''Up the Sandbox'' is a 1972 American comedy-drama film directed by Irvin Kershner and starring

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

. Paul Zindel's screenplay, based on the novel by Anne Roiphe, focuses on Margaret Reynolds, a bored, young wife and mother who slips into increasingly bizarre fantasies. The cast includes

David Selby David Lynn Selby is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for playing Quentin Collins on the daytime soap ''Dark Shadows'' (1968–71) and Richard Channing on the prime-time soap '' Falcon Crest'' (1982–90) ...

, Paul Benedict, George S. Irving,

Conrad Bain Conrad Stafford Bain (February 4, 1923 – January 14, 2013) was a Canadian-American comedian and actor. His television credits include a leading role as Phillip Drummond in the sitcom ''Diff'rent Strokes'', as Dr. Arthur Harmon on '' Maude'', ...

Isabel Sanford Isabel Sanford (born Eloise Gwendolyn Sanford; August 29, 1917 – July 9, 2004) was an American stage, film, and television actress and comedian best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Mills Jefferson on the CBS sitcoms ''All in the Fami ...

Lois Smith Lois Arlene Smith (née Humbert; born November 3, 1930) is an American character actress whose career spans eight decades. She made her film debut in the 1955 drama film ''East of Eden (film), East of Eden'', and later played supporting roles i ...

, Jacobo Morales playing a character who closely resembles

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...

, and

Stockard Channing Stockard Channing (born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard; February 13, 1944) is an American actress. She is known for playing Betty Rizzo in the film '' Grease'' (1978) and First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series '' The West Wing'' ...

in her film debut.

Plot

Margaret Reynolds, a young wife and mother of two, severely bored with her day-to-day life in New York City and neglected by her husband Paul (

), discovers that she is pregnant again. She does not tell her husband at first, and instead she finds refuge in her outrageous fantasies: being sexually pursued by a Central American dictator modeled on Fidel Castro, imagined confrontations with her husband and mother, an anthropological visit to an African tribe that promises a ritual of pain-free childbirth, and a terrorist mission to plant explosives in the Statue of Liberty. After one final fantasy of first visiting and then fleeing an abortion clinic, Margaret finally tells Paul about the pregnancy and then leaves in a taxi to enjoy a day without parenting responsibilities.

Cast

as Margaret Reynolds *

as Paul Reynolds *

Ariane Heller Ariane may refer to: *Ariana (name), also Ariane, Arianne Arts * ''Ariane'' (Martinů), an opera by Bohuslav Martinů, first performed 1961 * ''Ariane'' (Massenet), an opera by Jules Massenet, first performed 1906 * ''Ariane'' (film), a 1931 ...

as Elizabeth Reynolds *

Jane Hoffman Jane S. Hoffman (born July 20, 1964) is an American public policy expert and author on consumer affairs and the environment, and, most recently, on big tech companies and private data. She has served many roles in government and civics, including ...

as Mrs. Koerner * John C. Becher as Mr. Koerner * Jacobo Morales as

* Paul Benedict as Dr. Beineke * George S. Irving as Dr. Keglin *

as Dr. Gordon *

as Maria *

Paul Dooley Paul Dooley (born Paul Brown; February 22, 1928) is an American character actor, writer and comedian. He is known for his roles in '' Breaking Away'', '' Sixteen Candles'', and ''Popeye''. Early life Dooley was born Paul Brown on February 22, ...

as Statue of Liberty Guard *

Anne Ramsey Angelina Anne Ramsey-Mobley (March 27, 1929 – August 11, 1988) was an American actress. She is best known for her film roles as Mama Fratelli in ''The Goonies'' (1985) and as Mrs. Lift in ''Throw Momma from the Train'' (1987), the latter of wh ...

as Battleaxe *

as Elinore *

Lee Chamberlin Lee Chamberlin (born Alverta LaPallo; February 14, 1938 – May 25, 2014) was an American theatrical, film and television actress. Early life Chamberlin was born in New York City. She was the daughter of Ida Roberta (née Small) and Brazilian au ...

as Jan *

Jennifer Darling Jennifer Darling (born Joan Darling; June 19, 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American voice, film and television actress. Her best-known role on screen was as Peggy Callahan in ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' and its spin-off '' The Bio ...

as Joanne *Marilyn Coleman as Rose White *

(uncredited) as Judy Stanley

Production

Director Irvin Kershner reportedly told

's biographer James Spada that he was originally unhappy with the script and that he was advised not to express his dissatisfaction to Streisand. Several days into filming, when Streisand went to Kershner and asked him why they were having so much trouble, he told her that they had started shooting with a weak script. Kershner said "Your people warned me not to tell you." Streisand said "That's ridiculous! If a script isn't good enough, let's work to improve it." Kershner originally planned to shoot on a backlot at MGM. When Streisand convinced him it would be better for the film to shoot some scenes on location in East Africa, he agreed and then convinced producers

Robert Chartoff Robert Irwin Chartoff (August 26, 1933 – June 10, 2015) was an American film producer and philanthropist. Early life and education Chartoff was born on August 26, 1933 in New York City, the son of Bessie and William Chartoff. His family was J ...

and

Irwin Winkler Irwin Winkler (born May 28, 1931) is an American film producer and director. He is the producer or director of over 58 motion pictures, dating back to 1967's '' Double Trouble'', starring Elvis Presley. The fourth film he produced, '' They Shoot ...

. Kershner used Samburu tribesmen as extras, portraying the fabled Masai tribe. Streisand remembered Kenya as "quite beautiful...I remember it being so hot. We had no air conditioner or anything, so I had a little, dinky trailer filled with flies. Flies everywhere. But I loved the people, the Samburu people, and I made very good friends with a woman of the tribe. We didn’t speak the same language, obviously, but she understood what I was trying to say to her. She showed me how to dress. Everything was held together with safety pins so nobody had to sew anything. I had the greatest outfits. You rip the fabric and you safety pin in where you want it. And then jewelry made out of telephone wires, little beads. She taught me how they put makeup on their eyes with the ground stone, blue..." Kershner's hopes of working with Streisand again were stymied when she rejected the title role in '' Eyes of Laura Mars'';

Faye Dunaway Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France mad ...

eventually took the part.

Reception

''Up the Sandbox'' was one of the first films to explore women's changing roles during the

sexual revolution The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the United States and the developed world from the 1 ...

of the early 1970s, and critics praised Streisand's performance. According to

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

, Streisand "never seemed so radiant as in this joyful mess, taken from the Anne Richardson Roiphe novel and directed by Irvin Kershner. The picture is full of knockabout urban humor". Roger Ebert, who gave the film three out of four stars, only had praise for her in his review: "This is a Barbra Streisand movie, and so we know the central character won't (can't) be stereotyped; nothing even remotely like Streisand has existed in movies before...She does not give us a liberated woman, or even a woman working in some organized way toward liberation. Instead, she gives us a woman who feels free to be herself, no matter what anyone thinks. This is a kind of woman, come to think of it, who is rare in American movies". Audiences avoided ''Up the Sandbox'', and it proved to be one of Streisand's lower-grossing films.

Home media

''Up the Sandbox'' was released in a Region 1 DVD on October 5, 2004 as a part of the Barbra Streisand Collection.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Up The Sandbox 1972 films 1972 comedy-drama films 1970s English-language films Films directed by Irvin Kershner Films produced by Robert Chartoff Films produced by Irwin Winkler Films scored by Billy Goldenberg Films shot in Kenya Films set in New York City First Artists films Barwood Films films American comedy-drama films Films based on American novels 1970s American films