that movie "Endless Love" with Brooke Shields

Have you guys ever seen this film? I've watched it twice and I remember it being super-creepy.

As far as I can recall without going to IMDB, the male lead is dating Brooke Shields, whose parents are very "liberal"-- they smoke doobie cigs, allow the guy sleep over (these are high school kids btw).

And then SPOILER ALERT

when she begins dating some other guy and gently tries to brush him off, HE BURNS DOWN HER HOUSE!!!!

Iirc, when the movie first hit theaters it was considered scandalous and possibly didn't even make an "R" rating?? because of naked ppl or whatever. But really this film is just super-disturbing for any number of reasons. I haven't watched it in a few years, though, so maybe I am wanting it to be more fucked-up then it actually is. Thoughts/recollections?

I saw this on cable when I was really young (like 9 or 10 maybe?) and remember thinking the guy was the ultimate ROMANTIC HERO. Like, going crazy and burning down houses was really the way to go, his psychotic obsession with her was just a sign of real devotion. I was so pathetic.

Saw it many, many years ago back when Canada's CITY TV used to air it (and Blue Lagoon--did they have a Brooke Shields fetish? Not that I blame them; she was one of my rare hetero crushes once upon a time) quite frequently late-ish at night, with commercials but uncensored. Remember little of it now beyond most of the things you mentioned--the hippie parents, the house burning and, of course, that theme song. Don't think it even got a DVD release, so its been pretty much relegated to forgotten-by-choice status.

Jonathan Lethem once rep'd for the novel its based on, so I've always been curious to check that out at least.

Have never seen this, but yes the novel is sposed to be great. I have a copy of it somewhere in my never-unpacked boxes.

discovered this lonely ol' thread when i was composing this post: The ending of Endless Love by Scott Spencer (spoiler alert)

creepy as fuck

how about the mom watching the teens sexing and, like, just standing there smiling(?) wistfully, nostalgically (probably) but coming off kind of weird and pervy

yikes i don't remember that! but sort of do. the people behind the story obv took the whole "cool parents who let you drink" thing to a whole nuther level

yeah i kind of remember the dad wanting to be the guy's best friend, and the mom being like, "oh if i were only younger... young love, sigh"

this was inspired by the benny mardones thread, amirite

never saw the movie (everyone i knew who saw is said it was awful) but remember frequent warnings not to let the syrupy hit theme song mislead you into thinking this was a good date flick

yeah there seemed to be an undercurrent of looking askance at a part. brand of parental permissiveness... but by the end aren't you supposed to be kind of won over by this nutso kid's ~ENDLESS LOVE~ ?

idk, it's been years since i've seen this so i could be totally misremembering

I was! But I was young and dumb, so I could be completely misremembering it.

*checks wikipedia*

oh yeah!! i forgot about the mom seducing the kid later in NY after her divorce!

oh yeah!! i forgot about the mom seducing the kid later in NY after her divorce!

the hell? i forgot that whole element!! ugh

yeah there seemed to be an undercurrent of looking askance at a part. brand of parental permissiveness... but by the end aren't you supposed to be kind of won over by this nutso kid's ~ENDLESS LOVE~ ?

idk, it's been years since i've seen this so i could be totally misremembering

yeah, there was that. the film doesn't exactly play fair with the "cool parents" theme. but even beyond that i don't think the makers intend for the audience to sympathize with the kid who burns his ex-girlfriend's house down. but i could be wrong.

this was inspired by the benny mardones thread, amirite

of course it was

never saw the movie (everyone i knew who saw is said it was awful) but remember frequent warnings not to let the syrupy hit theme song mislead you into thinking this was a good date flick

well, i think of "syrupy" as being more applicable to a disney movie soundtrack

endless love (the song) is at a whole 'nother level. i used to own copy of the ost and it was one of those soundtracks that included snippets of dialogue in-between the song. i mean, this is the kind of thing that should be bundled with off-label uses for gillette razor blades or something.

>> this was inspired by the benny mardones thread, amirite

> of course it was

I knew that but just wanted to establish the connection for prosterity. And to think that thread (thus far my day's most notable entertainment) wouldn't have happened if it weren't for that radio station playing two songs at the same time for a few hours before they noticed

well i... prosterity, sure!

now you are speaking my language

Brooke Shields' early career was kind of questionable on the whole, tbh

Still never seen it, but Pretty Baby is supposed to be decent, no?

That was Louis Malle, but I haven't seen it either. I had forgotten til now that Endless Love was by the possibly overrated Franco Zeffirelli.

I've yet to uncover evidence that Seffirelli wasn't overrated.

*Zeffirelli, but you knew that.

ok mr. "jerfairelli"

:-)

I've never seen Endless Love, but I associate it with Blue Lagoon, which for years had me scared that if I unexpectedly got my period in a large body of water, a huge red pool would materialize.

Pretty Baby is not a great example of Lolita-cine, unfortunately.

Speaking of periods, the novel Endless Love has an icky period sex scene.

I just remember the girl removing her tampon and throwing it under the bed?!?

Ha ha ha the main character is named David Axelrod?