War of the Roses (1989) In-Depth Movie Review
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- Опубликовано: 4 июл 2015
- “War of the Roses” is directed by Danny DeVito and it stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. It came out in 1989. It’s a black comedy about a couple going through a very bad divorce. After 17 years of marriage, Barbara played by Kathleen Turner and Oliver Rose played by Michael Douglas want out. The trouble is, neither one wants to part with their opulent home. So begins a long war between husband and wife, reaching farcical heights that leave much of the house -- not to mention their lives -- in shambles. The couple's children watch in horror while lawyer Gavin D'Amato played by Danny DeVito tries his best to stem the bloodshed.
This review will contain spoilers so consider yourself warned. If you haven’t seen the film you should watch it first. This review is much more enjoyable if you’ve seen the film and want to listen to my opinion on the script, the performances, directing and so on. Maybe compare to what your own thoughts are on the film. 
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We watched this in a "Marriage and Family" course on college on 'how NOT to have a divorce '
I feel sympathy for Oliver, Barbara acted entitled and it got to her head, not loving someone is one thing but lacking empathy for a guy who provided for her and her ingratiate children for all these years is just sad.
Not sure what movie you saw. Barbara did not act entitled. She wanted out of the marriage and Oliver's HUGE ego wouldn't allow that to happen. Why did he need the house? He only wanted it bc she wanted it. He threw her cat across the kitchen! Barbara never abused his dog. Now if Oliver had such a problem with how his kids were raised he had every opportunity to be more involved in their upbringing. FYI - You used the word "ingratiate" wrong. Those kids were not on screen enough to really form an opinion about them, but if you had to use a word to describe them "ingratiate" ain't it!
@@CC-si3crShe didn’t pay for the house, she just picked it out for him to pay for. So yeah it’s entitlement. He doesn’t need a reason to want the house. It’s his house.
I always thought the dinner party scene was the first sign of trouble in the marriage. There might be a suble hint in the Christmas scene but the dinner party scene is clear sign that something is wrong.
Possibly the darkest comedy ive ever seen. I recall first watching it on TV with my dad as a teen; all he said was it’s a comedy with Douglas and Turner. So i was expecting a light, Romancing The Stone-type film….imagine my reaction 😂
Fun fact: Devito and Douglas used to be roommates before their careers took off.
Huh? Douglas is Hollywood royalty! Why did he need a roommate with Kirk Douglas as his father?
LOVE THIS MOVIE!!! It's one of my favorites. Watching this movie made me want to be a divorce lawyer. I love how it shows not every movie that starts off with a love story will have a Disney fairy tale ending. Kathleen's character, Barbara, never backed down from having great disdain for her husband. I liked the fact it showed an intelligent woman who had great physical strength, and wonderful business acumen. She really didn't need her husband's money bc she was quite capable of making her own!
Yet she didn't and was more than willing to play that part until middle age. I don't think it shows a strong woman at all. I think it shows she hated herself and used Oliver as the physical manifestation of those years of unresolved resentment. Little by little over the years of projection she used him to be her proxy villain to avoid and justify her own shortcomings.
She never said anything to him how she really felt or showed any sign of wanting to work on those feelings or her marriage except for petty passive aggressive actions. From Oliver's perspective she just one day drops the divorce bomb. He was still wanting to work things out. Had she been making those feelings known instead of employing those passive aggressive actions over the many years then maybe I could empathize. But, to bottle her frustrations up over so long a period and see divorce as the only answer to the problem makes her the one in the wrong. You can not not address the problems in hopes the other person can your mind if you never let the other person know there is a problem. Oliver would have been more than willing to work on the marriage and understand her feelings if she ever verbalized her feelings before saying she wanted a divorce. That is not being strong. That is just avoidance because addressing the problem requires some real self analysis and hard word. Her actions were the antithesis of strong. They were weak and ultimately cowardly by running from the situation instead of being strong addressing the problem.
You have no idea how wrong you are about Barbara in almost every sense, but yes it is a great movie and very underrated 👍🏼
He was a pompous Philistine
My parents watch this movie together often and think it's romantic. My parents have an abusive relationship. My childhood was hell , as they dragged me through 2 violent divorces from each other, and it makes me sick that they love this movie so much and see it as validating that their violent abusive ways are normal.
OMG...your parents sound completely delusional. How they could watch this as a justification and not lesson or warning on how NOT to be in a marriage is movie in itself.
I'm so sorry they put you through that. They sound like two narcissists who are self absorbed and completely non-self aware of anything outside of their own delusions.
“I got scared, because I felt happy.” Run, Ollie, run!
The Mean-Spirited Humor has just a little bit of a Loony Tunes flair to it in my opinion.
I actually burst out laughing when she pushed his hand away! 😂😂😂
I wouldn't dare call this a dark comedy, it's pitch black! I can't help but feel a little more sympathy toward Michael Douglas' character though. Even though he didn't notice Barbara's problems over time and belittled her a few times ("-someone- has to pay for all this") she went too far quickly and her taking that note and using it as leverage was low. On the other hand, she does deserve the house more than he does. It's good that the movie doesn't have a clear answer to which of them is "good" and "bad".
Yeah Oliver is a narcissist but he seems to be open to change later in the film or maybe that’s just empty words because narcissists seldom change their ways
@@lepetitchat123 narcissists never change and Barbara understood this, that's why she acted this way all along till the end. She wanted to get her life back...
@@Eleni_skg and here is the crux of the issue. I was told long ago, before being married, that a man marries a woman thinking she will never change and a woman marries a man thinking he will. They are both wrong.
Oliver is what he is from the start. Nothing hidden, nothing changed. He loved Barbara and always would. She married him and the things he did, which she could ignore at first, wore away at her until it turned to loathing. Her life was also going through an enormous change. Everything had been built around home and family, nothing about her. Now the kids are leaving, the house is empty and what is she to do. Oliver is dismissive of this although not entirely unsupporting (he pushed for the housekeeper to free Barbara for her business) but he fails to see the crisis she is in. Of course he does it in his typical dominating style which only infuriates Barbara more BUT HOW WOULD HE KNOW? He is the same as he always has been. Perhaps he would have changed if confronted earlier, perhaps he wouldn't have but we don't know because Barbara let it fester and ferment inside her until every ounce of the love she had for him turned into a desire to see him suffer and leave.
In the end the change Barbara wanted was the one thing Oliver couldn't comprehend, to be away from him.
I feel more sympathy for Oliver, particularly early on. He believes he has done everything he needed to do as a husband and from his perspective everything is fine. His first real knowledge that there is a problem is when Barbara tells him the reason she did not come to the hospital when she thought he was dead was because she was scared... BECAUSE SHE WAS HAPPY. Wow, that hit him, and the audience, like an atom bomb. Douglas sold that moment. He was half asleep and took a second to process it when she said it then his eyes open and he froze. I don't think he even breathed for a couple seconds, simply froze. He asked, repeatedly, for a reason why she wanted a divorce and in truth she couldn't give him anything solid because it was never shown that she had seriously addressed her issues with him. To Oliver this was absolutely a betrayal and then for Barbara to give the note he had scrawled while believing he was dying, as her attorney for their first meeting to use as ammunition... That was a monumental asshole move. That is where Oliver's obsession with winning kicked in and the whole thing turned to crap.
The end result was absolutely both their faults but the war started because of how Barbara handled it. By the time she asked for the divorce it was over and he never knew it was coming but even at that point there was a way to end it without a complete disaster but the fact is Barbara wanted more than out at that point, she wanted to stick the knife in and twist it for the years of hostility she had pent up as she walked out the door.
So what are the lessons here?
1. TALK!!!! People need to communicate because if they don't it will only get worse.
2. ACCEPT. Accept that agreement on what you think is best is not always possible. Accept that sometimes there is no winning. Accept that sometimes the best outcome which works is the one which is least bad and simply deal with it. At the same time always look for the other option and be open to discussing it.
3. EGO. Leave your ego out of it. As soon as your ego starts driving the discussion you are in trouble and be aware when the other person's ego is driving the discussion. Bring it back to facts and if they will not table further discussion until an agreed upon time so it can resume with calmer heads.
4. RESPECT. Respect the position stated by the other person. You need not AGREE with it but you must recognized the importance of it to them and deal with that. There is a reason they have the position they do and your not respecting that will prevent a beneficial discussion.
If all of this sounds like Negotiation 101 it is because it is. Marriage is a negotiation and if anything the business training I have received over the decades has helped bend the approach my engineer educated mind would have steered my marriage into disaster. I would have been RIGHT of course... and divorced.
Well, this went longer than I planned and I credit that to such a phenomenally thought provoking movie!
@@kennethfharkin As we get older, we grow as persons... and this is so beautiful to share with people you care about and they feel the same for you.
@@kennethfharkin pretty much summarizes my parents. Thankfully they never tried to kill each other, but at the height of the split+divorce they definitely sank to some really childish, petty lows.
I think Barbara pushing Oliver's hand away at the very end is the final great comic moment of the film. I love it.
This movie is brilliant. When it came out I was 19. I found it entertaining, my parents LOVED it. Three years later the couple I shared an apartment with HATED it, mostly the girl. It all comes down to perspective. She couldn't abide the idea that a couple so blissfully in love could disintegrate. My parents knew perfectly well how the little things over a couple of decades that your partner does could wear away at you over time (they never divorced) and how one must accept how some things change and some things don't if you want to survive as a couple.
I just watched this film with my wife last night. Our 25th is coming up and she had never seen it. SHE LOVED IT! So much of it can be seen in us. I can't stand how she never gets to the point, especially in stories, and will interrupt when I can't stand it any more. That of course makes her crazy and she cannot stand how I naturally assume the focus of most social gatherings, directing conversation. I snore when I sleep. She snorts when she laughs. My career has come first based on economics and now with the kids 14 and 19 she feels the need to do something to feel accomplished. Things about us have changed, things have stayed the same and there are definitely times she wants to take her large 4x4 Jeep and drive over my Charger. The only thing she wouldn't do is make patée from either of our two dogs... well at least not from the one who loves her most ;-)
She still loves me though and I lover her so neither of us are going to die falling from a chandelier. Also our house is too small to have one we could fall to our deaths from. The thing is we could see how all those little things couples endure can, if not kept in scope and held in check by love and respect, lead to loathing.
Damn this movie is great but you really need to be married 10+ years to appreciate it.
Hagan Terapia porque tienen cosas que trabajar juntos
@@violetamrityunjaya702 Come back when you have successfully managed a 25+ year marriage and raised a couple kids.
3:42 YOU'RE SPOT-ON! .. Danny DeVito never got enough credit for his directing abilities.. absolutely phenomenal here!
When watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith w/Angelina & Brad, I saw a lot of similarities. I couldn't help thinking the director of Mr&Mrs.Smith must have seen War of the Roses &, if even subliminally, uses bits & pieces...
No need to beat around the bush.
Just say you wouldn't be surprised if they copied War of the Roses in many areas.
There.
A terrific analysis! Also, a cool shoutout to Truman Burbank with your outro: “Good afternoon, good evening, and goodbye”
I liked the wineglasses so much I bought them. The crystal is Baccarat but you can get it in any good department store. Masena is the pattern. Not cheap. Took a few years to buy a service for twelve, enough to actually use at a dinner party.
Women"chicks" are just like Kathleen Douglass was in the movie. Lol every pillow, tea cup and or spoon is planned.
@@tammystwilson1763 Generalized statements are soooo annoying!
@@CC-si3cr Could it be that I and anyone else has a right to their views and opinions. Perhaps smaller dimensional minds don't understand this.
I was 17 and remember the movie well (although it came in Dec 1989 in the US, it was released in March 1990 in France), it was very different from the traditional Douglas/Turner of Romancing The Stone/Jewel of the Nile but the chemistry between them is undoubtedly there. A very 80s feel as well....
Omg...
Well, the cat's death WAS an accident.
“A civilized divorce is a contradiction in terms.”- Gavin D’Amato. At least they gave it a shot. The War of the Roses is one of the finest examples of social commentary put to screen. Also, I’m curious as to why both Barbara and Oliver seem to favor Josh over Carolyn? We don’t find out the daughter’s name until the credits, as everyone (even Susan) mentions only Josh by name, and Barbara cuddles him far more frequently during the earlier scenes
Just saw the movie and you made me realise how little the children were involved. Granted they were moving to college but imagine how different it would have been if the divorce happened when the children were young. l also think that most messy divorces become about the partners trying to get whats theirs and the children are afterthoughts.
Your commentary is PERFECT. Your brain works like mine.....with that little not so subtle hint to WATCH THE MOVIE the second this Review is done. And that's exactly what I was planning on doing a few minutes before your suggested it. I haven't watched this since the late late 80's. But during that time I must have seen it atleast a dozen times. You pointed out nearly all the the little details that I remember picking up on those many moons ago. Great Great movie indeed. I've been wanting to dig it out for a go for awhile now to watch with the wife but I've never pushed it cause I'm afraid after watching she's gonna think I'm tryin to tell her somethin. And I will have to calm her fears and tell her I ONLY wanted to watch the movie because it is seriously one of the BEST EVER MADE.
great video! I was feeling nostalgic and felt like looking up this movie; this is my first time watching your videos but I'll definitely be watching more!
I hope you've done one on Romancing the Stone! I was only about 7-8 when War of the Roses came out; when it was finally aired on TV I watched it and some of the parts unsettled me and stuck w/ me all my life. like when she insinuated that she cooked his dog and made it into pate?! Just the thought of doing that scared the crap out of 9 yr old me lol
DeVito’s directing really is top-notch. Loved him in Matilda, both as the narrator and as Harry, the hateful dad
Loved this as a kid. This, romancing the stone and jewel of the nile. As a kid I always pretended this is what happened after they in the romancing the stone movies. They had great on screen chemistry
Interesting how Gavin and Elke maintain physical distance, while in private (i.e. in front of Oliver’s apartment) but get overtly flirty in the presence of dignified dinner guests
"Now, I guess I'll go piss on the fish!" My fave part of movie! Bwahahaha! Saw this when it first came out. It reminds me of my first marriage....except, we survived and moved on. The destruction of personal items ? Yep...been there. Glass everywhere! I did not let her bite the bald avenger.
I love that scene, but “woof” tops them all
I LOVED this film growing up. I was born in 85, but obviously didn't see it until the 90s.
It's hilarious and Kathleen is so funny
Damb you're old grandpa
@@balwc147 ok
😂😂😂
I saw it at the theater when I was a kid .
Great review mate! U said it all, perfectly n seemingly! ....kudos to u
This movie was dark. No one would want a divorce like this. I loved Danny Divito as the lawyer /narrator. So many of his points were on target lol. Kathleen Turner and Micheal Douglas were brilliant and convincing.
War of the Roses is one of my favorite films. What grabbed me was the set design this is my dream house. From The built-in lighted China cabinets to the sauna in the basement.
I love the booth in the kitchen too. While a lot of the decor would be considered dated by today's standards, the set decorators on this film did a great job of giving it a timeless feeling.
its a bit fuddy duddy
This is still considered your dream home?
I saw this movie when I was a kid and just re-watched. Great review!!!
One of my fav movies.
Perfect review. It was definitely the details of how that bubble developed and burst is what made the movie so enjoyable. We can definitely see the point of view of both of them and relate to them. Very hard to tell who is right and who is wrong. I guess it was their marriage which was wrong. Two characters like them should never marry. Because, personality clash was written all over it.
She kept quiet until she was a mass of resentment, bitterness and hate. Despite all his faults, he was blindsided and couldn't see where he had gone wrong because she never explicitly told him. I think ultimately she was to blame.
@@ebh7821 Not to mention her means of manipulating the circumstances around an endearing letter from him under the notion he was to die. Going so far to take advantage of such an act is less then humane, especially since he states he might’ve worked something out with the house. He made mistakes, but you are absolutely right about not knowing any better.
She was one of the all time sultry beauties who combined that great beauty with a certain evasive sexiness that was hard to place. Her voice in particular sent chills up my spine.. A shame that her looks didn't last.
No one's looks last, sorry to say....
Robert Sissons Are you a nutcase? Everybody's looks don't last.
If she didn't have that auto immune disease, she would have aged better. I love her
Your review is excellent and spot on. You can review DEATH BECOMES HER next.
Excelente, great movie and great review
I never laughed so hard in the movie theater before. Unfortunately I was the only one laughing… It is a fantastic movie
Where I went to school in the 1960' they had a man like Danny DeVito,a math and history teacher they called the Toad-I don't think DeVito would like being called Toad.He was also the basketball coach-picture DeVito being a basketball coach.His favorite expression when he was pissed"Ill kick your ass in your ears"i think DeVito would like that line and a line he would use.
One more thing,I had a run-in with that teacher like DeVito,the Toad.I was walking talking to another boy and I said A good name for Bushnell House,the dorm house where the Toad was housemaster,is Toad Hall because the Toad lives there-Guess who walked up behind me puffing on his pipe,the Toad himself.He yelled at me "Don't call me that again or ill kick your goddam teeth in"
Another thing,in that teacher like DeVito's math class.One day this boy did not do his homework so he calls the boy up to his desk,stands up,grabs him by the sport coat,pulls him accross the desk and says to him gruffly"Don't come to my class without doing your homework"I think DeVito would do that if he was a teacher
great, indepth review.
What's really erie is this movie came out only one month after Betty Broderick murdered her ex husban Dan. I wonder how many people think this movie was inspired by it.
Great film, great review. 👍👌
Except the god damnned chandolier ENDING❤!
I felt sorry for Oliver he still wanted Barbara and all she wanted was stuff
I felt sorry for Oliver too, but he got his own way so much over the course of the marriage, that if he just gave her the house I think she would have eventually just walked away without it. In him fighting YET AGAIN to get his own way, she refused no matter what and the battle ended with them both losing.
@@ebh7821 you forget an important part about the house though...Barbara showed her attorney his letter to her when he thought he was going to die, which was a very low blow on her part and even she knew it.
@@ebh7821 You forgot the fact that he actually owned the house with HIS money. Why no one seems to consider the fact he is rightfully entitled to the house because of his money. Whether she suggested the house and he followed is irrelevant because HE was the buyer of it.
Good insight 👏
I love black comedy but this one largely missed the comedy ingredient. It simply devolves into a Tom and Jerry battle with no semblance to real life and nobody to sympathize for. The character's ruthless and gross retaliations and provocations make sure of that. Left me feeling empty and certainly not laughing. Watched it because I'm a big Michael Douglas fan and liked the central trio's other films.
I remember liking this when I was a kid but I just re-watched it and it didn't age well. She calls him a homophobic slur at one point. Like, why? 🙄
MY REPLEY TO ANYONE WHO DOESN'T LIKE THIS MOVIE "THE GLOVES ARE OFF"
Sean Astin’s career trajectory: Michael Douglas’ son -> Sam in LOTR-> Kate Beckinsale’s hubby #2 in Click
I love this movie🤩 🍿🎥 be careful what you want - maybe it's just not for you🙃 You don't want go = it's coming punishment
You don't want to let someone go = it's coming punishment...
doesn't matter what you want it's just what really makes you happy♥️
forgot house, who had true or who gave more .. just go for new tomorrows🍀
This movie reminds me of my parents but in a good way….we loved this movie and used to quote it and laugh about it all the time 😃
It's a very--- one-of-a-kind film. So unique. So cruel and maliciously funny!
1986: “Better not sit too close to anybody, ‘cause I have a bit of a- a cold… Aaa-choo!”
2021: “I have a bit of a cold… Rain check?”
Oliver was a narcissist. He cared only for the outside and needed Barbara and his kids just for this. He had them playing his game. He belittled her and ignored her true needs... She "learned" to act and do things just to please him. When she understood that he never was the man she imagined, she gave an end to her hopes and tried to get her life back. Her fault was that she let anger control her thoughts. GREAT MOVIE!!!!
I agree with you that it's a great movie. But, that's the only thing I agree with. Oliver's biggest "sin", and I use that in the loosest sense of the word, is that he, like just about every man (woman too) was a conformist because what choice did he have. He supported her in all her endeavors. She just got bored with her life and once the house was complete and the kids were gone she resented herself and the life she had (which I still can't understand) and projected her insecurities and frustrations onto Oliver. Initially with passive aggressive acts then full on abuse. If you took the two characters and switched their roles Oliver would be considered and horrible husband at best and an ungratefull, wife abusing, self absorbed husband at worst.
Like so many men who are the sole financial provider he simply realized what the situation was and accepted and conformed to those realities. She on the other, played the part of the upper class suburban hose wife and was able to ignore her true feelings until there were no more of life's externalities to distract her from those feelings.
In the beginning he was exactly the man she imagined but, overtime, he had to play the game to climb the professional ladder and she resented him for that. Probably did (subconsciously) from the beginning. Her description of the glasses she had growing up revealed, IMO, she probably always resented people who were better off. Then when she realized she was one of those people, instead of dealing with that cognitive dissonance, she simply made Oliver the manifestation of her self loathing.
Oliver wasn't perfect by any means. But, his biggest fault was his obliviousness to the situation. Barbra, instead of dealing with that and actually telling him how she felt through all those years just let it fester and after all of her awful and petty actions just drops the divorce bomb on him without ever showing any sign of actually trying to work on the marriage and herself. She was more than willing to better herself and set herself up to no longer be financially dependent on Oliver. But, not once did she say she wanted to make the marriage work or show any sign of putting forth the effort to do so. Oliver, once he actually knew how she felt and after her stating she wanted a divorce, was more than willing put forth that effort.
Hey reasoning for wanting a divorce basically came down to she was bored with her life and mad at herself for not doing anything about it until middle age. So, the fact he was totally blindsided and had a hard time accepting that fact I think is more than understandable. If she had put in any effort over the years (especially the later years of their marriage) and Oliver was still unchanged or unwilling to change then she would be justified in seeking a divorce. But, to never express those feelings until she asks for a divorce with no willingness to work on the marriage, again IMO, puts the blame almost totally on her.
I'm sure being a divorced man makes me more then a little biased for Oliver. I've tried to see her perspective and be somewhat sympathetic, but the fact there was no heads-up or willingness on her part to address the problems until she asks for the divorce makes her position very hard to empathize/justify how she handled the situation.
Im gonna go out on a limb here and presume youre a woman by going to the en vogue,-catch-everyman / action by branding them with the narcissist iron. Why was he narcissist? More.detail please.. like the guy said.. he still hoped to save the marraige still.. a narc does.not. do.this. but acts.irrational bitter with hatred and is all about their feelings and plays hard-done-by victim..
If she wants her own life she could’ve looked for her own house. Not the one she picked out for him to pay for lol.
The other movies he directed Matilda; Death to Smoochy and Duplex they all have things that I often think abt in my daily life. Death to Smoochy is the best Ed Norton film.
Everyone I know loves this movie but hated the ending. To me, there’s no other way it could end. She hated him so much at the end.
I know
Them hoping into that chandelier caused the deaths of the roses
My idea for an alternate ending: Douglas and Turner are both asleep one night exhausted from their constant "battle." They both wake up at 3:00am with an idea: set the house on fire. From opposite ends of the house, they do exactly that, not knowing what the other is up to. They meet up by accident in the front yard, and without a word, without looking at each other, watch the fires join and engulf the entire structure.
Great !
There is never a moment where Danny Devito is standing next to another man for obvious reasons, if ther are any people standing next to him and tower over him it is a women, there is only one scene where a man, Michael Douglas is standing next to him, but Danny is sat down, so the hight difference is never really that obvious.
Kathleen Turner's monologue alone should've gotten her an Oscar nomination. Both her and Douglas should've been nominated
As a kid I found this movie depressive. Maybe because my father wasn't good to my mom.
One of my favorite movies of all time
Reminds me of my wife
PMSL!! A classic !! 🤣😅🤣😅🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂
He tried until the end...lol what do you do?? If you hang on your a psychopath. Great movie...
I lived this scenario (minus the pissing and dog-pate) a decade or so after I saw it with my Horror-Show of a wife of 20 wasted years.
Women divorce on a whim.
They cannot lose. They are rewarded to end a long marriage.
It's a $50 billion Industry.
Baba baba baba baba baba blah blah blah blah blah blah blah you were great
You are talking about the film as if it was a pefect love story. I dont want to listen to you. This is a tragedy, that often happens in life unfortunately.
Michael and Kathleen’s verbal combat is priceless:
- “Stinky b*tch”
- “Dumb bastard”
- “Sl*t”
-“Scum”
-“Filth”
-“F**got!… Morning, Susan.”
Сделали говно- смотрите сами и ручками переводите
Well the cars nowadays lack Roses❤spirit
Oliver played by Michael Douglas was condescending and gaslighting Barbara played by Kathleen Turner early in the movie till she grown to dislike him.