The Witches of Eastwick

  

The Witches of Eastwick

1987

Director- George Miller

Cast- Jack Nicholson, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, Veronica Cartwright, Carel Struycken

            

     You’re not likely to find a movie with better credentials than this. The director and the four principal performers have either won or been nominated for Oscars, not to mention a musical score by John Williams and it was based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize winning author John Updike. But this movie doesn’t rely on star power alone. It is clever and, for its day, provocative.

            

     Three women, Alexandra (Cher), Jane (Sarandon) and Sukie (Pfeiffer) are friends in a small New England town. They get together and lament the problems in their life, particularly the lack of a good man. They are each creative women. Alexandra is a sculptor, Jane is a musician and Sukie’s creative energy expresses itself in a more literal sense in that she has a whole passel of children. Their energy is also being stifled. No one buys Alexandra’s sculptures, Jane is stuck directing a terrible elementary school band, and Sukie’s husband leaves her because she gets pregnant every time she has sex.

           

    

      Enter into this, Daryl Van Horne (Nicholson), a mysterious out of towner who buys the local historic landmark, a mansion where they used to burn witches. Van Horne suffers from a severe excess of personality and is forward to the point of vulgarity. He quickly brings the women into a four way relationship. He cultivates their individuality and creativity and their latent magical energy flourishes.  The women have the ability to make things happen simply by focusing on it. However, when Daryl’s sinister nature becomes apparent, the women decide to take a break from the relationship and Daryl lashes out, forcing the women to team up and fight back.

            

     The movie is a showcase for Jack Nicholson as an obvious Satanic figure. He is allowed to get as wild and silly as he wants which only helps to make the character more bizarre.  Almost lost amongst the star power is a fine supporting performance by Veronica Cartwright (Alien, Invasion of the Body Snatchers). She plays a prominent woman in the town who is particularly sensitive to the presence of Van Horne’s evil. She loses her mind slowly as she tries in vain to warn the townspeople.

            

     

     

    As for its three leading ladies, this movie was made when they were all at the top of their game. Cher had just begun her 3^rd musical comeback and released a platinum album that year and a triple platinum album (Heart of Stone) two years later. On top of all of that she was also in two other critically acclaimed movies the same as year as Witches; Suspect with Dennis Quaid and Moonstruck, for which Cher won an Oscar.

            

     Susan Sarandon is probably not thought of as a genre actress but had a long history of genre credits including Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Hunger with David Bowie. She paid her dues and Witches came along as she was finally reaping the benefits, starring in several important movies over the next few years including her Oscar winning performance in Thelma and Louise in 1991.

           

     Michelle Pfeiffer was likewise beginning to enjoy the fruits of her labor. Though not in the business as long as Sarandon, she was in the excellent Ladyhawke a few years earlier and Scarface before that. The year after Witches she was in three different Oscar nominated movies and the next year she was nominated herself for The Fabulous Baker Boys.

            

     For its day, this movie was saying some pretty far out things. It talks about the power of these three women and the tendency of the townspeople, even other women, to view powerful women suspiciously. The sexual freedom they experience with Van Horne is gossiped about and the women become ostracized. These insights may seem obvious now, a generation later, but at the time there weren’t a lot of movies examining these ideas. The idea of women being oppressed and empowered was revisited by the film’s director, George Miller, in Fury Road. Those familiar with Miller only through his Mad Max movies may be surprised to find out that he directed this, but Miller is very diverse (having won an Oscar for the animated Penguin cartoon, Happy Feet).

            

     Despite its title, there is very little witchcraft involved. The women only cast one spell, a type of voodoo ritual. The rest of their magic is more of their will manifesting itself in the world around them. However, the act of effecting reality through one’s willpower is pretty much how magic is described in The Devil Rides Out, which is one of the best movies ever made about the subject, so I guess we can forgive this movie for its lack of black robes and pentagrams.

            

     I recommend this movie to anyone wanting a smart supernatural comedy. The fact that it was made with some of the best talent of its decade only adds to the appeal.

Fun fact: Bill Murray was originally cast for the Jack Nicholson part but dropped out before filming started.