On Golden Pond

In about a week, Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving, a holiday that typically means getting together with family and enjoying a big meal. In some cases, it means seeing family members that we typically do not see the rest of the year. I personally live far from the rest of my family and can expect my parents to come see me maybe twice a year, with Thanksgiving being the main time I can count on it happening. While I cannot say I have the greatest relationship with my immediate family, it is far from strained. I do not have the antagonistic relationship of a parent/child who avoids each other whenever possible.

Jane Fonda and her father, Henry Fonda, had that kind of a relationship. It was a driving factor in her purchasing the rights to On Golden Pond as a vehicle for her and her father to work together. The relationship between the cantankerous Norman Thayer and his daughter was a close parallel to the one she grew up with, and she saw this as a bit of family therapy. In fact, there is a scene late in the film that feels like it could have been pulled directly from family home movies. It would be hard for anyone who is aware that these two were related in real life not to feel the truth behind that moment. While we are not privy to the whole truth behind their relationship, the fact that Jane Fonda felt the need to do this film with her father speaks volumes about it. 

The story is fairly simple. Norman and Ethel are summering at their cottage on a lake called Golden Pond somewhere in northern New England. Norman, just turning 80, has heart problems and is showing signs of dementia, issues he copes with by constantly talking about growing old and dying. His estranged daughter, Chelsea, her boyfriend Bill, and Bill’s son Billy Jr. arrive shortly afterwards. Chelsea and Bill intend to travel to Europe and leave Billy behind with Norman and Ethel, something Billy resents feeling his father has no use for him. Once the parents leave for their trip, Norman bonds with Billy over fishing on the lake as he never had a son of his own to do this with. When Chelsea returns, married to Bill Sr., she is surprised and hurt to see just how much the two have bonded in her absence. But, while Norman laments not having a son of his own, he does love his daughter, even if he is terrible at showing it most of the time. 

Henry Fonda was less than a year away from his own death when this film was released. It seems rather poignant then that he is portraying a man who is facing the realities of old age as his body is failing on him. Angina and cognitive decline are a very real thing for his character, Norman Thayer Jr. There is even a scene towards the end where we think he may actually die. Katherine Hepburn, playing his wife Ethel, had to have had Spencer Tracy on her mind during that scene as she acted beside Spencer during the last weeks of his life, not even sure he would survive to the end of filming. That experience was extremely painful for her and she looks like she is drawing from that pain as the wife of another man in the twilight of his own life.

A theme of this film is relationships between parents and their kids. We see this in the relationship between Chelsea Thayer and her father, whom she believes had no use for a daughter. Norman Thayer was named after his father and laments that the family name will not be passed down to the next generation because there is no male descendant. Even his little fishing boat bears the name of Norman Thayer IV, a cheeky, yet subversive response to the disappointment that there is no Norman Thayer III. 

In the same boat is Dr. Bill Ray (Dabney Coleman), Chelsea’s boyfriend who has a strained and distant relationship with his own son, Billy Ray Jr (Doug McKeon). We don’t get a lot of scenes between these two, but it is telling that Bill Sr and Chelsea are off to a European vacation and leaving Billy behind. Their excuse, that Billy wouldn’t like going to Europe, is just that, an excuse. Billy feels this, too, which further fuels his anger early on. Only after spending some time with Norman, who genuinely shows an interest in him, does he cool off a bit. But Norman cannot always control his temper, and it shows up in sarcastic quips and shifting blame around, something that hurts Billy and obviously did the same to Chelsea when she was growing up. We never get flashbacks to that relationship, but we can see just what it had to be like just from the few scenes they share together in the present. 

Jane Fonda flinches with virtually every interaction she has with her father, wincing at the biting remarks that come out of his mouth. Ethel Thayer dismisses the remarks as him being crotchety and an “old poop,” but that’s not quite it. These interactions go back a long way, and there is the very real sense that he never had much use for a daughter, as evidenced by the way he takes quickly to Billy. When Chelsea sees this, you can see the hurt in her eyes. It’s not her fault she was born a girl, after all. 

While On Golden Pond is Henry Fonda’s final film performance, it is not his final acting credit. He made a television movie later that same year, Summer Solstice. He died from heart disease in his home, surrounded by his family. It was an ailment very similar to the character he was playing in On Golden Pond. Much like John Wayne in The Shootist, he tackled his own mortality as the end loomed near, portraying a character that was dying from the same ailment he was in real life. It was a perfect opportunity for father and daughter to reconcile a little and for Jane to have as a permanent memorial of her and her father together. 

The film is bittersweet. On the one hand, Norman is an unlikable character at times. But he is also going through health problems that would be extremely frustrating, exacerbating his already rough temper. One of his first scenes is him looking at some memorials hanging on the wall in their cabin, including a picture of him as a younger man, taken for the newspaper. He looks up from that directly into a mirror showing himself as he currently is. This is a man worn down by time. On the other hand, his irascibility cannot be totally accredited to the ravages of time. 

We can see ourselves in Norman, especially as we get older. All of us can look back at the lives we led and find things we hate, things we wish we had done differently. And all of us, even the best of us, have had interactions with family, friends, or just plain acquaintances that we can look back on and wince. Sometimes we get the chance to apologize and try to make things right. Norman and Chelsea get some of that in the finale. They may never be a great father/daughter duo, but there is love there, and she can see it finally, even if it is fleeting. He obviously has little time left in this world, and it is good to see these two reconcile a bit before it is too late. This is such an important message that we don’t often see in films anymore.

On Golden Pond may not have a complicated narrative, but the themes and messages are of such importance that everyone should see it. Some people never rectify things with their parents; sometimes that just isn’t possible. It’s a universal feeling, thinking you’ll never live up to a parent’s expectations or that you were never wanted for one reason or another. Norman may not have a son to carry on the family name, but he gets a step-grandson when Chelsea marries Bill Sr. Through Billy, Norman can have the next best thing, someone he can spend time with, go fishing out on the lake, and someone that can help heal the breach in his family. It’s a beautiful ending, made even more so knowing the dynamics going on behind the scenes. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Bruce Gilbert

Best Director: Mark Rydell

Best Actor: Henry Fonda (won)

Best Actress: Katharine Hepburn (won)

Best Supporting Actress: Jane Fonda

Best Adapted Screenplay: Ernest Thompson (won)

Best Cinematography: Billy Williams

Best Film Editing: Robert L. Wolfe

Best Original Score: Dave Grusin

Best Sound: Richard Portman and David M. Ronne

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Release Date: December 4, 1981

Running Time: 109 Minutes

Rated PG

Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon, Dabney Coleman, and William Lanteau

Directed By: Mark Rydell