Tootsie
Overview
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
that tells the story of a talented but volatile actor whose reputation for being difficult forces him to go to extreme lengths to land a job. The movie stars Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
and Jessica Lange
Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
, with a supporting cast that includes Teri Garr
Teri Garr
-Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...
, Dabney Coleman
Dabney Coleman
Dabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...
, Charles Durning
Charles Durning
Charles Durning is an American actor. With appearances in over 100 films, Durning's memorable roles include police officers in the Oscar-winning The Sting and crime drama Dog Day Afternoon , along with the comedies Tootsie, To Be Or Not To Be and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the last two...
, Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
, and producer/director Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
. Tootsie was adapted by Larry Gelbart
Larry Gelbart
Larry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
, Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
(uncredited), Elaine May
Elaine May
Elaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
(uncredited) and Murray Schisgal
Murray Schisgal
Murray Schisgal is an American playwright and screenwriter.Native New Yorker Schisgal won his first recognition for the 1963 off-Broadway double-bill The Typists and The Tiger, which won him the Drama Desk Award. His 1965 Broadway debut, Luv, earned him Tony Award nominations for Best Play and...
from the story by Gelbart.
In 1998 the United States Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
deemed the film “culturally significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
Quotations
I don't believe in hell. I believe in unemployment, but not hell.
You know, I could lay a big line on you and we could do a lot of role playing, but the simple truth is, is that I find you very interesting and I'd really like to make love to you.
[in her audition] Oh I know what y'all really want is some gross, caricature of a woman to prove some idiotic point that power makes a woman masculine, or masculine women are ugly. Well shame on you for letting a man do that, or any man that does that. That means you, dear. Miss Marshall. Shame on you, you macho shit head.
[to April, dressed only in bra and panties] What kind of mother would I be if I didn't give my girls tits... tips?
[waking up and seeing Michael as Dorothy] Mom?
I'm just afraid that you're going to burn in Hell for all this.
I don't like when somebody comes up to me the next day and says, "Hey, man, I saw your play. It touched me; I cried." I like it when a guy comes up to me a week later and says, "Hey, man, I saw your play... what happened?"
I think we're getting into a weird area here.
You slut.
That is one nutty hospital.
Encyclopedia
Tootsie is a 1982 American comedy film
that tells the story of a talented but volatile actor whose reputation for being difficult forces him to go to extreme lengths to land a job. The movie stars Dustin Hoffman
and Jessica Lange
, with a supporting cast that includes Teri Garr
, Dabney Coleman
, Charles Durning
, Bill Murray
, and producer/director Sydney Pollack
. Tootsie was adapted by Larry Gelbart
, Barry Levinson
(uncredited), Elaine May
(uncredited) and Murray Schisgal
from the story by Gelbart.
In 1998 the United States Library of Congress
deemed the film “culturally significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry
. The theme song to the film, "It Might Be You
" sung by singer-songwriter
Stephen Bishop
, and composed by Dave Grusin / Marilyn and Alan Bergman was a Top 40 hit in the U.S., and also hit #1 on the U.S. adult contemporary chart
.
Jessica Lange
won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
for her performance as Julie Nichols. The movie earned a total of 10 Academy Awards nominations.
) is a respected but perfectionist
actor on the verge of turning 40. Nobody in New York wants to hire him anymore because he is so difficult to work with. According to his long-suffering agent George Fields (Sydney Pollack
), Michael's attention to detail and difficult reputation got him fired from playing a tomato in a television commercial, because the idea of a tomato sitting down was "illogical" to him. After four months without a job, Michael hears of an opening on the soap opera
Southwest General from his friend Sandy Lester (Teri Garr
), who tries out for a role but doesn't get it. In desperation, he dresses as a woman, auditions as "Dorothy Michaels" and wins the part.
Michael takes the job to raise $8000 to produce his friend Jeff's play, Return To Love Canal
, however over time, his portrayal of Dorothy Michaels becomes a hit. During this time, he begins a balancing act of having to "cross-dress" in order to work and hiding it from his "girlfriend" Sandy.
When Sandy catches Michael in her bedroom half undressed to try on her clothes in order to get more ideas for Dorothy's outfits, he covers up by professing desire and they sleep together despite his better judgment about her self-esteem issues. Michael believes Sandy is too emotionally fragile to handle the truth about him winning the part of Dorothy. Their romantic relationship combined with his deception complicates his now busy schedule.
Exacerbating matters further, he is strongly attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange
), a single mother in an unhealthy relationship with the show's amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle (Dabney Coleman
). At a party, when Michael (as himself) approaches Julie with a line that she had previously told Dorothy she would be receptive to, she instead throws a drink in his face. Yet when he makes tentative advances (as Dorothy), Julie is shocked and later tells "her" that she likes her, but not in a romantic way.
Meanwhile, Dorothy has her own admirers to contend with: older cast member John Van Horn (George Gaynes
) and Julie's widowed father Les (Charles Durning
). Les even proposes marriage. Michael's roommate, writer Jeff Slater (Bill Murray
), and George Fields are in on the masquerade and watch in amazement as the situation escalates out of control. The tipping point comes when due to Dorothy's popularity as a feisty hospital administrator the show's producers now want to extend her contract for another year. What once started as a lark has now become for Michael a trap.
Michael finds a clever way to extricate himself. When the cast is forced to perform the show live, he improvises and reveals that he is actually the character's twin brother who took her place to avenge her. The revelation allows everybody a more-or-less graceful way out. Julie, however, is so outraged she slugs him in the stomach off-camera.
Some weeks later, Michael waits for Julie outside the studio and touchingly confesses that "I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man," and she forgives him.
The nominations were:
To prepare for his role, Hoffman watched the film La Cage aux Folles
several times.
Scenes set in the New York City
Russian Tea Room
were filmed in the actual restaurant.
praised the film, giving it 4 out of 4 stars and observing that:
Rotten Tomatoes
gives the film an 88% "Certified Fresh" rating.
Its opening weekend gross in the United States was $5,540,470. Its final gross in the United States was $177,200,000, making it the second highest grossing movie of 1982 after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
. Even to this day, it remains one of the highest grossing comedy films.
American Film Institute
recognition
In 2011, ABC
aired a primetime special, Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time
, that counted down the best movies chosen by fans based on results of a poll conducted by both ABC and People
. Tootsie was selected as the #5 Best Comedy.
by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video in 1985 and on DVD
in 2001. These releases were distributed by Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment. A special 25th Anniversary edition DVD, released by Sony Pictures, arrived in 2008.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
that tells the story of a talented but volatile actor whose reputation for being difficult forces him to go to extreme lengths to land a job. The movie stars Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
and Jessica Lange
Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
, with a supporting cast that includes Teri Garr
Teri Garr
-Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...
, Dabney Coleman
Dabney Coleman
Dabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...
, Charles Durning
Charles Durning
Charles Durning is an American actor. With appearances in over 100 films, Durning's memorable roles include police officers in the Oscar-winning The Sting and crime drama Dog Day Afternoon , along with the comedies Tootsie, To Be Or Not To Be and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the last two...
, Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
, and producer/director Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
. Tootsie was adapted by Larry Gelbart
Larry Gelbart
Larry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
, Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
(uncredited), Elaine May
Elaine May
Elaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
(uncredited) and Murray Schisgal
Murray Schisgal
Murray Schisgal is an American playwright and screenwriter.Native New Yorker Schisgal won his first recognition for the 1963 off-Broadway double-bill The Typists and The Tiger, which won him the Drama Desk Award. His 1965 Broadway debut, Luv, earned him Tony Award nominations for Best Play and...
from the story by Gelbart.
In 1998 the United States Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
deemed the film “culturally significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
. The theme song to the film, "It Might Be You
It Might Be You
"It Might Be You" is a popular song with music written by Dave Grusin, and lyrics written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. It was performed by singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop in the 1982 film, Tootsie, starring Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange....
" sung by singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Stephen Bishop
Stephen Bishop (musician)
Stephen Bishop is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and guitarist.-History:Bishop was born in San Diego, California, and attended Will C. Crawford High School...
, and composed by Dave Grusin / Marilyn and Alan Bergman was a Top 40 hit in the U.S., and also hit #1 on the U.S. adult contemporary chart
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
.
Jessica Lange
Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for her performance as Julie Nichols. The movie earned a total of 10 Academy Awards nominations.
Plot
Michael Dorsey (Dustin HoffmanDustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
) is a respected but perfectionist
Perfectionism (psychology)
Perfectionism, in psychology, is a belief that a state of completeness and flawlessness can and should be attained. In its pathological form, perfectionism is a belief that work or output that is anything less than perfect is unacceptable...
actor on the verge of turning 40. Nobody in New York wants to hire him anymore because he is so difficult to work with. According to his long-suffering agent George Fields (Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
), Michael's attention to detail and difficult reputation got him fired from playing a tomato in a television commercial, because the idea of a tomato sitting down was "illogical" to him. After four months without a job, Michael hears of an opening on the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Southwest General from his friend Sandy Lester (Teri Garr
Teri Garr
-Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...
), who tries out for a role but doesn't get it. In desperation, he dresses as a woman, auditions as "Dorothy Michaels" and wins the part.
Michael takes the job to raise $8000 to produce his friend Jeff's play, Return To Love Canal
Love Canal
Love Canal was a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, located in the white collar LaSalle section of the city. It officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, along 99th Street and Read Avenue...
, however over time, his portrayal of Dorothy Michaels becomes a hit. During this time, he begins a balancing act of having to "cross-dress" in order to work and hiding it from his "girlfriend" Sandy.
When Sandy catches Michael in her bedroom half undressed to try on her clothes in order to get more ideas for Dorothy's outfits, he covers up by professing desire and they sleep together despite his better judgment about her self-esteem issues. Michael believes Sandy is too emotionally fragile to handle the truth about him winning the part of Dorothy. Their romantic relationship combined with his deception complicates his now busy schedule.
Exacerbating matters further, he is strongly attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange
Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
), a single mother in an unhealthy relationship with the show's amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle (Dabney Coleman
Dabney Coleman
Dabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...
). At a party, when Michael (as himself) approaches Julie with a line that she had previously told Dorothy she would be receptive to, she instead throws a drink in his face. Yet when he makes tentative advances (as Dorothy), Julie is shocked and later tells "her" that she likes her, but not in a romantic way.
Meanwhile, Dorothy has her own admirers to contend with: older cast member John Van Horn (George Gaynes
George Gaynes
George Gaynes is a Finnish-born American actor of stage, screen and television.He may be best known as Commandant Eric Lassard in the Police Academy series, and to television fans as the curmudgeonly Henry Warnimont on the NBC series Punky Brewster, in which his wife, Allyn Ann McLerie,...
) and Julie's widowed father Les (Charles Durning
Charles Durning
Charles Durning is an American actor. With appearances in over 100 films, Durning's memorable roles include police officers in the Oscar-winning The Sting and crime drama Dog Day Afternoon , along with the comedies Tootsie, To Be Or Not To Be and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the last two...
). Les even proposes marriage. Michael's roommate, writer Jeff Slater (Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
), and George Fields are in on the masquerade and watch in amazement as the situation escalates out of control. The tipping point comes when due to Dorothy's popularity as a feisty hospital administrator the show's producers now want to extend her contract for another year. What once started as a lark has now become for Michael a trap.
Michael finds a clever way to extricate himself. When the cast is forced to perform the show live, he improvises and reveals that he is actually the character's twin brother who took her place to avenge her. The revelation allows everybody a more-or-less graceful way out. Julie, however, is so outraged she slugs him in the stomach off-camera.
Some weeks later, Michael waits for Julie outside the studio and touchingly confesses that "I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man," and she forgives him.
Cast
- Dustin HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
as Michael Dorsey / Dorothy Michaels - Jessica LangeJessica LangeJessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
as Julie Nichols - Teri GarrTeri Garr-Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...
as Sandy Lester - Dabney ColemanDabney ColemanDabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...
as Ron Carlisle - Charles DurningCharles DurningCharles Durning is an American actor. With appearances in over 100 films, Durning's memorable roles include police officers in the Oscar-winning The Sting and crime drama Dog Day Afternoon , along with the comedies Tootsie, To Be Or Not To Be and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the last two...
as Leslie "Les" Nichols - Bill MurrayBill MurrayWilliam James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
as Jeff Slater - Sydney PollackSydney PollackSydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
as George Fields - George GaynesGeorge GaynesGeorge Gaynes is a Finnish-born American actor of stage, screen and television.He may be best known as Commandant Eric Lassard in the Police Academy series, and to television fans as the curmudgeonly Henry Warnimont on the NBC series Punky Brewster, in which his wife, Allyn Ann McLerie,...
as John Van Horn - Geena DavisGeena DavisVirginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist...
as April Page - Doris Belack as Rita Marshall
- Lynne ThigpenLynne ThigpenCherlynne Theresa “Lynne” Thigpen was an American stage and television actress, most famous as "The Chief" in the various Carmen Sandiego television series.-Early life:...
as Jo - Estelle GettyEstelle GettyEstelle Scher-Gettleman , better known by her stage name Estelle Getty, was an American actress, who appeared in film, television, and theatre...
as Middle Aged Woman
Academy Awards
The film was nominated for a total of ten Academy Awards, winning only one.The nominations were:
- Best Picture (Nomination)
- Best Actor in a Leading Role - Dustin HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
(Nomination) - Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Teri GarrTeri Garr-Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...
(Nomination) - Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Jessica LangeJessica LangeJessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
(WINNER) - Best Directing - Sydney PollackSydney PollackSydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
(Nomination) - Best Original Screenplay (Nomination)
- Best Original Song (It Might Be You) (Nomination)
- Best Sound - Arthur PiantadosiArthur PiantadosiArthur Piantadosi was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and was nominated for six more in the same category. He worked on over 80 films between 1967 and 1986.-Selected filmography:...
, Les FresholtzLes FresholtzLes Fresholtz was an American sound engineer. He won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and was nominated for ten more in the same category. He worked on over 110 films between 1968 and 1996.-Selected filmography:...
, Dick AlexanderDick AlexanderDick Alexander is an American sound engineer. He won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and was nominated for six more in the same category. He has worked on over 170 films and television shows since 1975.-Selected filmography:...
and Les LazarowitzLes LazarowitzLes Lazarowitz is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Best Sound.-External links:...
(Nomination) - Best Cinematography (Nomination)
- Best Film Editing (Nomination)
Production
The idea of having director Sydney Pollack playing Hoffman’s agent, George Fields, was Hoffman’s. Pollack initially resisted the idea, but Hoffman eventually convinced him to take the role.To prepare for his role, Hoffman watched the film La Cage aux Folles
La Cage aux Folles (film)
La Cage aux Folles is a 1978 French-Italian film adaptation of the 1973 play La Cage aux Folle by Jean Poiret. It is co-written and directed by Édouard Molinaro and stars Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault.-Plot:...
several times.
Scenes set in the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Russian Tea Room
Russian Tea Room
The Russian Tea Room is a restaurant in New York City, located at 150 West 57th Street between Carnegie Hall Tower and Metropolitan Tower.-History:...
were filmed in the actual restaurant.
Reception
Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
praised the film, giving it 4 out of 4 stars and observing that:
Tootsie is the kind of Movie with a capital M that they used to make in the 1940s, when they weren’t afraid to mix up absurdity with seriousness, social comment with farce, and a little heartfelt tenderness right in there with the laughs. This movie gets you coming and going.
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gives the film an 88% "Certified Fresh" rating.
Its opening weekend gross in the United States was $5,540,470. Its final gross in the United States was $177,200,000, making it the second highest grossing movie of 1982 after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...
. Even to this day, it remains one of the highest grossing comedy films.
American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
recognition
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 MoviesAFI's 100 Years... 100 MoviesThe first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
- #62 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 LaughsAFI's 100 Years... 100 LaughsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of...
- #2 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 SongsAFI's 100 Years... 100 SongsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Songs is a list of the top 100 songs in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute June 22, 2004 in a CBS special hosted by John Travolta, who appeared in two films honored by the list, Saturday Night Fever and...
:- It Might Be You - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie QuotesAFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie QuotesPart of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS...
:- Rita: "I'd like to make her look a little more attractive. How far can you pull back?" Cameraman: "How do you feel about Cleveland?" - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #69
In 2011, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
aired a primetime special, Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time
Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time
Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time was a two-hour television special that aired on March 22, 2011 on the ABC in the United States. Hosted by Tom Bergeron and Cynthia McFadden, it was a collaboration between ABC News and People magazine that gave American film fans the chance to choose...
, that counted down the best movies chosen by fans based on results of a poll conducted by both ABC and People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
. Tootsie was selected as the #5 Best Comedy.
Video releases
The film was first released on CED Videodisc in 1983 then on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video in 1985 and on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in 2001. These releases were distributed by Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment. A special 25th Anniversary edition DVD, released by Sony Pictures, arrived in 2008.
External links
- The 25th Anniversary Tootsie by Billy Mernit