What We Have Here With "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" And What Could Have Been

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore was a film I wanted to see – that happened to be released in 1974. Its subject matter attracted me. I was disappointed by the execution, but it was still about a widow who lost her husband trying to make a new life for herself and her young son. It is not an easy life, and deserves our empathy, and neither is the film easy on the eye.

What Alice Could Have Been

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore could have been about how Alice’s husband changed to be good, how both husband and wife worked together to make a marriage work, and when he dies, his death is a tragedy, as a husband who genuinely worked on his problems which was to his credit, rather than what we have in this movie, a weak husband who ends up dying.

Here we have Alice ‘moving on’ from a poor marriage and when the husband dies, it does not seem to matter, because wouldn’t she be better off?

Wouldn’t the meat of the drama be in the ‘getting over the loss of a good husband’ part. If her husband had changed to be good, Alice would then feel the loss more than losing a weak husband -- this might have been what was missing at the emotional core of the film to make us feel more involved -- though she relied on him, but who wasn’t emotionally helpful.

As many marriages at the time were not working, the writer selected a weak husband, but if I was the writer, I might depict the marriage as something that is improved upon, then the husband dies.

Naturally, knowing she has lost a good husband, the wife takes her time in getting over the grief and gets in a better place emotionally. She then may find a new husband in a new place and get remarried. A 'good' story.

What We Have Here

But what we have is that Alice’s bad husband dies. She leaves town with her son. New beginnings? Far from Alice’s mind is having a relationship with another man, let alone another marriage as that would be out of the question, with such a relationship gone sour beforehand.

Is she open to another relationship that’s not marriage—perhaps. Her former relationship was hardly a meaningful one. More mundane, where he spoke about the family’s faults, which did not make for peace in the home. It was hard graft there, an emotional struggle.

Marriage is not presented well in the film.

After he dies, she moves on down the road, headed for another town, to an unknown destination. To an unknown male? To make her feel better or worse. She lives by a sliver of hope, that something good will turn up along the way. We, the audience, feel for her. She is a vulnerable woman in a wild world.

She does get into a relationship. Is the way forward? She considers her future with this man. Could this guy she met as a nightclub singer pave the way for a future? He makes life seem romantic but is this the relationship she should be in? Is Alice escaping the reality of her life?

Alice wonders if the new guy is as good as it gets. The relationship is more about his ego than genuine, but she is taken in by the roguish charms of the younger man. This guy who charmed his way into her life is a phony.

He can get an older woman, or can he?

Funny thing is she liked him. He makes her forget she is vulnerable. She is glad to see the back of him, though. She needs more. Something real. Another guy walks into her life when she is waitressing. Where else? He even likes her son. We know that his apologies would mean their relationship isn’t perfect, but improving, and better than before. She seems to have found someone genuine and loving as she learns to trust a man again after her emotionally abusive husband had broken her trust.

In the role of the new man in her life, Kris Kristofferson is a good casting choice as more of a trustworthy man. But they don’t marry, and the marriage institution comes out worse for wear.

In Sum

Therefore, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore isn’t the ideal sort of scenario.

It’s grainy and gritty to look at as well, though life can be gritty, but did not make for pleasing viewing. However, films can be about life's messes. There may be no conscious ideological framework the writer is working on.

But I have my reservations. In hindsight, as a reviewer, it might have been better if the writer chose Alice’s life to be different than what it was.

However, no one who has been through a messy experience does not like their life to be judged as having fallen short of the mark. They like to keep some sort of self-respect intact. Though it is not the way I may write this kind of story, there is a keen sense of reality at the time, of this being what it was like, but things looked up for this vulnerable woman. By showing someone’s life, it points then to redemption, so anyone who has watched this film and has been through a similar experience, may feel that life can look up.

However, one may not go along with the film from a Christian perspective as, one, marriage seems judged as not the place for a successful relationship, when marriage can be, and two, coming together or getting too close outside of the marriage union.

A disappointing movie despite my initial enthusiasm.

Cast: Ellen Burstyn (Alice), Alfred Lutter (son), Kris Kristofferson (love interest), Harvey Keitel (bad boyfriend), Diane Ladd (workmate). Screenplay: Robert Getchell. Director: Martin Scorsese. Released December 9, 1974 (USA).