Well, Girls, I Finally Saw "Beaches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                         I can't believe it took me this long.  I have friends, who have said to me, "You're gay, and you have NOT seen "Beaches?"  Well, now they can stop saying that.

                          I avoided this film because I was afraid of it.  I knew the Barbara Hershey character dies, and somewhere around the time of seeing Meryl Streep in "One True Thing'_-which echoed my mother's death for me--I vowed never to watch any more films where people pass from terminal illness.  I mean, loss, and catheters, are my greatest fears!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                            The first half, or at least third, of "Beaches" is actually a lot of fun.  Mayim Bialik and Marcie Leeds were so good as the juvenile C.C. Bloom and Hillary Whitney (later Essex) that when they morphed into Bette and Barbara, I was almost disappointed; I wanted more of them.  And the film, from the start, is about conflict and contrast, and was so echoing of me--I wanted the show biz childhood C. C. had, but I also wanted the Miss Porter's upbringing Hillary had--but you can't have both!!!!!!!!  And I tired, girls, believe me, I tried!  I am still at it!!!!!!!!!!!!

                              Some of "Beaches" is almost campy, and Bette, while touching, is actually playing a parody of how people perceive her persona--which is what she represents on stage!  But the performance that got to me was Barbara Hershey, not just because she dies, but because of the sweetness, the vulnerability, and the fact that without Bette, she would have had no one.  Her mother is dead when the film begins, her father is a control type who orchestrates her social and vocational life, so she ends up a brilliant lawyer, with a  lousy track record for men.  And she marries the schmuck (as he turns out to be!) Daddy wanted her to!  Then Daddy dies while she is a young woman!  This poor thing had no sense of being herself, except when with Bette, later her daughter, and in the courtroom.  My heart just went out to Hillary, who, in spite of it, made the best of it, and yes, darlings, money does help.  Which was one of the things I learned from this film.  The other is that I need a facial, and how is a little girl going to survive being raised by Bette Midler?   I mean, how will she turn out?  What will she turn into?  Let's face it, it would have been easier if Victoria had been a boy, because, then, being raised by Bette, we know how he would have turned out--a gay Theater Queen.  Like Barbra's son, Jason!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        I think Victoria will end up having her mother's looks, intellectual brilliance, and Bette's/C.C.'s fire that takes no crap from anyone!  She will be a survivor!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        As to Hillary;'s death, yes, that is when Bette lets it rip with "Wind Beneath My Wings," but the scene is done as a tasteful montage, with images of the beach, the sun, the funeral--no protracted death rattles, thank God.  Very much like James Mason's death scene in the 1954 "A Star Is Born."  Which is why, as with that film, where the scene after his death, when Danny McGuire (Tommy Noonan) goes to see Vicki (Judy Garland), the scene between C. C, and Victoria, (Grace Johnston in a lovely performance) is the one where I lost it, and cried real tears!!!!!!!!!!!  REAL tears, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        And "Beaches" is a perfect title, as almost every important scene unfolds on the beach.  And the ending, with the final shot being of Mayim and Marcie is priceless, and the perfect way to end the film!

                        So I will end this post the same way!  You will love "Beaches," dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!