The World According To Garp - Watching the 1000 Greatest Films

No. 12- The World According To Garp (George Roy Hill, 1982)
Ranked - #844

Honey, the chances of another plane hitting this house are astronomical. See? It's been pre-disastered. - T.S Garp

Whilst voting is on as to what film I should watch next in this series, I've still got a couple left to review, so let's get on with it shall we.

You know that moment half way through a film when you realise that you've actually seen it before? I was oblivious for the first half hour whilst watching The World According to Garp (or GARP, to save on time) before suddenly remembering the whole thing, including the ending. This in itself is nothing spectacular, I was young at the time and probably not paying much attention, however it could have solely been that GARP isn't that memorable.

Based on the best selling novel, of the same name by John Irving, GARP chronicles the life of T.S Garp (Robin Williams), a struggling everyman beset by the destructive forces of modern society, from his illegitimate birth, the tragic, comedic and surreal things that happen in it to his untimely death. Overshadowed by his domineering, unorthodox feminist mother Jenny Fields, (Glenn Close, incidentally only four years older than Williams and starring in her first feature film), Garp aspires to be a writer, only for his mother to publish her feminist manifesto, becoming something of a celebrity and spokeswoman for disaffected women.


In adapting straight from the novel, GARP fails to translate any sort of semblance or meaning from Irving's work, what delights and enraptures on the page won't necessarily do the same on the big screen. As one would expect from a competent and adroit director such as George Roy Hill, director of such Hollywood fair as Throughly Modern Millie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, GARP is an accomplished looking film, however by slavishly following the events of the novel Hill inadvertently reveals the limitations in doing so, GARP ends up being entertaining but slight, competent but flawed.

Overall this isn't a disastrous film, the casting for example although initially eye-raising is rewarded with some excellent performances, especially from Williams, Close and a brilliant turn from John Lithgow as the transsexual ex-American footballer, a role which could easily have been lampooned but is played with real dignity and affection. There are stand out scenes, such as the infamous moment when a plane flies into a house that Garp and his wife Helen (Mary Beth Hunt) are planning to buy, incidentally the pilot is played by George Roy Hill himself. Even John Irving turns up in a cameo role as a referee officiating one of Garp's high school wrestling matches.

Watch John Irving 'acting'.

Garp feels like a film of could have beens and missed opportunities, of over simplification and guilty of not stamping enough authority with it's own interpretation. There were moments when I thought that the film would delve deeper, a touching scene when Garp talks about the inspiration for his story regarding magic gloves and the sub-plot regarding the 'Ellen Jamesians, a group of woman that had voluntarily cut out their own tongue in support of a woman who had her tongue cut out by her rapist, gave me hope but they both petered out and came to nothing; Pretty much like the film itself.