Promise

Promise (1986)

Bob returns home for his mother’s funeral knowing that he must fulfill a promise made 30 years earlier—to care for his younger brother DJ, who is schizophrenic. When Bob eventually takes over responsibility for his younger brother’s well-being, he embarks upon the most difficult challenge of his life.

Date of release
1986-12-21
TMDB
7.3 / 10 (6)
Runtime
1h 50m
Genres
TV Movie, Drama, Family
Director
Glenn Jordan

Casting

Interesting facts

Promise is a 1986 American drama television film directed by Glenn Jordan and written by Richard Friedenberg, from a story by Kenneth Blackwell, Tennyson Flowers and Friedenberg. James Garner stars as a care-free man who returns to his hometown after his mother's death, and has to assume responsibility for his mentally ill younger brother. The film aired on CBS on December 14, 1986, as a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation. One of the most honored films in television history, Promise received the Peabody Award, Humanitas Prize, Christopher Award, and Golden Globe Award. Its record of five Primetime Emmy Awards was not matched until 2010, by the film Temple Grandin.

Production

Promise was first broadcast December 14, 1986, as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame television anthology series. Directed by Glenn Jordan from a screenplay by Richard Friedenberg, the film was shot September–October 1986 on location in Oregon, in Corvallis, Salem and Dallas, and at Triangle Lake.

"It was an easy decision for me and my producing partner, Peter Duchow, to join forces with Hallmark," James Garner wrote in his 2011 autobiography, The Garner Files. He felt he would not have been able to play the role of Bob Beuhler five years earlier, since he felt it was unsympathetic. "Not that Bob is a villain, he just never grew up," Garner wrote.

Woods has said, "People ask me, 'What's the favorite thing you've ever done in your life?' and I always say Promise because it was a perfect part for me and a perfect experience with Jim." He researched his role at a halfway house in Santa Monica, California, where he met a young man whose eloquent description of living with schizophrenia was put into the script:

It's like, all the electric wires in the house are plugged into my brain. And every one has a different noise, so I can't think. Some of the wires have voices in them and they tell me things like what to do and that people are watching me. I know there really aren't any voices, but I feel that there are, and that I should listen to them or something will happen. … I can remember what I was like before. I was a class officer, I had friends.

"Accepting the Emmy for Best Teleplay, Richard Friedenberg said he hoped the film would help schizophrenics by calling attention to their plight," Garner wrote. "I'm sorry to say that 25 years later, schizophrenia is the worst mental health problem facing the nation."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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