Taking Off

R

Released Mar 28, 1971

1h 33m

Comedy

Drama

List

100%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

84%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Director Milos Foreman made his American debut with this comedy about 1960s-style parenting. Jeannie Tyne (Linnea Heacock) has fled her parents and her suburban home to wander around New York City. Sick with worry, Jeannie's mom, Lynn (Lynn Carlin), and dad, Larry (Buck Henry), meet other parents of runaways in a support group. When Jeannie finally returns home, however, it appears that her parents have been having quite a bit of fun with their new friends in her absence.

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Penelope Gilliatt

New Yorker

It has fallen to a Czech visitor to take the curse off films about the generation gap. [Forman] really likes America. He could probably show us raw nerve ends in a drum-majorette rally.

Jan 29, 2024

Full Review

Michael McNay

Guardian

Forman's, in short, is a talent in a thousand.

May 15, 2020

Full Review

Jan Dawson

Financial Times

Forman plays on this conflict of styles, catching at all the pedantic nuances of American jargon and pop culture to create a universally recognisable image of man's unfounded optimism.

May 15, 2020

Full Review

Dilys Powell

Sunday Times (UK)

Mr. Forman has made a comedy in the United States; and he has shown that his gift works on either side of the Atlantic.

May 14, 2020

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Czech director Milos Forman applies subtle European sensibility to his American directing debut, a bittersweet satire of family mores and manners in times of change.

Rated: B+

Jan 15, 2013

Full Review

Tony Mastroianni

Cleveland Press

Foreman's particular ability is to make the ordinary look interesting. In Taking Off he succeeds.

Oct 18, 2008

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Audience Member

Director Milos Forman's debut into the mainstream 1970s cinema landscape. Considering the era this came out it takes full advantage of its party stoner culture. Jeannie has asserted her independence living in New York City. But the mother, Lynn and father, Larry seek solace in a support group that deals with other runaway children. Things change though when Jeannie actually does come home. She is shocked to learn that her folks have taken up a certain commodity to let loose and have fun...marijuana of all things. Jeannie's folks and other concerned parents figure they ought to try what's popular with the youths. Acts as some sort of a coping mechanism for their separation. Some of the editing here is confusing. The plot itself is much slower than you'd expect. The parents get more focus here than their child. It's an oddity I'll admit.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/29/24

Full Review

delysid d

mighty quinn is the greatest

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/17/22

Full Review

jon c

Director Milos Forman's debut into the mainstream 1970s cinema landscape. Considering the era this came out it takes full advantage of its party stoner culture. Jeannie has asserted her independence living in New York City. But the mother, Lynn and father, Larry seek solace in a support group that deals with other runaway children. Things change though when Jeannie actually does come home. She is shocked to learn that her folks have taken up a certain commodity to let loose and have fun...marijuana of all things. Jeannie's folks and other concerned parents figure they ought to try what's popular with the youths. Acts as some sort of a coping mechanism for their separation. Some of the editing here is confusing. The plot itself is much slower than you'd expect. The parents get more focus here than their child. It's an oddity I'll admit.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

john e

This is the first U.S. film written and directed by Milos Forman. I've appreciated every movie I've seen of his thus far, which includes "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Amadeus", "Hair" and "The People vs. Larry Flynt". When I saw that the cast included Georgia Engel (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Audra Lindley (Three's Company) and Paul Benedict (The Jeffersons), I knew I had to see it! If you lived during the cultural shift of the 1960's/70's, if you are a celebrity buff, if you enjoy great story telling, and/or if you enjoy having a hardy laugh… this movie is for you! I'll try not to give too much away, but also provide you with enough reasons to determine if it's worth you checking it out! Forman tells the tale of teenager Jeannie Tyne who may, or may not, have run away from home. Contrasted with her story is the tale of her parents who are trying to learn how to cope with her being missing and how the world is changing. The editing is a feat of marvel as scenes of what Jeannie is doing are juxtaposed with what her parents are doing to try to remedy things, and the results are pretty much always hilarious. Part of the story involves open musical auditions. To tell this part of his story Forman put out notices around New York City and invited aspiring actors and singers of that time period to come and audition. Clips of many of these auditions were then edited into the final film. Included among the clips chosen are future Oscar winner Kathy Bates (her first film appearance, billed as Bobo Bates!) and future Grammy winner Carly Simon. What makes this story different from most "generation gap" type tales is that the true story isn't about the culture breaking through but about existing culture being forced to adapt. This movie is all about Jeannie's parents, played so well by Lynn Carlin and Buck Henry. Also appearing in the film is the amazing character actor Vincent Schiavelli in one of his very first film roles. His sole scene where he attempts to instruct a room full of middle-aged parents on how to smoke a joint is hilarious. The film's crescendo into a pot and liquor induced game of strip poker between Jeannie's parents and their new friends the Lockstons (Lindley and Benedict) is brilliantly acted by all involved. One could literally mine this film repeatedly and never fully uncover all that it has to offer.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Undoubtedly the most disastrous result of the fall of Eastern Europe to Communism after the Second World War was that in 1969 Miloš Forman was forced to leave Czechoslovakia for the United States where, in 1971 he made this atrocious film; ninety tedious minutes of the most egregious, film-school pretension you're ever likely to have to endure.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Uproariously funny send up of post-60s hippies (and their parents) that really takes the piss out of both the counterculture and the counter-counterculture. The scene where the forlorn adults try pot for the first time in order to relate to their wayward kids is high(brow), slow-burning farce at its best. Even as the airy ideals of youth get the rug ruthlessly pulled out from underneath them-just by letting them be themselves, performing songs and acting goofy-it's really the parents who turn out to be the punchline (literally, in the case of a scene with Buck Henry getting drunk and violent), their repression exposed, their desire humiliated.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

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Milos Forman

Director

Lynn Carlin

Lynn Tyne

Buck Henry

Larry Tyne

Linnea Heacock

Jeannie Tyne

Georgia Engel

Margot

Audra Lindley

Ann Lockston

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Synopsis

Director Milos Foreman made his American debut with this comedy about 1960s-style parenting. Jeannie Tyne (Linnea Heacock) has fled her parents and her suburban home to wander around New York City. Sick with worry, Jeannie's mom, Lynn (Lynn Carlin), and dad, Larry (Buck Henry), meet other parents of runaways in a support group. When Jeannie finally returns home, however, it appears that her parents have been having quite a bit of fun with their new friends in her absence.

Director: Milos Forman
Screenwriter: Jean-Claude Carrière, Milos Forman, John Guare, John Klein
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Production Co: Universal Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 28, 1971, Wide
Runtime: 1h 33m