Classic Film Friday: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Ok, first off, I have to admit something to you... I didn't know that this film was the inspiration for the TV series Alice. I had no idea. That said, this movie is so much better than the TV series and you really don't get that it was the inspiration until you see Mel (he is the only person to play in TV and film) or at least it didn't for me.

So Alice (Ellen Burstyn) is a singer, and a mother, and a widow. She really doesn't know how she will make it... as she was widowed recently. So she sets off from New Mexico to Monterrey. But never quite gets there. She makes a stop in Phoenix, because she ran out of money, and she falls for yet another abusive man (her husband was abusive too). So she moves on again, to Tuscon and this is where a lot of the TV show gets it's inspiration. There is Mel, and Flo, and Vera. But they are so much better portrayed. Life is unedited. And a little cuss word or a snappy comeback is life.

This movie also stars Kris Kristofferson as David, the man that Alice eventually settles with. It also stars a young Jodie Foster, but it is nothing more that a side roll. This is a movie about how imperfect the world is, and yet we all live in it and try to make the best of it. It really doesn't have an ending, because really what does? This is real life, or at least somebody's version of it.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com