MovieChat Forums > Grand Canyon (1992) Discussion > Different Beginning

Different Beginning

posted 18 years ago by maxvargus
14 replies | jump to latest

I saw this movie at the theatre when it was first released and it seems that Kevin Kline's and Mary Louise-Parker's characters were having sex as the credits were running, and then they drifted apart as the movie progressed. The DVD version of the movie doesn't begin like this, and it never really shows the affair between the two characters. Am I remembering the theatrical release correctly? Does anyone else remember that or has my demensia progressed to a point I am "remembering" things that never happened?

[–] TopFrog 18 years ago

Sad to say, it sounds like you're exhibiting more-than-total recall. I didn't see it during its theatrical release, but here's from a Washington Post review at the time of the original release (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/grandcanyonrkempley_a0a28b.htm):

"Grand Canyon" begins with a juxtaposition of two basketball games -- one pickup, one pro -- and continues to contrast the fast track and the wrong side of the tracks. Kevin Kline, as an idealistic but rich immigration lawyer, sets the plot in motion when he tries to shortcut a post-Lakers game traffic jam.

And from the Janet Maslin review in the New York Times:

The film begins at a Lakers game, with shots of a vigorous Magic Johnson that automatically make the film's point about the fragility of health and happiness, although they may not have been intended that way.

-- TopFrog

[–] maxvargus 18 years ago

Yea, I remember that part as well. The traffic congestion occurs as Kline's character is leaving her apartment after the love-making scene and runs into the Lakers' game traffic. The scene to which I am referring takes place while the opening credits are running, so it could be considered to be before the "plot opens". I don't know, I am hoping someone else saw it in the theatre and can verify or refute this. Thanks!!

[–] ken_montgomery2001 18 years ago

Hey man -

I saw this in the theater too and can tell you that is definitely NOT how it opened. It opened as everyone has said it did. Maybe you're thinking you saw a preview of it or something. But also, in the movie, the character even says that they only messed around once, and it would have been before that moment in the timeline.

[–] gray_epl 18 years ago

I would also have to say I _vaguely_ recall such an opening scene, but the reruns on TV does not feature it. As a European, perhaps we got a different theatrical cut, and now the the US cut on TV. I'm just guessing. Maybe I just remember it wrong.

[–] jpoo 17 years ago

Is it possible that was an original version (with a sex scene rather than the game) released to test audiences, and they decided against that based on response? Because I can imagine it might have made people dislike Kevin Kline's character a little bit more.

JP

[–] gayspiritwarrior 17 years ago

Kevin Kline's been asked. No sex scene was filmed.

"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde

[–] Zando777 17 years ago

Link?

I doubt multiple people are mis-remembering.

It's possible a sex scene was filmed without Kline even actually present. I lean towards the multiple-versions, test-audience theory.

[–] Cap_Ap 16 years ago

I have to say I do too. I just watched this film again, and I noticed that at one point, Mary Louise Parker's character claims they never did anything but hold hands and "share a soulful moment", then in another scene she yells at Kevin Kline's character and says he *beep* her. Seems to me like there was an imperfectly altered storyline, and making the Kline character more likeable would certainly fit the bill.

[–] stevenackerman69 16 years ago

Here's something else about the beginning of the film, which I caught last night on HBO. During the Lakers game Kline's character is looking at all the sexy girls in the stands. Maybe that is a tipoff to the fling he had with his secretary.

[–] footsperry 12 years ago

I think she was telling different stories to different people; she was willing to tell the police officer about the sex, because he was a stranger. She wasn't willing to tell her co-worker about it.

[–] kennebec 16 years ago

I saw it in the theater--twice--and it definitely started with Kevin Kline's character at the Lakers game.

[–] EvanVolm 15 years ago

Doesn't the movie Dave, also featuring Kevin Kline, start out with him having sex with another woman? Perhaps the OP is getting it mixed up with that.

You've had your whole *beep* life to think things over!

[–] mikebrace 13 years ago

I saw it in a theater as well, but it is possible a test print got out by mistake, because I always thought the Kline/Parker thing wasn't really well-defined, and a scene like that in the beginning would make sense, showing us their realtionship quickly instead of just dropping it in later in the film....even if Kline says there was no scene filmed there could have been a double used...someone should ask Parker too.....it would be better with a scene like that in a way, because the Kline character was built up as a decent person, when the affair comes out , I was kind of like..."huh?" Despite that flaw, if you can call it that (the tone of the characters' inner lives being off just a little) it is a BRILLIANT film. Test prints do sneak out by mistake, I saw the film Real Genius twice in two different theaters, and both prints had totally different openings, believe it or not, it was very weird. Sometimes directors change things at the last minute...Kubrick cut the end scene out of the Shining after the first showing in its premiere engagement at a handful of theaters, he sent his editors out to each theater and it was gone by the second showing, in legend at least, but I know because I saw it at an early morning show and the scene was there and gone when I saw it later.

If you liked this, about how we are all important and interconnected, see the French film 3 Colors: Red.

[–] AdvanceIstheMan 11 years ago

I think it was meant to play out the way it does. We're given the impression that the hand holding was the first "incident" and that she had developed sort of a crush on him. Kline seems aware of this but never really addresses it. When we find out they had already slept together it explains why she had been so mixed up and why his lack of acknowledgement felt so cold to her.