The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976)

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble: This is going to be a weird one. There is so much to unpack here. First of all, let me confess I watched the Rifftrax version of this film. It is a bit of a strange choice for Rifftrax. This, after all, is a drama writ large. It would be like a Rifftrax of Love Story or Terms of Endearment.The next thing to unpack is Seinfeld's Bubble Boy. He haunts this movie as it was such a wonderful parody of this film and circumstance. I spent the entire movie with the phrase "It's Moors" stuck in my head. The third unpacking is the cast of the film. You, of course, have John Travolta in short shorts. His real life love interest Diana Hyland who was 18 years his senior, divorcing her husband and unknown to both of them was about to get a tragic fatal disease that would not be out of place in the film itself. She, in a creepish aside, plays his mother in the film. I know I know it shouldn't matter. But like the actor playing Dexter marrying the actress playing his sister it illogically just seems…. well creepy. On the plus side, we have Robert Reed, Mr. Brady himself, as the father and a very young PJ Soles as one of the high school kids. Also on the plus side, this really isn't that bad a movie. Though based on a true story it really doesn't tie itself to the true life (and much more depressing) real life escapades. Travolta has a light touch and the film seems to do a nice job humanizing the issues at hand. In addition, if you are watching the Rifftrax version there are some pretty good riffs to keep you smiling through the slow bits. Definitely a fun time with Rifftrax and an interesting curiosity piece for those watching without.

1976's "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" has gained legendary status in the careers of both John Travolta and Glynnis O'Connor, for it is due to their performances, and the genuine anguish in its depiction of budding adolescent love, that this TV-movie still endures beyond what all of the naysayers would have you believe. The early scenes with the very young Tod do tend to be overtly cloying, but it immediately establishes the young Gina's attitude toward her new neighbor, at one point actually calling him a 'monster.' As the years pass, she really only sees him once a year on his birthday, the only girl in attendance, now simply looking at him as a curiosity. Once the exposition concludes, the film can take its time with their relationship, how he's always watching her from his expansive pad, isolated from any germs that could easily spell death for him. It really is a marvelous script, Glynnis O'Connor's Gina at first willing to humiliate Tod just to impress her friends (among them Kelly Ward, Vernee Watson, and P. J. Soles), but gradually coming to realize how much he has idolized her, which both flatters her and scares her ("Tod, what are you doing to me?"). Yes, it may be carefully calculated, even contrived, but when the actors deliver, it has the desired effect. As for the ending that so many dislike, how could they conclude it any other way? SPOILER AHEAD- As Paul Williams sings "What Would They Say" (uncredited in the film itself), Tod chooses to be free to pursue his only love, leaving behind the dedicated parents responsible for his well-being, still asleep and unaware, equal parts heart warming and tragic, just like the angst of teenage love. No matter how old we get, we never forget that first love, or the obstacles that needed to be overcome, which Williams beautifully renders as Gina rides away with Tod at her back, toward a future unknown. What a delicate balance that couldn't be bettered, and it remains difficult to watch to this day without tearing up. Robert Reed, just as in THE BRADY BUNCH, is a warm and loving father, and this film, along with ROOTS, reignited his career back toward drama. Diana Hyland will always be remembered as John Travolta's first true love, tragically dead of cancer less than five months after this broadcast. The natural smile, fresh wholesomeness (even in a revealing bikini), a sweet girl next door quality that every boy fell in love with- the 19 year old Glynnis O'Connor was a huge cult figure at the time, on a par with Maureen McCormick, Jodie Foster, Tatum O'Neal, or Kristy McNichol, but appears to be criminally forgotten nowadays; she would continue to score impressively in films such as "California Dreaming" and "Those Lips, Those Eyes." Only months away from "Saturday Night Fever," John Travolta's movie career consisted of a bit in "The Devil's Rain" and a supporting villain in the just completed "Carrie," his dramatic capabilities as yet untested, so this sensitive but not saccharine portrayal was very real and precise (how about the reference to masturbation with fellow inmate John Friedrich, when they easily could have shied away from an honest depiction). This movie's cult should continue to grow, in spite of the dated 70s fashions, despite the raspberries from numerous hipsters, simply because the heart never stops yearning and no one forgets their first love.

I'm not sure it is possible to make a bad movie that has Robert Reed, Buzz Aldrin, and P.J. Soles in it. I think Boy In The Plastic Bubble proves that often only brilliant cinema can result from such sublime casting. The main story is that John Travolta can't handle germs, but there is a subplot in which Ralph Bellamy doesn't age at all in 18 years. Robert Reed shows the same versatility he displayed in "The Brady Bunch" by sporting two hair styles. Travolta shows his ability to pout is not to be underestimated and that it was a key ingredient in his acting arsenal that launched him into super stardom. I wish there were more characters named "Tod" in movies.

the only thing I have to say about this movie; is that Travolta got paid the measly salary; and an affair from Hyland for this piece of dreck. Probably after Kotter and before Saturday Night Fever; he may have taken any God Awful script to keep in the acting business.Seeing it was produced by Spelling is another hallmark of bad taste. Even though it was based on a true story the extents that the parents had to go through to keep him alive. I don't know any family who could considerably bare the expenses that the enclosures would cost; seeing that they did live in a log cabin. To through all that away he should have died at the beginning; and left questionable about his future.