Beaches

Once in a lifetime you make a friendship that lasts forever

BEACHES (15)

D: Garry Marshall

Warner Bros./Touchstone (Bonnie Bruckheimer-Martell, Bette Midler & Margaret Jennings South)

USA 🇺🇸 1988

123 mins

Drama

W: Mary Agnes Donoghue [based on the novel by Iris Rainer Dart]

DP: Dante Spinotti

Ed: Richard Halsey

Mus: Georges Delerue

PD: Albert Brenner

Bette Midler (C.C. Bloom), Barbara Hershey (Hillary Whitney Essex), John Heard (John Pierce), Spalding Gray (Dr. Richard Milstein), Lainie Kazan (Leona Bloom), Grace Johnston (Victoria Essex)

One of the great 'women's pictures' of the 1980's, a funny, touching and ultimately tearjerking tribute to a friendship which began from childhood and spanned decades.

C.C., a precocious child singer meets Whitney, a young girl from an affluent family, under the boardwalks of Coney Island beaches and the two become best friends, staying in touch as they grow up.

They both get married and subsequently divorced and then huge tragedy strikes when Hillary is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Many critics have harshly adjudged this film as maudlin and about as good as a TV-movie-of-the-week, but these opinions are very harsh. What Beaches lacks in cinematic production values, it more than makes up in performances and it gives Bette Midler her finest and most memorable performance.

The soundtrack is also a big favourite with the audience, with 'Wind Beneath My Wings' going on to be a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic following the movie's release.

8/10

Bette Midler & Barbara Hershey in Beaches

Did You Know:

Mayim Bialik (young C.C. Bloom) did not actually sing on camera. Bette Midler wanted someone who sounded like she did at that age, so they used someone else's voice and dubbed it in post-production.