TOOTSIE

(December 1982, U.S.)

Ladies and gentlemen, and children of all ages - allow me to tell you a story about the late Sidney Pollack's film TOOTSIE, and how it related to my youth when I was fifteen years old.
In March 1982, I got into a big fight with my mother because I told her I was seeing the movie VICTOR/VICTORIA with a friend. She absolutely refused to allow me to see "a movie like that", as she put it. "Like what?", I replied. She proceeded to describe how the movie was about degenerate people who dressed up in drag costumes. "Mom, it’s a musical!" I said, to which she concluded the fight by declaring, "I don’t care!" It took me a while to understand her (unreasonable) feelings, but it appeared my mother suffered from some form of homophobia. Nonetheless, I was faced with the embarrassing task of telling my friend I couldn’t go to the movie. When he asked why, I made up a silly excuse because, frankly, I just couldn’t wrap my head around the real reason. I mean, it was just a movie; it’s not like I was going to a porn theater in Manhattan. This memory is relevant to me because by the end of that same year, when my family prepared to see TOOTSIE, I started a conversation with my mother that went something like this,

"Mom, do you remember last spring when you wouldn’t let me see Victor/Victoria?"
"Yes. What about it?"
"That was a movie about a woman who dressed like a man. How come we’re going to see a movie about a man who dresses like a woman?"
"This movie is different."
"Why?"
"Because it’s funny!"

Was she serious? What the hell did that mean? Whatever logical conviction she thought made sense to her, made absolutely no sense to me. There was a hypocrisy taking place here that I didn’t understand. Unfortunately, when you’re a kid who’s practically been told to shut up by his mother, you simply do it without argument because you just want to go to the movies with your family in peace.

Despite my love for the movies, I never once had any aspirations to be an actor. My conviction is confirmed with TOOTSIE. Listening to Michael Dorsey (played by Dustin Hoffman, whom I remembered well from KRAMER VS. KRAMER), I believed actors spent their lives looking for work and not getting any. Instead, they ended up as waiters in restaurants. Despite these difficulties, Michael is determined to make it as an actor and encouraged his friends to have the same discipline and commitment. As a perfectionist, however, Michael is impossible to work with. Even his well-known agent George Fields (played by director himself Sidney Pollack) can't help him. During an argument in George’s office, he and Michael shout at each other about the time Michael played a tomato for a commercial and refused to sit down. This is still the funniest and most stupid argument I've ever heard in a movie. To finally get a good paying job, Michael goes to extremes and auditions for a female part on a soap opera dressed as a woman. Instead of Michael Dorsey, he goes by the name of Dorothy Michaels. It works because he gets the part by performing the role as a tough, no-nonsense feminist who won't take crap from men. He fools them all and he even fools his agent for a time, when he meets him at the Russian Tea Room. The moment when George is shocked to see how Michael has transformed himself is hilarious not just because of the surprise element, but also because of the look on poor George’s face when he realizes just how far Michael has gone to get a job. This is a rare moment where I can appreciate just how far one’s facial expression can take a scene in a movie. Sometimes words weren’t necessary to get the point across.

As Dorothy becomes a TV soap opera sensation, Michael is living two lives and is intrigued by just how far he can take his new female personality. In a scene inside the bedroom of his best friend Sandy (played by Teri Garr), he stands in front of her mirror staring at himself, alters his facial expression, and says, "Why, yes!" at himself in a feminine voice. Then he gets undressed while Sandy is in the shower so he can try on one of her dresses. She catches him in his underwear, and the only way he can get out of the situation is to tell her that he wants her, even if he really doesn't, because after all, they're just friends:

"Sandy, I want you.", he says as he walks toward her in his underwear.
"You want me?", she asks in disbelief pointing to her own body, lacking any self-esteem.

This isn’t much dialogue, but it says wonders about the two characters, their history as friends, and the drastic step they're about to take. The unexpected sex between them begins an act of deception by Michael toward Sandy. At the same time, Michael is falling in love with his beautiful co-star Julie (played by Jessica Lange), who only knows him as Dorothy and who's also dating the show’s director, Ron (played by Dabney Coleman). By all accounts, he's a sexist and a total jerk because of the way he disrespects the women in his life. There's a scene at a party which teaches us a great deal about the flaws of human nature in which Michael is there (as Michael) with George, and Julie is there, too. In a previous scene, at Julie’s apartment, she confesses to Dorothy that it would be a relief if just once a guy would come up to her and skip the usual pick-up lines and role playing and just come right out and say, "I find you very interesting and I’d really like to make love to you." Having that knowledge, Michael repeats that very line to Julie at the party. It backfires when, instead of being relieved and flattered, she throws her drink in his face. It seems that people, regardless of what they may say to other people, don't necessarily want what they said to actually happen, and if it do, they won't necessarily react the way they thought they would. In other words, be careful what you wish for, you may get it.

As Dorothy, life gets very complicated. On top of everything else, she's being pursued by two men; Julie’s father and an older cast member on the show. Do men really find Dorothy attractive? Sorry, but I just don't see it. As a straight man, Michael fights off such advances (Julie’s father even proposes marriage and gives her/him a ring).
If Michael doesn't think of something fast, he’ll spend the rest of his life as Dorothy Michaels. The opportunity to get out of this gig presents itself when the show is in the unexpected situation of having to perform a party scene live instead of being taped. Before we know what's happening, Dorothy is off on an uncontrollable verbal rant, improvising a strange backstory as she goes along, almost to the point of a stuttering panic. Finally, at the crucial moment, with the audience watching live (including Sandy and Julie’s father), Dorothy wipes off her makeup, takes off her wig, and reveals herself to be Michael Dorsey. The jig is up, the mask is off, and Michael is free, but not before he receives a good punch in the stomach from Julie. The aftermath is what you'd expect, with Michael making amends with those he hurt, including Julie and her father, too. She confesses to missing Dorothy, and Michael tries to make it better by telling her, "I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man." She forgives him when she askes him to lend her a yellow dress.

My family and I not only loved TOOTSIE when we first saw it in 1982, but it was one of the most fun times we’d had at the movies in a long time. Laughter being contagious, it was always a pleasure to see my mother let herself go for two hours and give in to the feeling and freedom of allowing herself the joy to laugh at wild situations and stupidity. My own laughter at such a movie took on extra meaning because I was able to share it with someone who didn’t laugh too much at the movies. However, I still never got a reasonable explanation to why TOOTSIE was acceptable and VICTOR/VICTORIA wasn’t. In a way, this movie represented strange timing for me because I’d recently gotten caught up in the popular ABC soap opera General Hospital. It started in 1981 when nearly every kid in my high school freshman class was going on about the wedding of Luke and Laura as the biggest event on TV. Plagued by curiosity, I couldn’t resist seeing what all the hubbub was about. Well, after one hour of drama and intrigue, I had to see what would happen in the next episode…and the next…and the next (I surrendered nine years of my life to that show until 1990, when I finally decided the writing became too stupid to bother with anymore). Watching the actions and drama of the soap opera in TOOTSIE gave me a somewhat interesting insight as to what possibly went on behind the camera of a real-life soap opera…minus the man in drag, of course.

The film remains one of the funniest I’ve ever seen (the "tomato" argument still cracks me up every time). It’s noteworthy that in his long career, this was the only real comedy Sydney Pollack ever directed (sorry, but THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN just wasn’t funny). Besides paying homage to the Billy Wilder classic SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959), as well as other slapstick comedies of the 1940s, the film perfectly combines the outrageous farce of the modern TV soap opera and New York City show business with relevant social points about sexism. At the beginning of the film, we’re unclear on Michael’s position on women, having no romantic interest in his life. As his life progresses as Dorothy Michaels, however, he develops a better understanding of women as he lives through his own hell in their shoes. Aside from the defense he’s forced to maintain against men who want him physically, he preaches his own public sermon regarding a woman’s need for respect and to be treated fairly and equally among men. At the very least, they should be referred to by their name and not some cheap pet name like honey, baby, or "Tootsie".

As the traditional situation comedy, this is far from traditional (forget even the best set of circumstances you’ve seen on classic situation comedies like I LOVE LUCY or THREE'S COMPANY). The film doesn’t go off half-cocked by trying to shove cheap laughs in our face. Those responsible for writing it use as much common sense as possible. Michael isn’t going all out in drag just to deceive people or pretend to be something he’s not for his own personal gratification. This is a man that’s been mostly unemployed for twenty years and enough is finally enough. When the chance presents itself to work steadily for a good paycheck, Michael does what he has to do, even if it means screwing his best friend Sandy out of a possible audition he could’ve helped her get. Whatever moral intentions and obligations that follow his acting success are primarily fueled by his love for Julie, and the fact that one of the reasons he can’t have her (besides the obvious) is because she’s lowered her own standards to be the girlfriend of her chauvinist pig director. To have to watch a woman he cares about go through this brings out his own need to try and improve the lives of other woman, both on TV as a character actress and in real life with Julie.
Dorothy is not attractive, and Micheal knows this. She is, however, very well-groomed and very confident in herself, and it’s this alone that likely makes her a turn-on to certain men who admire these qualities and even find them sexy. Despite being a kind woman with a big heart, she also knows how to defend herself very well against those who go too far with her (even men on the street who try to take her taxi away from her), the reason being because as a man who was, perhaps, also a chauvinist before he put on the dress, is finally learning how it feels at the other end.

The film is perfectly cast. I can’t think of any combination of actors in which the chemistry doesn’t work well. From Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray as roommates, to Dustin and Jessica as girlfriends, to Dustin and Sydney Pollack biting each other’s head off. Pollack is particularly funny as Michael’s nervous and impatient agent trying to cope with his clients insane antics. I can only feel for the poor man immediately wanting a double vodka when he sees just how far Michael went to get ahead in show business. The tomato argument is played out so flawlessly, I’d find it hard to believe if the two men didn’t get it right in just the first take. The two of them make you believe that an otherwise intelligent man would throw away a good job opportunity simply because he cannot comprehend the logic behind a tomato that’s required to sit down. TOOTSIE is, in its own special way, a poignant film of laughter that reminded us of the pleasure of life’s silliness, even while maintaining its common sense, its intelligence, and its social messages.

How can you go wrong with that?

Favorite line or dialogue:

Michael Dorsey: "Are you saying that nobody in New York will work with me?"
George Fields: "No, no, that's too limited. Nobody in Hollywood wants to work with you either. I can't even send you up for a commercial. You played a tomato for thirty seconds, they went a half a day over schedule because you wouldn't sit down."
Michael: "Yes, it wasn't logical."
George: "YOU WERE A TOMATO! A tomato doesn't have logic! A tomato can't move!"
Michael: "That's what I said! So if he can't move, how's he gonna sit down, George? I was a stand-up tomato: a juicy, sexy, beefsteak tomato! Nobody does vegetables like me!
I did an evening of vegetables off-Broadway! I did the best tomato, the best cucumber, I did an endive salad that knocked the critics on their ass!"