I placed my name, to be notified as soon as they get it out....I was just back from Viet Nam when me and my girlfriend, by chance caught this at the cinamaplex. We went back and saw it 3 0r 4 times....We never got tired of it, or its "haunting" Sandpippers melody..."Come Saturday Morning"....Dose anynone know if there is a sound track or music cassette, or CD? Gad's, I'm getting old. music then,..was 8 Track! How do you describe this movie?.. I'll let the other reviewers do this, as you can see it has Tremendous Reviews....It was all so simple then, a time before America lost its innonce, and Love movies were BIG!... Remember LOVE STORY?..., "Love Means.. You never Have to say Your Sorry"? This came out about the same year, but got undeserved low reviews,..I remember everyone in the theater Crying. Movies like this actually had a plot and Story Line, ....Todays movies reflect a different Society...mostly fear, Paranoia,and Violence....Remember you can become what you expose yourself to. By all means expose yourself to this movie, you wont be sorry.

Movie Review: A bittersweet beauty
Summary: 5 Stars

This lovely, heartwrenching film is the sort of story that just doesn't get told today -- perhaps the innocence & honesty required just isn't there any longer. More's the pity, because this is a beautifully tender story of first love & its inevitable ending, which deserves to be seen. Liza Minnelli is unafraid to play the eccentric, lonely Pookie as needy & infuriating when required. Yet we never lose our sympathy for her, especially as we realize that Wendell Burton's shy, introverted Jerry is gradually outgrowing her. She's exactly what he needed to break out of his shell, and he clearly understands this ... but he sees that they're destined to go different ways before she does (or before she'll admit it to herself). Minnelli & Burton are superb together, utterly convincing in their wistful, somewhat lost, always searching way. And Tim McIntire's supporting performance as Jerry's boastful roommate, who surprises us with a heartfelt confession on a night drive home, is a small gem in its own right. "Come Saturday Morning" is the perfect song for this small but deeply affecting story of first love, lingering in the memory along with the characters. Highly recommended!

(Now, when is it going to be released on DVD?)

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