The War of the Roses **** (1989, Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Marianne Sägebrecht, Sean Astin) – Classic Movie Review 4,563

The exuberant 1989 black farcical comedy The War of the Roses reunites the three stars of 1984’s Romancing the Stone – Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito.

Director Danny DeVito’s exuberant 1989 black farcical comedy film The War of the Roses, in which marriage turns out to be a bed of thorns for Mr Oliver and Mrs Barbara Rose, reunites the three stars of 1984’s Romancing the Stone – Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. As well as directing, DeVito also plays Douglas’s divorce lawyer, Gavin D’Amato.

With its screenplay written by Michael J Leeson based on the 1981 novel by Warren Adler, the film starts vintage Hollywood romantic style with the young Roses falling in love and living as a happy married couple, but then only to fall out of love in middle age. Barbara re-imagines her life without Oliver, but both want to stay living in their nice house, and they begin a no-holds-barred campaign fighting to force each other to leave.

[Spoiler alert] However, the film’s third act where you expect the couple to get back together again just gets more and more bitter – and more and more hilarious.

The War of the Roses is a delicious Eighties comedy classic, played to perfection by the three stars, all of whom are great, though it is the steely-eyed Turner who takes the acting honours.

Also in the cast are Marianne Sägebrecht as Susan, Sean Astin as Josh Rose, Heather Fairfield, G D Spradlin, Peter Donat, Danitra Vance, Peter Brocco, and Dan Castellaneta.

It premiered on 4 December 1989 in Los Angeles and was released by 20th Century Fox in the US on 8 December 1989.

It was a hit. Costing $26 million, it earned $160 million worldwide.

The three actors had worked together on Romancing the Stone and its 1985 sequel The Jewel of the Nile.

The title sequence is by Saul Bass and Elaine Makatura Bass.

The cast

The cast are Michael Douglas as Oliver Rose, Kathleen Turner as Barbara Rose, Danny DeVito as Gavin D’Amato, Marianne Sägebrecht as Susan, Sean Astin as Josh Rose, Trenton Teigen as young Josh, Heather Fairfield as Carolyn Rose, Bethany McKinney as young Carolyn, G D Spradlin as Harry Thurmont, Peter Donat as Jason Larrabee, Dan Castellaneta as Gavin’s Client, Peter Brocco as Mourner, Philip Perlman as Bidder, Shirley Mitchell as Mrs Dewitt, Ellen Crawford as Nurse #1, Lisa Howard as Nurse #2, Vickilyn Reynolds as Nancy, Roy Brocksmith as Mr Fisk, Peter Hansen as Mr Marshall, Danitra Vance as Manicurist, and David Wohl as Dr Gordon.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,563

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