Kramer vs. Kramer

"There are three sides to this love story."

1979 1h 45m EN

🙌

7.6

BANGER

★7.6TMDB · 2,558

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is now faced with the tasks of housekeeping and taking care of himself and their young son Billy.

“There are three sides to this love story.”

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Cast

Dustin Hoffman
Ted Kramer
Meryl Streep
Joanna Kramer
Jane Alexander
Margaret Phelps
Justin Henry
Billy Kramer
Howard Duff
John Shaunessy
George Coe
Jim O'Connor
JoBeth Williams
Phyllis Bernard
Bill Moor
Gressen

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert Benton
Writers: Robert Benton
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $106M — a 13.3× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

47 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Robert Benton, shot by Néstor Almendros. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Kander. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Editor Gerald B. Greenberg shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep and Jane Alexander carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "There are three sides to this love story.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0079417 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert Benton directs. Néstor Almendros behind the camera. John Kander scores. Gerald B. Greenberg cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $106M — a 13.3× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
247 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Directed by Robert Benton, shot by Néstor Almendros. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by John Kander. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Gerald B. Greenberg shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep and Jane Alexander carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "There are three sides to this love story.".
8IMDB entry: tt0079417 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 13 themes, including "husband wife relationship", "marriage", "custody battle", "divorce".
10Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Néstor Almendros
Original score: John Kander
Editing: Gerald B. Greenberg
Production design: Paul Sylbert
Costume design: Ruth Morley
Makeup / hair: Joseph Coscia
Runtime: 105 min · 1h 45m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $8,000,000
Box office: $106,260,000
Return: 1328% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Director
Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Silver nugget for the best foreign film
National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Robert Benton

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Andre Wilfred Sanders2023-04-20
★ 7/10
The struggle of women in the 70th of the last century To what extent can a simple social story and a familiar family problem such as separation or divorce. To what extent can it represent and reflect the condition of an entire society, the culture and morals of this society, and the social changes that occur to it. The events of the film tell about the story of the divorce and struggle of the Kramer couple over the custody of their child, which reflected in its essence the social and cultural change in American society during the seventies of the last century. In 1979, the American social film Kramer vs. Kramer This film won good reviews, including an Academy Award. It is a reflection of the changes that took place in the family and in women's choices after widespread demands and protest movements in the United States of America in the sixties of the last century. Part of these demands was related to the call for women's liberation and the struggle for equality. After the round of conflict, the woman came out strong, and a measure of her rights were taken away. She also became economically independent and self-reliant, and the door of her ambitions was wide open, and she turned from a subordinate to an equal. Certainly, all these changes had to find their reflection on people's daily lives, on the woman's relationship with the man, and on the arrangement of women's priorities in terms of family and life, as yesterday the family was at the top of the list of American women's priorities, but after this cultural and social transformation, we see that the ambition of some women as Kramer's wife It is what settles at the top of her priorities now. And as the wife Kramer is the strongest and most economically able, she takes custody of the son from the father without regard to whether this behavior is in the best interests of the son or not. I was affected by what Kramer's wife did, which is that she was faced with two difficult choices, either to take care of the son, or to continue what she had achieved in her work. Unfortunately, it was prescribed for a woman to sacrifice everything.
r96sk2024-01-10
★ 9/10
Much more heart than expected! <em>'Kramer vs. Kramer'</em> is a film I've heard of for as long as I can remember, though I didn't actually know much about it itself... a quick glance at Wikipedia and I saw that they class it as a "legal drama", which is obvious given the title. With that, I was waiting for a long court battle to start so was surprised to see it not arrive until the final 30 or so minutes. The film is actually mainly about a father and son, in how they react to a certain life event. And boy do the filmmakers do a great job at making you care for the characters of Dustin Hoffman (Ted) and Justin Henry (Billy)... and even Meryl Streep's Joanna, though I could've personally done with more development for the latter's character; especially as the ending is quite predictable, so additional scenes for her side of the story would've been nice. I wouldn't say it's a big deal, however, as you see what's needed. Hoffman puts in a terrific performance, as does youngster Henry. Streep also brings a good showing, as do Jane Alexander and Howard Duff more minimally. Credit to everyone onscreen, in truth. It's, of course, sad to read about the offscreen incident(s) that occurred during the production involving Hoffman and Streep, albeit settled incident(s) between the two. In conclusion, and this won't come as a surprise given my rating and all the positive noise that this film has received in the decades since its release, I'd undoubtedly recommend this motion picture from 1979.