The World According to Garp

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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“The World According to Garp” is a 1982 dramedy directed by George Roy Hill. It’s based on the 1978 novel by John Irving that introduces us to T. S. Garp, born out of wedlock to a feminist leader, who grows up to becomes a writer.

Robin Williams stars as Garp in the movie. His mother Jenny, a strong-willed nurse who wants a child but not a husband, is played by Glenn Close. Jenny takes advantage of a brain-damaged patient with morbid priapism (look it up) to get pregnant.

As a young man, Garp becomes interested in wrestling and fiction writing, which attracts the interest of the daughter of his school’s wrestling coach. Helen, played by Mary Beth Hurt, later becomes Garp’s wife. They have children, but she is unfaithful to him.

Other cast members include John Lithgow as a trans-gender ex-football player; Hume Cronyn and his wife Jessica Tandy as Garp’s grandparents; Swoosie Kurtz as a hooker hired to initiate Garp; and author John Irving in a cameo as the wrestling coach.

Both Garp and his mother publish successful books. But the topic of feminism puts both their lives in danger.

Irving wrote in 1977 that he thought the novel was about “the polarization of the sexes … the story was about men and women growing further apart. Look at the plot: a remarkable, albeit outspoken woman (Garp’s mother, Jenny Fields) is killed by a lunatic male who hates women; Garp himself is assassinated by a lunatic female who hates men.”

John Irving’s novel was somewhat autobiographical. Irving’s mother wasn’t married at the time of his conception. Since he wasn’t told anything about his father, he threatened his mother that he would “invent the father and the circumstances of how she got pregnant” in one of his novels. She replied, “Go ahead, dear.”

So, he wrote “The World According to Garp.”

“Imagining something is better than remembering something,” Irving said.

His mother later admitted, “There are parts of ‘Garp’ that are too explicit for me.” His was revenge fulfilled.

The characters are predictably eccentric, and the story is picaresque.

Film critic Roger Ebert was not moved by “The World According to Garp.” He wrote: “When the movie was over, my immediate response was not at all what it should have been. All I could find to ask myself was: What the hell was that all about?”

However, Leonard Maltin praised the film as “absorbing, sure-footed odyssey through vignettes of social observation, absurdist humor, satire and melodrama.”

A story about gender politics, it explores the themes of family, love, and the unpredictability of life.

As Garp put it: “You know, everybody dies. My parents died. Your father died. Everybody dies. I’m going to die too. So will you. The thing is, to have a life before we die. It can be a real adventure having a life.”

This was John Irving’s adventure.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com

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