‘Terms of Endearment’ Turns 40: James L. Brooks Revisits Finding the Humor in Cancer, Writing One of Jack Nicholson’s Best Roles and Fearing Test Screenings
variety.comJ. Kim Murphy Calling a movie a “tearjerker” could practically qualify as a spoiler, especially in the case of “Terms of Endearment.” Because it is very, very funny.
For writer-director James L. Brooks, that heightened comic tone was always essential when he first began working to adapt Larry McMurtry’s novel of the same name.
His devotion led to a unique challenge: turn a character mentioning “cancer” into a laugh line. In the finished film, he even follows the word’s utterance with a punctuative spit take for good measure. “It was so important that it be a comedy,” Brooks says, speaking with Variety over a Zoom call. “The word ‘cancer’ then was just — you couldn’t imagine.
It was just a word that nobody wanted to say or deal with at that time. It was a bizarre goal. But it was because the picture had to be a comedy to work.” That the film “worked” is a bit of an understatement. “Terms of Endearment” was practically an instant classic, landing as the second-highest grossing film of 1983 behind only “Return of the Jedi.” And while the long theatrical run continued, it landed a whopping 11 Oscar nominations and took home the major prizes of best actress for Shirley MacLaine, best supporting actor for Jack Nicholson and best adapted screenplay, director and picture for Brooks — the only individual to ever win all three of those prizes for a directorial debut.
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