Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Having seen director, Milos Forman's two Czech b/w classics, The Fireman's Ball and The Loves of A Blonde (or a blonde In Love, as I knew it) I saw this, his first US film upon its original release. I remember it being controversial although not a big hit, but I loved it. It barely has a narrative story line, no big stars, Buck Henry being the most well known, but it just made me feel good. It wasn't one of those films preaching at one side or the other (that's kids and parents!) and just seemed to present a little of what was happening towards the end of the sixties and derive some good natured humour from it. Watching it again, I was amazed at how well it still works. There are no embarrassing moments, it looks good, sounds good and probably does you good. I have no idea why the recent Park Circus DVD release box is so subdued but then this is not a jazzy, wacky film, just a relaxed, intelligent picture of a very strange time. Wonderful.

Milos Forman's first American feature is little known today, as it has not yet found its way onto VHS or DVD (though it has been aired on the Sundance Channel). Taking Off's obscurity is unfortunate because it is one of the funnier satiric comedies of its era that deals with hippiedom's spillover effects on the parental generation. Long Island teenager Jeannie Tyne (Linnea Heacock) goes missing—mistakenly presumed to have run away—after an audition in the city. When Jeannie's staid, middle-class parents Larry (Buck Henry) and Lynn (Lynn Carlin) Tyne set out to look for her they end up having their own life-expanding adventures with booze, marijuana, and other decadent distractions. Written by Forman, Jean-Claude Carrière (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), John Guare (Atlantic City), and Joe Klein, Taking Off is a good-natured, episodic farce with some great moments. These include a young pothead (character actor Vincent Schiavelli) rather pompously instructing a banquet room full of concerned parents in black tie and gowns on the finer points of smoking marijuana—to educate themselves on the counterculture, of course. Equally hilarious is an infamous audition scene featuring a cherubic but naked teenage girl (Mary Mitchell) delicately plucking a lute while sweetly singing "Ode to a Screw," a paean to the sex act peppered with the F-word. Also auditioning is a then-unknown Carly Simon and Kathie Bates (billed as Bobo Bates!) in her first film role. Praised by critics for its genial humor, Taking Off won The Grand Prize of the Jury and a Golden Palm nomination at Cannes in '71 and a half dozen 1972 BAFTA nominations.

I first read about this movie when I looked at the "Harvey Lampoon" annual worst movie lists in a movie source book and it mentioned Buck Henry's losing in a strip poker game. I later found out it was directed by Milos Forman a few years before winning the Oscar for One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest which increased my curiosity factor. What I found fascinating about this movie was that despite being initially about a teenage girl (Linnea Heacock) running away and her father (Henry) looking for her, it goes on other tangents like to a musical audition that the teen girl goes to which features some good performances like that of an about-to-emerge Carly Simon or another singer named Bobo Bates who would later win an Oscer as Kathy Bates. Or when Henry goes to a café, looks at pictures of other missing teens, finds a picture of one already there and contacts the number of that teen's mother (Audra Lindley) who we find out is a member of the Society for the Parents of Lost Children. That leads to another scene of her, Buck, and their spouses (Paul Benedict and Lynn Carlin, respectively) going to some ball where they take some marijuana from Vincent Schiavelli which leads to that strip poker game. Other notable appearances are those of Georgia Engel, Allen Garfield, and the Ike and Tina Turner Revue at a concert appearance. The movie goes from the quietly dramatic to the absurdly comical in natural progression and doesn't have a clear-cut ending but it's such a nonlinear treat, one doesn't care by then. Unfortunately, since Taking Off has never been on Beta, VHS, or DVD, it wasn't until it just emerged on YouTube that I finally got to see this...

Milos Forman's funny and cringe-inducing TAKING OFF is a satire of America in the late 60s/early 70s. In a way, it's a darker version of THE GRADUATE...with Forman tipping his hat to that film by casting Buck Henry as a father reluctantly looking for his daughter and getting caught up in some really goofy situations like attending a convention of parents who've lost their kids...not through murder or kidnapping, but through running away. Given the complete inappropriateness of the parents presented here, it's no wonder the younger generation has taken off! Forman has the parents get hysterical about the loss of their children only to have their tirades morph into bouts of self pity and recklessness...at one point Henry, wife Lynn Carlin and another couple end up in a round of strip poker. While the parents TRY to be more understanding of what their kids are up to, they inevitably end up seeming even more square! There's a very funny scene in which the always creepy Vincent Schiavelli demonstrates how to smoke a joint.