Beaches

"Some Friendships Last Forever"

1988 2h 3m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

🥫

41%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

IMDB

★6.7TMDB · 288🥫41%Rotten Tomatoes●46Metacritic★7IMDB · 29,481

ComedyDramaMusic

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years.

“Some Friendships Last Forever”

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Cast

Bette Midler
CC Bloom
Barbara Hershey
Hillary Whitney Essex
John Heard
John Pierce
Spalding Gray
Dr. Richard Milstein
Lainie Kazan
Leona Bloom
James Read
Michael Essex
Grace Johnston
Victoria Essex
Mayim Bialik
CC (age 11)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Garry Marshall
Writers: Mary Agnes Donoghue
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 / 7

ERA

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Garry Marshall, shot by Dante Spinotti. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey and John Heard carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Some Friendships Last Forever".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0094715 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Garry Marshall directs. Dante Spinotti behind the camera. Georges Delerue scores. Richard Halsey cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

138 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Directed by Garry Marshall, shot by Dante Spinotti. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Georges Delerue. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Richard Halsey shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey and John Heard carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "Some Friendships Last Forever".
7IMDB entry: tt0094715 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 13 themes, including "loss of loved one", "female friendship", "class differences", "buddy".

The technical file

Cinematography: Dante Spinotti
Original score: Georges Delerue
Editing: Richard Halsey
Runtime: 123 min · 2h 3m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $20,000,000
Box office: $57,041,866
Return: 285% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Beaches (1988)
Rotten Tomatoes: 41% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 46/100
IMDB rating: 7/10 · 29,481 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 2 wins & 6 nominations total

Also by

Garry Marshall

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2020-12-20
★ 6/10
Entertaining “Chick flick” with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey Two preadolescent girls meet on the beach and become lifelong friends living on two different coasts. The brassy CC Bloom (Bette Midler) is a performer living in New York City while the classy, but reserved Hillary (Barbara Hershey) lives on the West Coast. Bubbly Mayim Bialik appears as the 11 year-old version of CC in the opening act while likable John Heard has a fairly notable part. “Beaches” (1988) is an 80’s “chick flick” that throws in drama, realistic comedy, romance, Broadway entertainment and music. It’s also known as a tearjerker, but it didn’t literally move me in that sense, although I’m sure it would some people. It effectively shows the ups and downs of a long-lasting friendship. Fans of Midler or Hershey will no doubt like it more than me. The film runs 2 hours, 3 minutes, and was shot California and New York City. GRADE: B-/C+
kevin20192024-07-26
★ 6/10
"Beaches" is an earnest and well meaning film throughout that always favours the overbearing and self important Bette Midler at the expense of the much more insipid Barbara Hershey as it endeavours to tackle the notion of a friendship which spans decades and supersedes all other considerations, but such a misplaced and lofty ambition as this is often an almost impossible aspiration to realistically achieve during a two hour period so we are consequently rushed through a sketchy succession of highs and lows of two lives with no real sense of any emotional bonds developing or being ruthlessly torn asunder during the passing decades and no opportunity to really get to know about any of the characters and subsequently there is no reason to care about what happens to any of them in an unmemorable and superficial film which is an amazing underachievement on every level.
CinemaSerf2024-12-28
★ 7/10
There's something quite uncanny about the resemblance between the young "CC" (Mayim Mialik) and Bette Midler who plays her adult self in this quite touching story of lifelong friendship. That all starts when this ordinary youngster meets the well-heeled "Hillary" (Marcie Leeds then Barbara Hershey) and despite being from opposite sides of the tracks, they begin to bond. The former has a love of all things showbiz but isn't exactly getting her name up in lights as she gets older. Her friend had a much better starting position and builds up a successful legal career as well as having a daughter with a man that they are both rather keen on! Things take a much more serious turn for the couple, though, when some bad news puts all of their lives in a perspective that requires both women to readjust for what's now inevitable. It's one of those stories that shows quite effectively how difficult lifelong friendships can be to maintain. They write to each other, they meet now and again, but it's never a straightforward momentum that keeps them aligned nor one that prepares them for what life throws at them. The characterisation of "CC" allows for Midler to belt out a few memorable numbers along the way - "Wind Beneath My Wings" and "Under the Boardwalk" maybe being the two best suited for her powerful vocals and it stays just the right side of sentiment allowing the pair to portray quite distinctly powerful characters emotionally, sometimes comically, and engagingly.