A Brand New Life (1972 Telefilm)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C- Telefilm: B-
A long-suppressed but worthwhile TV movie from 1972, Sam
O’Steen’s A Brand New Life stars Martin Balsam and Cloris Leachman as a
married couple in their middle age. It
looks like there will just be the two of them in their twilight years together,
when it turns out that she is pregnant at 40 years of age. Back then, this was a shocker, though much
more common now with all the new science and the like.
The thing that makes this work endure besides performances
that also count Wilfrid Hyde-White, Gene Nelson, Hunter Von Leer, and other
familiar faces of the time is the issue of abortion. It was not totally legal at the time of the film, but close to
it, and Leachman’s character has to decide if she should have an abortion or
try to carry the baby to term. Oddly,
without supporting the extreme Right, adoption never surfaces as an option,
though some people only look at the other two choices because they have
legitimate, serious and personal concerns about having a person out in the
mortal world of theirs in someone else’s hands. That is a vital part of the debate on the issue never discussed,
mostly out of a hatred of women and supposed support of child, but that is another
essay. A Brand New Life handles
the issues with an honest, wide-ranging, adult maturity that has been lost in
the public debate since the 1980s. In
this, it may be a minor classic of TV drama.
The 1.33 X 1 full frame image is on the soft side with
detail limits, color inconsistency and a print that is not always in the best
of shape, though it is nice to have the film in any form. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono shows the age of
the source material, which is not a soundmaster. Despite the flaws, the combination will do. Biographies of the leads and trailers are
included, but noting more. If you have
not seen A Brand New Life, now’s your chance.
- Nicholas Sheffo
