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Actually, this comedy is one of the more enjoyable films to examine midlife crisis in the 1980s. Written and directed by Alan Alda, it examines the effects of middle age on a group of married couples who are longtime friends. Each season they go away on a vacation together, but the dynamic gets skewed when one of the men dumps his wife for a younger woman. Though some may find the characters' self-satisfaction and upscale neuroses a shade cloying, they are more than matched by Alda's solid, often funny writing. The couple with the biggest laughs: the hilariously paired Jack Weston and Rita Moreno (although Alda and Carol Burnett also strike comic sparks). --Marshall Fine ... Read more

Reviews (34)

I've loved this movie since I was 11
No joke, my parents took me and my sister to see it when we were on vacation in Spooner, WI in 1981 because they wanted to see it.For some reason I have developed a fascination with this movie.As I grew older I understood more of the conflicts and it made me love it even more.I love Alan Alda, Carol Burnett and Rita Moreno along with the other characters.I love how much food is involved in this movie.I love this movie!This is my number 1 favorite movie of all time and I don't think I can express how happy I am that it is finally being released on DVD!

PAN AND SCAN
PAN AND SCAN: Need we say more?
Why do they butcher a great film like this? Pan and Scan means we don't get all of the picture, but it also means that the close-ups are always too close-up--the face fills the screen. This is the same perverted treatment originally given to "Chariots of Fire," until Warner Brothers finally heard the public outcry and reissued it. I'd certainly be willing to pay more for a film of this quality if UMVD would transfer to DVD all the quality that's there. Of course, this means preserving the original theatrical format.

You Can Stop All Of The Crying
According to Universal's website the DVD is "Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)."

This is a great movie, buy it!

Pan & Scan Strikes Again...BOYCOTT!!!
Four out of five stars for this magnificent, touching and downright hilarious film about middle-aged friends rejuvenating a lifelong friendship with the passing of four seasons in one crazy year. ONE STAR for what UMVD plans to do with this release. Pan & Scan, cropped images, probably a transfer from the washed out, far inferior "DiscoVision" laserdisc of the early 80's, no extras...do these people realize (a) DVD consumers HATE all of the above and boycott lazy releases like this, (b) bare bones releases like this are an insult to the filmmakers' integrity, and (c) as soon as televisions go all digital widescreen by 2007, full-frame DVD's like this will be utterly useless (even more than they are now)???? Any studio marketers out there (Anchor Bay? Please jump in on this), please read my plea and the pleas of many others here and give FOUR SEASONS and every other pan & scan crap DVD the releases they deserve! Joe Consumer is NOT an idiot and YES, we will notice when you all try to save a buck by releasing extremely low-quality product! Boycott's aplenty, we assure you!

Real Life, Love and Vivaldi, too!!!!
Alan Alda (best known as the wisecracking Hawkeye from the long-running TV series M*A*S*H*) wrote and directed this brilliant film which, for me, is the perfect homage to the successful marriage.

The story centers around the close friendships of three middle-aged couples who always take their vacations together. A huge problem arises when one of the husbands (played with gusto by Len Cariou) abruptly sheds his longtime, devoted and quirky wife (played by the brilliantly gifted late actress Sandy Dennis) for a much younger and pretty woman (portrayed by Bess Armstrong.) Dennis suddenly becomes the odd-woman out of the group while Armstrong takes her place in the traditional group vacation.

Everyone feels the effects of the switch, and their reactions and adjustments (or lack thereof) to the situation create the movie's tension and raise universal questions about love, commitment, marriage, honesty and aging.

Alda's wife in the film, played by the legendary Carol Burnett, struggles to make sense out of what happened, and worries that all aging women (including her) may be cast aside without remorse by their husbands stuggling with the mid-life blues who want younger, sexier partners. In one revealing portion of the story, Alda joins in a soccer game "with the boys" and plays to the point of exhaustion and even injury to impress Armstrong. Burnett withholds her sympathy for her wounded mate and is furious instead, forcing him to realize what he was doing through witty, poignant and hysterical dialog.

Multi-talented Rita Moreno and Jack Weston are the third couple also caught in the tortured but humorous and telling web of self analysis and doubt.

Armstrong feels the tension from a completely different perspective, having fallen in love with a man who refuses to vacation alone and whose closest female friends refuse to accept her as part of the group but resent and mistrust her instead.

The humor, and it is a very funny film, comes from the honesty the situation forces on the participants for them to be able to survive the vacation with their relationships and/or marriages intact.

Ultimately, the younger woman is accepted on her own terms and the other couples understand more fully their love and dedication to their mates, while embracing true friendships with everyone in the group.

Vivaldi's classic Four Seasons is the perfect soundtrack for the film and the inspiration for its title.

I strongly urge anyone in a relationship, whether new or of long-duration, to see this film. It is very rare, indeed, when any studio produces a coming of age film FOR ADULTS that has humor, heart, respect for the middled-aged and absolutely NO teen angst! Bravo!! ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Pulling the leg of Hollywood movie making
Alan Alda plays Michael a history teacher and author of the book "Sweet Liberty" which is meant to bring American history to a broader audience. Holllywood is now making a movie based on the novel shooting on the original scene of an important battlefield of the Independance War next to Michael's home town. But Michael's material is turned into a comedy completely ignoring the historical details. He ist told that to make a movie sell at the box office you need to show three things: rebellion, destruction of property and people taking their clothes off.

Michal tries to save his novel by trying to gain the confidence of the leading lady (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the leading man (Michael Caine) by a) making love to the former and b) practicing fencing with the latter. Embeded into the subplot of Michael's family affairs the story ends in a hillarious reenacting of the historical battle including Michael and the villagers acting as extras. And they give the Hollywood people what they asked for: rebellion, destruction of property and people taking their clothes off.

This movie is a must for everybody who likes Alan Alda. Unfortunately he is not often the leading man - but here we can enjoy his acting to extend. The fencing scenes with Michael Caine are simply wonderful!

If you want to see how Hollywood REALLY treats history...
This movie made Alan Alda the patron saint of living historians and re-enactors of the American Revolution. It shows, quite clearly, how Hollywood distorts reality and factual information to create and sell what is simply a product like any other. The humor is subtle, the give-and-take in the dialog is quick and usually very witty. The bottom line of the film is that, to Hollywood, history means entertainment and if the facts have to be changed or embellished to make what they might consider to be a more entertaining product, then so be it. If you want to learn about history, watch the History Channel. If you want to be entertained by "history", watch "The Last of the Mohicans", "Braveheart", and "The Patriot". If you want to watch an entertaining, humorous version of how Hollywood treats history, watch and enjoy "Sweet Liberty".

Really Hopeless Film
Alan Alda really missed the mark with this film where he plays a history teacher whose book is being turned into a brainless comedy by a no talent film maker.Michael Caine's performace is also below average here. If you want to see Alan Alda's better work as an actor/director, watch MASH.

Idea is worthy, but movie goes nowhere
Overblown comedy about movie studio arriving in a small town to shoot a film there based on the local university professor's book on the American Revolution. A terrific cast tries their best with the flat and predictable script. Just plain unfunny.

Going back to Korea
Though now an obvious companion piece to THE PATRIOT, I think SWEET LIBERTY was really Alda's chance to revisit M*A*S*H. It must've occurred to him during the production of M*A*S*H that he often took "sweet liberties" with the history of the Korean War in order to get a laugh, and I think the collective guilt of his many affronts to history must finally have caught up with him. Sure, SWEET LIBERTY is set in South Carolina, but really I think it's about Korea. And maybe that's one of the reasons it's not as funny as it might've been. It's allegory, when Alda probably had something more direct on his mind. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Wonderful, Warm and Funny!
I love this movie. It's so funny and warm. Stevie D is hilarious, and of course Alan Alda is stupendous. If it was available to purchase, I'd own it!

Very funny. Alda comes off as the typical dad.
I've always been a fan of Alan Alda's work. This movie is one of his best. When he's eating dinner with the mafia gang and the bodyguard starts to shoot, I laughed to bust a rib. Alan Alda sure hasn't lost his touch.

One of 1990's most popular films
In Alan Alda's "Betsy's Wedding",he is Eddie Hopper,a construction foreman and architect. His daughter Betsy(Molly Ringwald) and her boyfriend Jake Lovell(Dylan Walsh) announce their engagement at a family gathering. Betsy's sister Connie(Ally Sheedy) is happy herself but jealously upset because she can't find herself a man. The late Madeline Kahn is Lola,Eddie's wife. At the gathering Lola's sister Gloria Henner(Catherine O'Hara) tells her she plans to get even with her husband Oscar(Oscar winner Joe Pesci) for all his inept schemes. Gloria says "Someday,when I have my nice little nestegg,I can take a walk and he can go f--- himself." Anthony LaPaglia is Stevie Dee,a guy who would later in the film become Connie's boyfriend. Stevie Dee's uncle Georgie(Burt Young) is a business associate of Oscar's. There's once scene where when Betsy and Jake meet with the man performing their wedding ceremony,the Dixie Cups' CHAPEL OF LOVE is played. They want to be pronounced "husband and wife" instead of "man and wife" and they have "obey" omitted from "love,honor and obey". The late Julie Bovasso plays Rose,Eddie's mother and Joey Bishop is Eddie's deceased father. The father,as a ghost,is seen and heard only by Eddie. The wedding was somewhat disasterous. It took place in a rented tent on a rainy evening. The tent was made of cheap,not-too-strong materials so a hole in the roof where the rain fell into increased to the point where it caved in. After a heated argument between Gloria and Oscar at the reception also in the tent,Gloria pulls a loose thread causing the growing hole and the dowse of fallen rain. So Connie and Stevie Dee can be together more often,Stevie Dee applies to the police academy,since Connie's a cop. Unbelievably,the wedding dinner was pizza! By the way,Oscar planned to divorce Gloria and become romantically involved with his secretary,who also attended Betsy's and Jake's wedding. That was one of the things that led to the argument. The wedding ceremony was performed in the Jewish style. Jake stepped on a wine glass wrapped in a cloth napkin. This film was Alan Alda's most successful and not a minor hit like "A New Life",another one of his personally scripted films.

ITS SO FUNNY I LOVE IT
ITS A FUNNY MOVIE ALAN ALDA DID A WONDERFUL JOB ACTING WRITING DIRECTING IT I CAN WATCH IT 10 TIMES OR MORE AND NEVER GET BORED WATCHING IT.

FROM A BIG ALAN ALDA FAN FOR 4 YEARS NOW KIRSTEN

Underrated Comedy about Family and Being Married.
When a family man (Alan Alda-Also the Film`s Director) tries to make the best situation of his daughter (Molly Ringwald) wedding, because he trying to created a old fashioned expensive wedding, but he`s needs the money, he needs but he caught between his complicated family and his gangster friends.

Directed by Alan Alda made a often uproarious comedy. This film has a great supporting Cast including:Madeline Kahn, Oscar-Winner:Joe Pesci, Ally Sheedy, Burt Young, Joey Bishop, Catherine O`Hara and Anthony La Paglia, this is a light-hearted film. Grade:B+. ... Read more