Tootsie

We’ve all heard the old saying “never judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.” This simple, yet poignant, saying has been the basis for many films over the decades that have tackled social issues from racism to sexism and is not a unique concept. It has been the source for hard-hitting dramas like Gentleman’s Agreement and broad comedies like White Chicks! Eddie Murphy famously taped a segment for Saturday Night Live where he went undercover as a white man and was treated like a king, a tongue-in-cheek commentary on racial politics in the early 1980s. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis explored gender politics in one of the funniest films of all time, Some Like It Hot, a movie that has endured over the decades without ever feeling dated. 

In 1982, Tootsie was released to the world as a satirical romantic comedy that was also about gender inequality and the world’s perception of women in the entertainment industry. While some of the material is dated and there is a scene or two, especially the gratuitous shots of Geena Davis in her dressing room, that somewhat undermine the themes, for the most part this is a film that holds up and has a surprisingly lot to say about male predatory behavior towards women. While it is a light-hearted comedy, it doesn’t shy away from some hard targets and is not afraid to paint the protagonist in a negative light at times. Allegations against Dustin Hoffman in more recent years have tarnished this film’s reputation a little but that is on the actor and his personal life, not the film itself. 

The film centers on respected actor Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) who cannot find work in New York City because of his reputation of being a perfectionist and difficult to work with. To make ends meet, he works as a restaurant server and teaches acting classes. He decides to help fund a stage production with one of his students, Sandy Lester (Teri Garr) but needs work to raise the $8,000 to make it happen.

After many months without acting work, he hears of an opening on the popular daytime soap opera Southwest General from Sandy, who auditions for the role of hospital administrator Emily Kimberly. Desperate following an argument with his agent, George Fields (Sydney Pollack), Michael disguises himself as a woman named Dorothy Michaels and successfully auditions for the same role, landing it thanks to his no-nonsense and fiery response to a sexist comment from the show’s director, Ron Carlisle (Dabney Coleman). 

While under the guise of Dorothy, Michael bumps into repeated examples of sexism from Ron as well as John Van Horn (George Gaynes), the star of the soap opera who has a reputation for getting handsy with his female co-stars. But he also develops a friendship with co-star Julie (Jessica Lange), who is divorced, raising a small child, and has been dating Ron. Julie’s widowed father, Les (Charles Durning), is lonely and looking for companionship, which he believes, with Julie’s encouragement, he can have with Dorothy. Meanwhile, John Van Horn, excited by his new co-star’s rebuffs on his advances, shows up at her apartment in an attempt to seduce her. Michael had no idea this one job would not only become so successful that his character would be picked up for another season but would also bring him unwanted attention from other men and would become a symbol of gender politics for so many women in the audience.

On top of all this unwanted attention is having to hide what he has done from Sandy. Sandy’s self-esteem is at an all-time low since losing out on the part of Emily Kimberly. Finding out that a man got the part instead of her would be devastating. To make matters worse, she and Michael had a romantic encounter, and now she suspects he is cheating on her because he has gone all the time and has been secretive about where he is during all that time. 

Director Sydney Pollack has painted a satirical masterpiece in this film, examining sexism from multiple angles. In doing so, he attacks some serious topics that were not as out in the open in 1982 as they are now. The #MeToo movement has opened a lot of eyes to this kind of rampant sexism and exploitation in Hollywood, but Pollack was here thirty years earlier calling attention to it. 

Dustin Hoffman later claimed that working on the film was eye-opening for him. He realized during makeup tests that no matter how much work was put into making him into a credible woman, he would never pass for a beautiful one. That in turn made him realize that there are plenty of women out there that are not conventionally beautiful but are worth knowing and talking to, and he had spent the better part of his life ignoring them. He expressed remorse for this attitude several times in interviews over the years. Still, as recently as 2017, he was being accused of sexual misconduct and/or assault, accusations that came from multiple women. He has responded to, and apologized for, some of these but not all of them. He also was the subject of scrutiny for his treatment of Meryl Streep on the set of Kramer vs. Kramer, though the two have apparently buried the hatchet years ago. 

This kind of meta knowledge makes it a bit more difficult to go with the central premise of the film because it makes the moralizing feel disingenuous, especially since Hoffman had complete control over the final script. When Michael is having his epiphany in the final act and coming clean to everyone about what he did and why, it is hard not to see Hoffman behind all of that, allegedly not personally believing what he is saying. He’s a good actor, though, and would be completely convincing without that meta knowledge. 

Tootsie is one of those films that I have always known about. I saw it at a very young age before I understood what it was I was really seeing. As a child, I laughed at the funny antics and the concept of a man dressing up as a woman. Watching it now, though, there are things that stand out as being still a problem in the world. I see men out in public barely hiding that they are ogling the women around them. I have had to deal with angry women complaining that someone was following them around, giving them unwanted attention. I’ve seen most everything depicted in this film in some form or another, and it has to be frustrating to these women that this is still so prevalent in our society. 

That makes a film like Tootsie timeless. The things depicted in the film, though a bit exaggerated, have not gone away. Men still leer at women or aggressively pursue them. It’s a toxic environment that Michael was blissfully unaware of until he entered a workplace as a woman and was thrust into that sort of rampant sexism and unwanted advances. Because this subject is still topical, it was no surprise to me to find out that less than a decade ago this was adapted into a stage musical that performed in Chicago and then later on Broadway. This is a topic that resonates with people, and the film still holds strong as an example of the hypocrisy in Hollywood, especially towards women; it’s a predatory environment for women still. That’s perhaps  the most unfortunate aspect of this film, alas. While a lot has changed over the years to protect women in these situations, there is still a lot more that needs to be done.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Sydney Pollack and Dick Richards

Best Director: Sydney Pollack

Best Actor: Dustin Hoffman

Best Supporting Actress: Teri Garr

Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Lange (won)

Best Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen: Larry Gelbert, Murray Schisgal, and Don McGuire

Best Cinematography: Owen Roizman

Best Film Editing: Fredric Steinkamp and William Steinkamp

Best Original Song: “It Might Be You” Music by David Grusin; Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman

Best Sound: Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, and Les Lazarowitz

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Release Date: December 17, 1982

Running Time: 116 minutes

Rated PG

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, and Charles Durning

Directed by: Sydney Pollack