Warning: This review contains spoilers. I believe these spoilers will save others from the trauma I endured after watching this film. But if you want to avoid a spoiled ending, just skip the last two paragraphs of my review.

Wow. I didn't know what I was getting into with this movie. This 1977 film came out when I was only eight years old. As I was growing up, I always had this impression that it was a movie about drugs. I always thought "Mr. Goodbar" referred to a drug dealer. After enduring 136 minutes, I'm still unsure who Mr. Goodbar is and why he was implicated in this story.

Essentially, this movie is a big bold statement about what happens if a woman wants to be independent, live on her own (and on her own terms) and, god forbid, explore her sexuality. The message of this movie is, "Do this, ladies, and prepare to die a horrible death!"

It is the story of Theresa, one of three sisters who grew up in a strict Irish Catholic family in New York. Having had scoliosis as a child, she spent over a year living in a full-body cast on a gurney laid out in the middle of the family's living room. At the start of the movie, Theresa is a young twenty-something still living at home and just finishing college, while starting a painful affair with one of her professors. She is embarking on a career as a grade-school teacher specializing in teaching deaf children.

She tries desperately to explore her budding sexual feelings with her professor who is emotionally unavailable, married, and frankly, a huge jerk. Eventually he dumps her and she begins looking desperately around to figure out where she is going to meet men.

In the meantime, her little sister (the favorite of Papa and a strikingly beautiful young woman) is getting pregnant by one of her various lovers, goes to Puerto Rico for an abortion, and meets her future husband on the flight there. Theresa drops in on her little sister and her new husband to find them watching porno flicks with another couple. She spends the night and discovers the two couples in bed together in the morning. The world is opening up to little Theresa.

In a slow progression of events (did I mention 136 minutes?), Theresa eventually starts going to bars and kicking up her heels a little. She eventually meets Tony (Richard Gere) who is a very young, very high-strung guy who appears to be a gigolo. She thinks he's pretty hot and brings him home to her little apartment and they do the deed.

The story drags on for awhile, and we see Theresa getting into weirder and weirder situations with accidental drug purchases, seemingly random sex with strangers, etc. All the while, she has a "decent" guy pursuing her, but she is not interested in him much at all. We also see Theresa go to her doctor and declare that she never wants to have children, so please make the birth control a permanent thing (like that's an easy procedure done at the drop of a hat).

In addition to hanging out in seedy bars, Theresa also visits gay bars here and there. Eventually we see a New Years parade of drag queens that gets visited by a van full of gay-bashers. In this pivotal scene we meet Gary (Tom Berenger), who is in drag queen attire and kicking some gay-bashers ass. Gary runs off to meet up with his lover, and as he tears the wig and attire from his body, he yells and screams about how he never wanted to dress up and you know, being gay is really lame. He then struts off to a bar where he meets up with a fated Theresa, who sees this hunky piece of rage and makes a bee-line for him. One thing leads to another and Gary is in her bed, unable to get an erection due the fact that she has the wrong parts. She tries to be cool about it, but he gets really pissed. *SPOILER ALERT* He responds by flying into a homicidal rage, starts kicking the shit out her, eventually starts raping her, then pulls out a knife and stabs her to death during the rape. The end.

I don't know about you, but this movie felt like both anti-woman and anti-gay. It certainly doesn't pay to be either in this cheery world of Mr. Goodbar. After seeing the movie, I read more about it and learned that it was based on a novel (that was based on a true story) and that it was considered a reflection of the sexual revolution. I certainly didn't take away any good feelings and frankly, would never recommend that anyone see this movie. It just felt like another story of women "getting what they deserve" if they dare to take charge of their own lives.

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