Breezy

a touching romantic drama
Breezy (1973)

Breezy has been a film I have known about for about sixteen years but have never seen until last week when I finally got the DVD.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, the film has been pretty much forgotten about over the years, not helped by the unavailability of it on home video, mainly here in the United Kingdom.
But now it's here, at last.

Eastwood, fast becoming the most popular movie star in the early seventies after the success of his Spaghetti Western trilogy (1964,'65,'66) and his roles in Dirty Harry (1971) and High Plains Drifter (1973) turned his eye to directing and directed the highly acclaimed Play Misty For Me in 1971.

For Eastwood's third directorial effort Breezy in 1973, Eastwood decided to stay behind the camera instead and the leading man duties were handed over to William Holden.
Eastwood felt he was to young to play the role of Frank Harmon, although he was 43 at the time and more than twice the age of Kay Lenz who played the role of...

"Breezy".... Cool and Refreshing
This review refers to the DVD Widescreen Edition(Universal) of "Breezy"...

Long before there was a "Pretty Woman" there was "Breezy". She stole the heart of William Holden and will steal yours too, as this touching tale, directed by Clint Eastwood, way back in 1973, hasn't lost a bit of it's charm.

Breezy, played by Kay Lenz, doesn't know where her next meal is coming from. She hangs out on the streets, crashing at anybody's pad that will have her for the night. She's young, a free-spirit, and can only see the good in any situation thrown her way. She welcomes life with open arms, and it seems to smile down on her as well. Frank Harmon(Holden), on the other hand is a middle-aged well-to do Real Estate broker, who's heart has hardened toward the world. He lives in a beautiful home in the hills and the almighty dollar is the only thing he welcomes into his life. That is of course until fate sends Breezy to him, and he learns to open his heart once more...

Wisdom & Happiness
One of Clint Eastwood's early yet still obscure directorial efforts, "Breezy" gently and charmingly explores the nature of wisdom, which can be present in the most unusual of people and the real meaning of happiness, which is usually found in the oddest and least-expected of places, usually when one is not looking for it.

Amid the smoldering cultural wreckage of the recently-ended 1960s with its nagging remnants of the shrill "don't trust anyone over 30" crowd and the seemingly still-unbridgeable "generation gap," which had left many men and women from all age groups deeply confused, adrift and alienated, the odd and quirky relationship between the youthful, Ophelia-like Edith Alice "Breezy" Breezerman (Lenz) and the cynical, middle-aged Frank Harmon (Holden) successfully and simultaneously reveals several very simple but still frequently-ignored truths; that wisdom and insight are not necessarily the sole province of the "aged" and that a carefree, happy spontaneity isn't...

Click to Editorial Reviews