Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973)

Director:

Hall Bartlett

Writers:

Richard D. Bach (book) and
Hall Bartlett (writer)

Release Date:

23 October 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Family

Tagline:

Everyone's Book Is Now Everyone's Motion Picture

Plot:

Jonathan is sick and tired of the boring life in his sea-gull clan. He rather experiments with new, always more daring flying techniques...

Plot Keywords:

Essay | Anthropomorphic | Bird | Based On Novel | Based On Book

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Philip Ahn	...	Chang (voice)
Richard Crenna	...	Father (voice)
James Franciscus	...	Jonathan (voice)
Kelly Harmon	...	Kimmy (voice)
Hal Holbrook	...	The Elder (voice)
David Ladd	...	Fletcher (voice)
Dorothy McGuire	...	Mother (voice)
Juliet Mills	...	The Girl (voice)

Runtime:

120 min | USA:99 min (DVD)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:U | Australia:G | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:Btl | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Carlsbad Caverns National Park - 3225 National Parks Highway, Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA

Company:

JLS Partnership

Trivia:

The New York Times, July 3, 1974 Des Moines, Iowa, July 2 - John H. Livingston, the man who inspired the best-selling novel "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," died Sunday at the Pompano Beach (Fla.) airport soon after completing his last plane ride. Richard D. Bach, a former Iowa Air Guard pilot, has said his best-selling book about a free-wheeling seagull was inspired by Mr. Livingston. Johnny Livingston, as he was known, moved many years ago from Iowa to Florida. He was one of the country's top pilots during the barnstorming days of the nineteen-twenties and thirties. From 1928 through 1933, Mr. Livingston won 79 first places, 43 seconds and 15 thirds in 139 races throughout the country, many of them at Cleveland. He won first place and $13,910 in 1928 in a cross-country race from New York to Los Angeles. Mr. Livingston leaves his wife, Wavelle, two brothers and four sisters.

Quotes:

Jonathan: Listen, everybody! There's no limit to how high we can fly! We can dive for fish and never have to live on garbage again!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tormented (#5.14)" (1992)

Soundtrack:

Dear Father

Reason #253 to hate the 1970s

JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL is a film about a bird and his philosophical musings. As he flies about, he wonders if there's more to life than just eating fish heads, how high he can fly and is there some special purpose to life--all in a live-action two-hour film!

Yes, this is #253 of why you should hate the 1970s--right between the song "Muskrat Love" and Richard Nixon! Okay, there really is no such list--but if there was, this film would be on it! That's because this is a god-awful film that was actually embraced by "with it" people and made the book a huge best-seller and the film a must-see. And to make it worse, the film is so deadly serious and tries so hard to be philosophical--while all it really consists of is a seagull flying about as inane dialog blares on the screen. Could this get any worse?! Well, yes, because while the music does sound lovely, Neil Diamond also sings several songs that made "Heartlight" (sure to be included if there was a "reasons to hate the 1980s" list) seem hard-edged!

So what positive things do I have to say about the film? Well, the cinematography is lovely and must have been spectacular on the big screen. Also, when Neil Diamond isn't singing, the music is lovely. However, with two hours to the film, these reasons become irrelevant after just a few minutes as the rest is just a ponderous pile of....well,... guano. And the fact that so many once-respected actors LOVED the project and agreed to do voices for it is a testament to the power of mood altering drugs and hippie psychology!!

Harry Medved included this in his book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time". While I have disagreed with some of his choices, I can heartily agree that this film merited, no DEMANDED, inclusion!

In summation, I'd rather eat glass than see it again! It's THAT bad!!!