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Diner
Set in 1959, Diner shows how five young men resist their adulthood and seek refuge in their beloved Diner. The mundane, childish, and titillating details of their lives are shared. But the golden moments pass, and the men shoulder their responsibilities, leaving the Diner behind.
1982 · Directed by Barry Levinson · 110 min · Comedy · Drama · Screenplay in the scene database · 5 frames
Tagline
Suddenly, life was more than French fries, gravy, and girls.
Plot
In 1959 Baltimore, friends Modell, Eddie Simmons, Shrevie Schreiber, Boogie Sheftell and Timothy Fenwick attend a Christmas dance before driving to their usual late-night haunt, Fells Point Diner. On the way, Fenwick stages a fake car accident, to his friends' annoyance. Boogie, a hairdresser and law student, has laid a $2,000 bet on a basketball game and declines his family friend Bagel's offer to call off the bet. Modell accepts a ride home from Eddie while the others pick up another friend, Billy Howard, in town to serve as Eddie's best man for his New Year's Eve wedding.
The next morning, Billy reunites with Eddie at his mother's house and they visit their old pool hall. Shrevie, married to Beth and working as an appliance store salesman, learns from Fenwick that Boogie is taking a date to the movies. At a screening of A Summer Place, with his friends watching, Boogie tricks his date Carol Heathrow, into groping him through the popcorn carton on his lap. She runs from the theater in tears but the smooth-talking Boogie convinces her it was an accident and their date continues; afterward, Billy punches his old high school enemy Willard Broxton.
Billy visits Barbara Kohler, a friend working at the local TV station. At the diner, Shrevie discusses married life with Eddie, who is preparing a test of football knowledge for his fiancée Elyse, to determine if they will marry. Having lost his basketball bet, Boogie wagers with his friends that he can have sex with Carol. The group parts ways in the morning and Boogie and Fenwick encounter an equestrienne named Jane Chisholm. Meeting Barbara at church, Billy learns she is pregnant, the result of an unexpected night they spent together; she tries to dissuade him from feeling obligated to marry her.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Barry Levinson
- Cinematography: Peter Sova
- Edited by: Stu Linder, Andy Blumenthal
- Music: Ivan Král, Bruce Brody
- Produced by: Jerry Weintraub
Cast
- Steve Guttenberg as Edward 'Eddie' Simmons
- Daniel Stern as Laurence 'Shrevie' Schreiber
- Mickey Rourke as Robert 'Boogie' Sheftell
- Kevin Bacon as Timothy Fenwick Jr.
- Tim Daly as William 'Billy' Howard
- Ellen Barkin as Beth Schreiber
- Paul Reiser as Modell
- Kathryn Dowling as Barbara
- Michael Tucker as Bagel
- Jessica James as Mrs. Simmons
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, SLM Production Group
- Budget: $5,000,000
- Box office: $14,100,000
- Themes: new year's eve, gambling debt, baltimore, usa, diner, fake accident, twenty something, 1950s
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