Milos Forman's first American feature is little known today, as it has not yet found its way onto VHS or DVD (though it has been aired on the Sundance Channel). Taking Off's obscurity is unfortunate because it is one of the funnier satiric comedies of its era that deals with hippiedom's spillover effects on the parental generation. Long Island teenager Jeannie Tyne (Linnea Heacock) goes missing—mistakenly presumed to have run away—after an audition in the city. When Jeannie's staid, middle-class parents Larry (Buck Henry) and Lynn (Lynn Carlin) Tyne set out to look for her they end up having their own life-expanding adventures with booze, marijuana, and other decadent distractions. Written by Forman, Jean-Claude Carrière (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), John Guare (Atlantic City), and Joe Klein, Taking Off is a good-natured, episodic farce with some great moments. These include a young pothead (character actor Vincent Schiavelli) rather pompously instructing a banquet room full of concerned parents in black tie and gowns on the finer points of smoking marijuana—to educate themselves on the counterculture, of course. Equally hilarious is an infamous audition scene featuring a cherubic but naked teenage girl (Mary Mitchell) delicately plucking a lute while sweetly singing "Ode to a Screw," a paean to the sex act peppered with the F-word. Also auditioning is a then-unknown Carly Simon and Kathie Bates (billed as Bobo Bates!) in her first film role. Praised by critics for its genial humor, Taking Off won The Grand Prize of the Jury and a Golden Palm nomination at Cannes in '71 and a half dozen 1972 BAFTA nominations.
Review of Taking Off
