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Theresa: I’m alone, I’m not lonely. I’m depressed – you’re depressing me.

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I always had the feeling as if I were dropping down an elevator or riding on a swing !

Memories fade. I know the theater was on Ventura Blvd in the San Fernando Valley. Was it in Tarzana no I think it was further out in Sherman Oaks. I believe it was the Rialto Theater. I remember going by myself and it was dark and the theater marquee was lit up and very bright in contrast.  It was 1977 a year after graduation from High school. Everything was changing. Friends were going off in opposite directions, which is why I found myself alone.  Looking For Mr. Goodbar is the first film that highlights this change.

The real deal 1970s flick !!

I was pulled into this film, into a character, because I related to this dark but beautiful heroine Theresa Dunn played by Diane Keaton. She is a good girl who breaks away from her family to find a kind of freedom. Her character is dualistic in nature. At night she goes to bars and dances, drinks and picks up men. During the day she is a teacher for the blind. She is now sensitive, caring and compassionate. I think it is because of the opposite parts of her that she eventually finds herself.. but by then it is too late. The ending of this film leaves us with a dark conclusion.

Bartender: Confidentially, with me… one’s too many and a millions not enough. [drinks]

Theresa: I got the same problem with men.

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Theresa’s conflict begins with her spine and a past surgery as a child. Worried that her disease would be carried onto the next generation she steps one step up from abortion.  She has herself sterilized. The 70s were a time when issues like this were handled without all the political regression of today. The doctor did what Theresa Dunn wanted to do with her body. What she did echoed in my mind.

Without all the political regression of today.

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This is a film worth viewing. The 1970s are different from any other generation.

I always had the feeling as if I were dropping down an elevator or riding on a swing.  Looking For Mr. Goodbar takes you to the depth of the cold underbelly of 1977. The real deal 1970s flick !!

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Next in this series is The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane (1977) and The Sandpipers (1965) which is on the cusp leading into the 1970s. A ball breaking film showing us the 1970s motif.

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