THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 10, 1995 TAG: 9501100042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
TO GENERATIONS of moviegoers around the world, the American Home was an impregnable fortress - able to both withstand Nazis during World War II and band together to get a prom date for the youngest daughter.
At the movies, Mom made cookies and raised the children while Dad made money and acted fatherly.
But is it all a myth of distant movie memory? Have even the movies caught up to the dysfunctional nature of a 1990s, in which neither parent is at home, drugs are stashed under the underwear in sonny's room and the doors have triple locks?
``Safe Passage,'' currently on view at local theaters, makes an earnest effort to recreate the so-called ``family movie'' and adapt it to the 1990s. According to Susan Sarandon, who plays the mother of seven sons, it was not an easy film to get financed.
``None of the studios thought a family drama would sell tickets,'' she said. ``When I agreed to do it, no one wanted me to try it. For one thing, my off-screen image is that of a pretty outspoken, liberal person. I know what it costs to take a stand that is not popular and I was being cast as a woman I see as a pretty ideal mom - even though she is tough.''
Sam Shepard, the Pulitzer-winning playwright who lives in Charlottesville, was cast as her estranged husband.
Sarandon plays Mag Singer, a woman who has gone through 25 years of marriage and motherhood. Six of her seven sons are grown and have left the house. So has her husband. ``One minute I was hot for him and the next I had seven sons,'' Mag Singer remembers with just a tinge of bitterness. She's just a civil service test away from a job of her own.
``Not once in the entire movie does anyone say that they want their own space,'' Sarandon said proudly, during the interview in New York City. ``It's not psychological in that way. It's practical. It gets down to earth.''
Mag is the kind of mom who helps her youngest boy with his paper route and physically confronts a vicious neighborhood dog. When one of her sons is hurt on the athletic field, she impulsively picks him up and carries him to safety. She's a fierce and tough mom who emerges as more like a sister to her boys.
Then comes a report from the Sinai desert that a barracks has been bombed. One of her sons is stationed there. The family, which has drifted apart, gathers back at the home.
It's a familiar situation - the American family circling the wagons. In fact, it borrows directly from the classic ``Since You Went Away,'' the 1944 film that is the epitome of the American family movie. It starred Claudette Colbert as the mom who's back on the home-front while her husband is fighting in World War II.
Famed stage director Robert Allan Ackerman smiled mischievously when I pointed out that lines in ``Safe Passage'' came directly from ``Since You Went Away.''
``That is one of my favorite movies,'' he said, ``and the situation is similar. In spite of everything, the violence and the drugs, the ties that bind us together in a family unit are still, basically, the same today.''
But what is it that is so unique about the image of American family life?
``It's true,'' he answered, ``that we are regarded, still, around the world this way. No one knows about Japanese family life. Or Swiss family life, or whatever, but people around the world have grown up seeing American movies. We don't know about their family life, but they know ALL about ours. `Safe Passage' is opening in Japan, for example, and it'll be interesting to see how they react. From recent movies, they think Americans are pistol-packing, crazy people. This movie will suggest that not all of us carry guns.''
In real life, Sarandon, 48, is the mother of three - two sons, ages 2 and 5, with actor Tim Robbins; and one daughter, 9, from a previous marriage. They live in New York City where she insists they go to a public school ``so they won't be isolated from the real world.''
Her 9-year-old-daughter recently got in a fight at school because ``one of the other kids called me a movie star. She said I was an actress. I applaud her defense of me. When you believe in something, fight for it.''
Sarandon says that motherhood is an ``impossible'' job.
``You never, never feel you've done a good job. I was blessed that it didn't come in my life until I wanted the challenge. It's the main thing I thought I was truly underqualified for. I still do. Mag, in the movie, feels that she hasn't done a good job either. Only when the boys start coming back home does she realize she didn't do too badly.''
Sarandon, with her rusty-red hair awry, wore a flimsy T-shirt and jeans to the interview, admitting that she was ``sorta the den mother'' to the male cast.
She has theories on what has happened to family life in America.
``Both parents have to work,'' she said. ``That's what's broken up the family unit, and don't think it's because women necessarily want to work. People try to say it's a feminist thing and that women want a career. Bull. Who's going to pay the bills if they don't work?
``This so-called `family value' talk is a desecration in many ways. They claim they want to protect the rest of us from gays, protect us from making any choices whatsoever. They want to dictate politics. If Jesus came back, I don't believe for a moment that he would believe in any of this. Hate is hate and that is the opposite of real family values.''
But is ``Safe Passage'' a believable adaptation of the rough 1990s to the old movie formula for a ``family'' movie?
``I think it is,'' Sarandon said. ``I don't think it's too sweet and, on the other hand, I don't think it's too heavy. There is humor. Problems are, still, solvable. People can cope - mainly because they have to cope.'' ILLUSTRATION: Sam Shepard co-stars as Susan Sarandon's husband.
by CNB