Ordinary People

In his first foray as a director, Redford adapts Judith Guest’s novel with sensitivity and insight. The picture-perfect Jarrett family of Lake Forest, Illinois, is torn apart by the accidental death of their eldest son and the survivor’s guilt of younger brother Conrad (Timothy Hutton), who believes that their detached mother, Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), wishes he’d been the one to die. Making his feature debut, Hutton offers a shattering portrait of grief and teenage angst, becoming the youngest male Oscar winner to date, and Moore subverts her sunny TV persona with a brilliant rendering of withheld affection. Donald Sutherland, Judd Hirsch, and newcomer Elizabeth McGovern complete the cast in this delicate character study, which earned Oscars for Best Picture, Screenplay, and Redford’s direction. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.