A grown-up movie

Soundtrack to On Golden Pond; Dave Grusin, composer

I don’t like to swear. I don’t swear. Swear words have always made ugly sounds in my ears. I don’t even have to make a concerted effort not to swear. In fact, it would take a concerted effort to bring myself to form the swear words with my mouth. Know, for sure, friends, that if I swear in your presence … then I’m pretty damn mad.

I’m not entirely convinced that Mom and Dad knew what kind of movie they were dropping their fourteen- sixteen- and nineteen-year-old kids off to see when “On Golden Pond” came to town in 1981. I suppose the title is a bit disarming. In retrospect, the language in the movie really isn’t any worse than anything in the movie houses today. But back then, D. and I had never encountered a movie like this before, and we kind of giggled whenever a BS-bomb tickled our protected ears.

Still, it was enough that I felt kind of guilty for a few weeks; guilty that I had heard these words. Isn’t that weird? I swear, it’s true.

But I walked away from the movie having seen beautiful cinematography and heard a soundtrack to match. Dave Grusin brought a new sound, a new aspect to cinema underscore. It’s hip, it’s touching, it’s tender, it’s goldish, it’s pondish.

I bought the LP soundtrack a few years later. The LP includes dialogue from the movie. I’ve listened to it enough that I can do a fairly respectable impression of Katherine Hepburn. If you happen to remember when you next see me, ask me to conjur it up for you. It’ll be as much fun for me as it should be for you.

What made D. and me laugh the hardest?

Bill: Uh, are there any bears around here?

Norman: Oh, sure … Black bears, grizzlies. One came around last month and ate an old lesbian.

Credits: To Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, two class acts at their finest.

This is the thirty-fifth of my final forty-five CD’s.