Thoughts on Cocoon

via IMDB

*Ben (Wilford Brimley) is standing knee deep in fishing waters with grandson David (Barret Oliver). Throughout the scene, they alternate use of a fishing rod.*
"I got a couple of things I ..."
"Cast."
"... I need to talk about."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. ... I guess me and your grandma are going away, David."
"Where to?"
"Well, that's not important. What's important is that ... when we get where we're going, we'll never be sick, we won't get any older and we won't ever die."

Ron Howard, director of Cocoon, said several cast members discussed the main characters' choice. It's essentially, "Would you want immortality?" According to Howard, Maureen Stapleton was opposed to the idea, while Don Ameche was strongly for it. Personally, I'm leaning toward Maureen's point of view. I don't know if she felt this way, but I'm comforted by the idea that life will continue after I've died. On the other hand, I also think I understand where Don's came from. If you had the chance to continue living (and quality of life is presumably assured), why wouldn't you take it?

Cocoon won two Oscars, for Best Visual Effects and Best Supporting Actor. While I think Brimley gave the better performance, I'm not surprised by Ameche's win. Art and Bess (Gwen Verdon) are the characters who have the best experience upon receiving the Antareans' life force after swimming in a extra terrestrially-charged swimming pool. Art and Bess apparently don't have close family to consider, like Ben and Mary (Brimley and Stapleton). Art doesn't cheat on Bess, unlike Joe and Alma (Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy)*. Art isn't terminally ill, unlike Joe. Neither Art nor Bess kvetches or exhibits dementia-like symptoms, like Bernie and Rose (Jack Gilford and Herta Ware). They're just in love, damn it. Art serenades Bess, he goes clubbing with her** and aw, they get married.
*Joe's past and present philandering was a plot element I didn't expect.
**Considering Ameche was 76 during shooting, I'm not sure why I'm disappointed to know he didn't do his own breakdancing. Verdon was credited as the "special music and dance coordinator," while Susan & Thane Cornell were credited as dance consultants.

Written by Tom Benedek from David Saperstein's story, Cocoon is fascinating to watch in 2020. Would a mainstream movie today be so honest about old people's feelings? Obviously, there's been tremendous health and lifestyle advancements over the past 35 years, but 70 and older simply is not the same as 30 or younger. Cocoon's best and worst milieu scenes concern opposite health sensations. The latter comes when Art, Ben and Joe are delighted that they've got erections again and proceed to woo their ladies, a moment that's aged uniquely in light of both the development of erectile dysfunction medication and rising STD rates among seniors. The former is earlier, when Art and Ben watch a neighbor's possibly failed resuscitation. Mortality from COVID-19 has tended to be higher for older populations and it's hard not to think of the present disease when watching Cocoon's leads consider their lots in life and the opportunity offered by Walter (Brian Dennehy).

"You're joking me, right?"

"No. No."
"Would I be able to visit you and Grandma?"
"No. ... And we wouldn't be able to visit you, either. And that kinda bothers me."
"I'd never see you again?"
" ... No."
"When would you go, if you did?"
"Soon, my boy. Soon. You know where?"
"Where?"
"Look up. ... Outer space, my lad. Outer space."
"Who's gonna take you to outer space?"

"It don't matter. ... You wouldn't believe me if I told you, and I can't tell your mother, because she'd then know her old man had snapped his cap. I wonder if they'll have fishing holes there."

Walter and his fellow aliens' interactions with the elderly characters and Jack (Steve Guttenberg) drives Cocoon's plot. The science fiction is essential, but I don't disagree with reviewers who think the execution had issues. Howard was praised for the sensibility he brought and panned for the sensibility he acquired. As Paul Attanasio put it, there's two movies. One is a warmhearted, character-driven comedy directed by Howard. "The other, a bloated special effects extravaganza, seems to have been directed by a particularly slavish camp follower of Steven Spielberg."

For the most part, Cocoon has a strong ensemble. Gilford, alas, has a barely playable character that the movie talks down to. I disliked when Bernie is encouraged to join his neighbors on the journey to Antarea, both for their rationale (Rose is dead, after all) and his reason for refusing (Earth is his home, where he belongs). Joe got to be redeemed, telling Alma that he wouldn't want to live forever without her. Does Bernie have a similar attitude? Would eternal life be meaningless if it kept him away from Rose? Considering he carried her lifeless body to the now powerless water, trying to more or less baptize her in the pool he previously stubbornly kept them both from using, we can assume the answer is yes. I still wish Bernie's story had a better button. As for the aliens, Kitty (Tahnee Welch) is there to attract Jack, while Pillsbury (Tyrone Power Jr.) and Doc (Mike Nomad) are just there.

Cocoon is not bad. It's gotten pegged as ersatz when compared to E.T. or Close Encounters of the Third Kind and not a highlight of Howard's filmography. That's unfortunate. The movie is flawed but ultimately satisfying. It's at its best when it depicts the simple joys of love, family and possibilities.

"There's some things they won't have. They won't have grandsons and they won't have baseball games and they won't have hot dogs and they won't have that kind of stuff. ... I'm gonna miss them. Alright, cast it out there."

*After a few seconds, Ben pulls David in for a hug.*
"I wish we'd get a bite. If I could catch one more great big fish."

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:
-- "Face eating, Jack? Is that some kind of a delicacy?"

-- Box Office: Grossing $76.1 million on a $17.5 million budget, this opened at No. 1 and came in sixth place for 1985.
-- Shortly after Cocoon's release, the Washington Post reported the obvious, that the movie was mostly being seen by older audience members. "Older," according to 1985 studio executives, meant age 25 and up. The paper interviewed audience members including Florence Katz, 82, who was brought to the movies by her granddaughter. "... but I didn't come because there were old people in the movie. I came because I love to be with young people."
-- Fanservice Junction: Guttenberg and Welch, particularly for the scene where they make love in the pool.

-- Critic's Corner: "If I were over 70, I imagine I'd be upset over the lack of options Cocoon suggests," David Edelstein wrote in Rolling Stone. "If anything, it sort of makes the case for euthanasia." People, meanwhile, said the movie mixed "an unsparing social conscience with bracing, blissful entertainment."
-- Awards Watch: In addition to going two for two at the Oscars, Cocoon was a Golden Globe nominee for Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy. It scored one win out of seven nominations at the Saturn Awards. While Howard won for Best Director, the movie lost Best Science Fiction Film to Back to the Future. Acting-wise, Cronyn lost to Michael J. Fox, Tandy lost to Coral Browne (for Dreamchild), Verdon lost to Anne Ramsey and Oliver wasn't nominated for this movie, but won for D.A.R.Y.L. Finally, the script lost to Fright Night and the score lost to Young Sherlock Holmes.

-- Memorable Music: We're at 22-15, still in favor of songs written for movies. Cocoon's selection is "Gravity" by Michael Sembello. If Art's dance sequence wasn't cheesy enough, consider Michael's music video, directed by Howard.

courtesy YouTube 

-- This was parodied in MAD as "Kookoon." It had some good jokes, like one retiree saying being in St. Petersburg, Florida is much better than having fun, or the aliens claiming they're researchers for Mrs. Paul's, test marketing a huge new fish stick. The takeoffs of Ameche, et. al get the best lines. "At my age, I thought only my arteries could harden!" "Let's do it!" "Do what?" "Don't confuse me! It's been a long time." Upon seeing the aliens in their true form, one geezer thought he regressed to age two because he had an accident. The characters end up realizing the happy ending is that there's absolutely no hope for old people on Earth unless they meet extraterrestrials. Dull extraterrestrials. "This really could be an eternity."
-- Hey, It's ...!: Linda Harrison, Clint Howard.
-- One of my favorite gags in America (The Book) involves a rundown of lobbying groups. Labor unions, for example, have a stated mission of trying to keep workers from being exploited and an unstated mission of trying to keep workers from work. The unstated mission for AARP is "That cocoon's in somebody's pool and we're going to find it!"
-- I've seen bits and pieces of Cocoon: The Return. You have to question a sequel that invalidates 80 percent of what happened in the first movie. Oh well, at least there's Elaine Stritch and Courtney Cox.
-- Guttenberg, in his 2015 Random Roles interview, revealed that Verdon was the cast member who impressed him the most and that Brimley was exactly like his persona.
-- "I hope you're not gonna take your skin off, 'cause I really like skin on a woman."

-- Next: Return to Oz. On deck: St. Elmo's Fire, Pale Rider. Coming soon: Back to the Future