I was the guy obsessed with films. One of my buddies was the perpetually frustrated schmuck, one had a unique talent to never let money slip from his pocket, one was the charmer who had no clue he was with the wrong bunch. And God, I wish I could recall any of of these peculiar conversations during my bachelor years and see if they compete with these fascinatingly pointless exchanges that give its unique flavor to "Diner", Barry Levinson's debut.
What I do remember is that sometimes I thought these interactions could make great material for a series à la Friends or a comic-book, because if there's an area where being a man has an edge, it's friendship: when you hang out with your buddies, there's just something that catalicyses not the good or the bad but the real side of you and make you behave according to it, shamelessly and relieved from the weights of social burdens such as family pressures, jobs and girls naturally. And "Diner" is the eponymous place where five Baltimore guys in 1959 gather to recreate this bubble of complicity, based on Levinson's own memories.
But the film is less a recollection à la "American Graffiti" than an admission of men's inner vulnerability within their social life and their need to be together to be themselves, the film hits that sensitive chord especially when it comes to the subject of women. I'm old enough to have spent my teenage years without the Internet, let alone social networks, and girls and women were so estranged to le (even theoretically) that I couldn't even call when one was making the moves. "Diner"s merit is first, to never make laughs happen at the expenses of girls and secondly, create many eccentric situations that yet we can all relate to regardless of our generatios..
Take for instance the sandwich scene, second most memorable after "Five Easy Pieces". Modell (Paul Reiser) is the group's wiseguy and carelessly mentions the roast-beef sandwich Eddie (Steve Guttenberg) is eating, Eddie's aware of his little game and goes straightforward: if he wants a bite, all he has to do is ask. Schrevie, the only married one, played by Daniel Stern is giggling as he can see where this is heading at, he ends up eating the sandwich. Then you've got the most adorable display of anger from a pre-Mahoney Guttenberg. Now, what does that scene say? Simply that adulthood comes way too early for some men who develop a sort of social resistance to it.
The rest of the band behaves more maturely though with the exception of Bacon as Fenwick who hides his insecurities in alcoholism and is the least predictable of all. Bacon manages to bring a complexity to a seemingly one-note character, filling his life with momentums to make up with his life disillusions. Tim Daly is a the least colorful one, entangled in a complicated romance, and Mickey Rourke is the bad boy with a heart of gold, a womanizer, arsonists with a Brando-like voice (attitude) and some solid principles. That the man who has a way with women is the least ethical says a lot about insecurities being the norm among clean-cut men who can only get the thrills by proxy.
And apart from crazy wagers, the group also indulges in the kind of conversations where you'd ask who's better Sinatra or Mathis? These discussions go beyond decent hours because only when we get the feeling that time stops that we can be ourselves. Still, the wisest choice was to have one prominent female character with Ellen Barkin's Beth, Shrevie's wife, also unsure about her own feelings and revealing the flip side of being true to your friends: it is not being 100% honest with your wife.
I'm a divorced guy and I can recall moments similar to that fantastic record scene where Schrevie puts a tantrum because Beth couldn't put his record at the right place. That I identified with him doesn't mean that I agreed, simply that his attitude was so extreme it could only be the top of the iceberg. Needless to say that it was with friends that I shared my frustrations about my ex-wife, as Shrevie did... and you know what? If you push a conversation far enough, maybe even the happiest man in his life will tell you that he's not sure he married the right girl. That future Eddie wants his wife to know about football speaks thousand words, he just wants a woman that would understand his passion, a slice of his persona, like I want my woman to love "The Godfather". Women might be relegated as secondary characters but the film doesn't mock them but rather pity men who can't find a compromise between their dreams and reality.
Now, there are a few moments that wouldn't pass the radar today but no way "Diner" couldn't have been overlooked. I was wondering why it was included in the AFI Top Laughs and then I realized it's not about the laughs, but the way it makes you laugh, with discussions about nothing but a nothing that says all, the soul of the film was there, all there in that 'sandwich' scene the producers wanted to get rid of. Levinson understood that a screenplay doesn't need to rely on plot-serving lines or snappy dialogues à la Neil Simon but its nonchalant detachment, the fact that they're talking about nothing special makes the experience even more special... and one can see where Seinfeld or Tarantino got their inspiration.
And that's a reason to hang out in that "Diner", also for its incredible cast with many stars of the 90s in their early to mid twenties, and finally because of that truth about we, guys, can sometimes be silly and women are wise enough to forgive us. Still, I'm glad my new woman loved "The Godfather", and when she first talked to my best friend, he asked her if she passed the test.
What I do remember is that sometimes I thought these interactions could make great material for a series à la Friends or a comic-book, because if there's an area where being a man has an edge, it's friendship: when you hang out with your buddies, there's just something that catalicyses not the good or the bad but the real side of you and make you behave according to it, shamelessly and relieved from the weights of social burdens such as family pressures, jobs and girls naturally. And "Diner" is the eponymous place where five Baltimore guys in 1959 gather to recreate this bubble of complicity, based on Levinson's own memories.
But the film is less a recollection à la "American Graffiti" than an admission of men's inner vulnerability within their social life and their need to be together to be themselves, the film hits that sensitive chord especially when it comes to the subject of women. I'm old enough to have spent my teenage years without the Internet, let alone social networks, and girls and women were so estranged to le (even theoretically) that I couldn't even call when one was making the moves. "Diner"s merit is first, to never make laughs happen at the expenses of girls and secondly, create many eccentric situations that yet we can all relate to regardless of our generatios..
Take for instance the sandwich scene, second most memorable after "Five Easy Pieces". Modell (Paul Reiser) is the group's wiseguy and carelessly mentions the roast-beef sandwich Eddie (Steve Guttenberg) is eating, Eddie's aware of his little game and goes straightforward: if he wants a bite, all he has to do is ask. Schrevie, the only married one, played by Daniel Stern is giggling as he can see where this is heading at, he ends up eating the sandwich. Then you've got the most adorable display of anger from a pre-Mahoney Guttenberg. Now, what does that scene say? Simply that adulthood comes way too early for some men who develop a sort of social resistance to it.
The rest of the band behaves more maturely though with the exception of Bacon as Fenwick who hides his insecurities in alcoholism and is the least predictable of all. Bacon manages to bring a complexity to a seemingly one-note character, filling his life with momentums to make up with his life disillusions. Tim Daly is a the least colorful one, entangled in a complicated romance, and Mickey Rourke is the bad boy with a heart of gold, a womanizer, arsonists with a Brando-like voice (attitude) and some solid principles. That the man who has a way with women is the least ethical says a lot about insecurities being the norm among clean-cut men who can only get the thrills by proxy.
And apart from crazy wagers, the group also indulges in the kind of conversations where you'd ask who's better Sinatra or Mathis? These discussions go beyond decent hours because only when we get the feeling that time stops that we can be ourselves. Still, the wisest choice was to have one prominent female character with Ellen Barkin's Beth, Shrevie's wife, also unsure about her own feelings and revealing the flip side of being true to your friends: it is not being 100% honest with your wife.
I'm a divorced guy and I can recall moments similar to that fantastic record scene where Schrevie puts a tantrum because Beth couldn't put his record at the right place. That I identified with him doesn't mean that I agreed, simply that his attitude was so extreme it could only be the top of the iceberg. Needless to say that it was with friends that I shared my frustrations about my ex-wife, as Shrevie did... and you know what? If you push a conversation far enough, maybe even the happiest man in his life will tell you that he's not sure he married the right girl. That future Eddie wants his wife to know about football speaks thousand words, he just wants a woman that would understand his passion, a slice of his persona, like I want my woman to love "The Godfather". Women might be relegated as secondary characters but the film doesn't mock them but rather pity men who can't find a compromise between their dreams and reality.
Now, there are a few moments that wouldn't pass the radar today but no way "Diner" couldn't have been overlooked. I was wondering why it was included in the AFI Top Laughs and then I realized it's not about the laughs, but the way it makes you laugh, with discussions about nothing but a nothing that says all, the soul of the film was there, all there in that 'sandwich' scene the producers wanted to get rid of. Levinson understood that a screenplay doesn't need to rely on plot-serving lines or snappy dialogues à la Neil Simon but its nonchalant detachment, the fact that they're talking about nothing special makes the experience even more special... and one can see where Seinfeld or Tarantino got their inspiration.
And that's a reason to hang out in that "Diner", also for its incredible cast with many stars of the 90s in their early to mid twenties, and finally because of that truth about we, guys, can sometimes be silly and women are wise enough to forgive us. Still, I'm glad my new woman loved "The Godfather", and when she first talked to my best friend, he asked her if she passed the test.