In a March 27, 2007, letter to The New York Times, Levin said that he based the town of Stepford on Wilton, Connecticut, where he lived in the 1960s. At night, a robo-dog gives her a remote with her name. The Stepford Wives ( 1,676 ) IMDb 5.3 1 h 32 min 2004 X-Ray PG-13 A TV executive relocates her family to the overly manicured suburb of Stepford but soon begins to suspect that something is not quite right. Mike threatens Walter, but before Mike can attack, Joanna hits Mike with a candlestick, decapitating him and revealing that he is a robot, and not even partially biological. Joanna becomes friends with Bobbie Markowitz (Bette Midler), a … In the story's epilogue, Joanna has become another Stepford wife gliding through the local supermarket, having given up her career as a photographer, while Ruthanne (a new resident in Stepford) appears poised to become the town's next victim. The Stepford Wives is a 2004 American science fiction black comedy film directed by Frank Oz from a screenplay by Paul Rudnick, and stars Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Faith Hill, and Glenn Close. Explore {{searchView.params.phrase}} by color family {{familyColorButtonText(colorFamily.name)}} Seemingly, in The Stepford Wives, the women in Stepford suspiciously only seem to care about household chores and pleasing their men without question, like the perfect Victorian woman. Thirty years later, when the phrase "Stepford Wife" had entered the lexicon, the remake … In The Stepford Wives, Ira Levin imagines a claustrophobic world in which women are man-made, and feminism doesn’t exist.Contains spoilers. [17] However, in the "Worst Movies of 2004" episode of At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper, he admitted that, while he gave the film "thumbs up", it wouldn't be "the first movie that [he] would defend. In every movie I do, there's tension. Absolutely! With Joanna and Walter as the guests of honor, Stepford hosts a formal ball. Walter has gathered with the other husbands and confesses that after marrying Joanna, he has felt undermined and all the husbands feel the same. "[13], Pete Travers of Rolling Stone said that the on-set complications of the film "can't compare to the mess onscreen. "[6], The film was originally conceived as a darkly satirical piece, with an ending closer to the horrific finale of the original, but negative results from test screenings caused Paramount to commission numerous rounds of reshoots,[7] which significantly altered the tone of the film, and gave it a new ending. PG. It Was His Sled: The Robotic Reveal of the original was the film's shocking surprise ending. When she discovered that Mike was having an affair with her research assistant, she murdered them in a jealous rage. Wilton is a "step" from Stamford, a major city lying 15 miles (24 km) away.[1]. The next scene shows all of the Stepford wives, including Joanna, now blonde and dressed in Sunday dresses, at the grocery store. The story concerns Joanna Eberhart, a photographer and young mother who suspects the submissive housewives in her new idyllic Connecticut neighborhood may be robots created by their husbands. The book has had two feature film adaptations, both using the same title as the novel: the 1975 version, and the 2004 remake. There's really nothing special to the film's style - the cinematography, editing, or art design - although I'd argue that the acting is pretty great. For the Scottish former railway station, see, "Political Theater: A Banned Play on the War (5 Letters)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Stepford_Wives&oldid=1011506649, Science fiction novels adapted into films, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 11 March 2021, at 07:02. In a 2003 interview, Oz stated "Tension on the set? The Stepford Wives is a 1972 satirical novel by Ira Levin. As King asks about the fate of the other husbands of Stepford, Roger and Bobbie explain that they are still in Stepford, under house arrest, and are being retrained to become better people. [2] The film grossed $42,428,452 internationally; its production budget was an estimated $100,000,000, plus a further $46,000,000 for marketing and distribution costs. The Stepford Wives is a 2004 American science fiction black comedy film directed by Frank Oz from a screenplay by Paul Rudnick, and stars Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Faith Hill, and Glenn Close. It ended with the members of the conspiracy being killed. They both had to drop out of the film only weeks before filming started, to be with their father, Dick Cusack, who was dying. It is based on Ira Levin's 1972 novel of the same name and is the second feature-length adaptation of the novel, following the 1975 film of the same name. "[14] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly said, "The remake is, in fact, marooned in a swamp of camp inconsequentiality. Novelist and playwright Ira Levin (1929-2007) was a native New Yorker whose books include A Kiss Before Dying, Rosemary's Baby, This Perfect Day, The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil, Sliver, and Son of Rosemary.His plays include No Time for Sergeants, Critic's Choice, and the longest-running thriller in Broadway history, Deathtrap.An alumnus of New York University, Levin also … They discover a hall filled with family portraits and are caught by Roger. The Stepford Wives is a great horror film, one that is subtle, yet disturbing at the same time. Six months later, Larry King is interviewing Joanna, Bobbie, and Roger, with Walter also in attendance. They show Walter that Ted's wife is a robot. Roger tells them that there is nothing wrong and the women leave. In a 1987, a television sequel/remake titled The Stepford Children, both the wives and the children of the male residents were replaced by drones. It was directed by Frank Oz and featured Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken, Roger Bart, Faith Hill, Glenn Close and Jon Lovitz. "[9], In a 2005 interview, Matthew Broderick stated, "Making that film wasn't enjoyable. "The Stepford Wives" is an iconic film, so much so that the title has been used to coin a phrase. Our Stepford Wives Organization BLOG is updated here . While the script emphasis is on gender conflict and the sterility of suburban living, and thus the science fiction elements are only lightly explored, the movie still makes it much clearer than the book that the women are being replaced by some form of robot. And working people hard, that's exactly what they expect me to do... Bette has been under a lot of stress lately... She made the mistake of bringing her stress on the set. Walter tries to walk out of their marriage, but Joanna appeases him by trying to fit in with the other Stepford wives. With her husband, Walter (Matthew Broderick), and their two children, she moves from Manhattan to Stepford, a quiet Fairfield County, Connecticut, suburb. A modern woman and her family, new to the town of Stepford, starts to see that the wives … Unlike the original novel and most of the adaptations, the perpetrators of the conspiracy neither die nor get away with their crimes; the victims are freed from their control programming and subject their husbands to a taste of their own medicine as restitution. Sci-Fi. Ask Your Own Question The protagonist is Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer newly arrived from New York City with her husband and children, eager to start a new life. Ask Joanna if she saw one of the Stepford Wives ( 2004 ) trailer starring Kidman... 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