Has anyone seen this movie? If so, how is it?

i have not ...


though i love her alto voice

i havent seen it, but isnt she the one with the eating disorder ?

nakedpianoplayer said:

she died of a heart attack brought on by anorexia, yes

XxAxX said:

k, i didnt know if that was the same girl or not....

sad story


my parents used to listen to their music all the time

Super starved

XxAxX said:

I had a brief yet terrible dalliance with anorexia about six years ago. One of my counselors at the eating disorder clinic knew Karen Carpenter. She said that another factor that played a role in Karen’s untimely demise was her heavy use of Ipecac (the stuff that induces vomiting). Karen, it seems, would often consume Ipecac after a binge. So sad.

While in the hospital, I asked if anyone could procure a copy of this film, but to no avail. I've always wanted to see it.

jillybean said:

what's weird to me is that we had an epidemic of anorexia in the 70s, and now we have an epidemic of obesity 30 yrs later.

something truly strange is going on

Is this the Todd Haynes movie, acted out by Barbie dolls or is it that mid-80s TV Movie?

Justin1972UK said:

i think it is...i expected a light-hearted thread and instead i found some wonderful thoughtful comments...


and dont want to wreck it with my humor..

jillybean said:

i had a battle with this when i was in highschool ( 1980's )

sosgemini said:

I've never seen the Todd Haynes movie but I believe it isn't played for laughs - it's entirely serious - but uses Barbie dolls. I guess there's some kind of artistic intent regarding body-fascism by using Barbie and co.

I've seen the TV Movie loads of times. It's a good film. There was a UK documentary screened a couple of years ago which is really good too. It had interviews with Richard Carpenter plus comments from fans like Badly Drawn Boy and Kim Deal of Sonic Youth.

I think it's intriguing that the Carpenters are still derided for their music - for being too sugary sweet - but so much of their work was haunting and ethereal. For anybody whom ever disagrees with me, I always point them towards 'Another Song' from the 'Close To You' album. It's as musically dense as any jazz-funk fusion I've ever heard.

If you can't think of any good reason to love Richard and Karen, just remember that 'Goodbye To Love' invented the genre of the "Power Ballad" which dominated AOR radio throughout the mid seventies to the mid eighties. It's a mark of any artist that they can set a template which others so brazenly copy.

Anyway - I'd better shut-up about their music as this thread is about a movie and I wouldn't want to be held responsible for it being erroneously moved to the "Music: Non-Prince" forum (as is so often the case).

Justin1972UK said:

i've never seen the movie either...but barbies and anorexia? theres a joke waiting to be made..

i love the carpenters...her voice is a very haunted tool....never saw the TV movie although they show it a lot on cable...not much a fan of bio films....

Justin1972UK said:

karen carpenter had an awesome voice. i loved their songs

XxAxX said:

Obesity, anorexia share similar causes; are influenced by same forces


By DRS. CYNTHIA M. BULIK AND ELIANA PERRIN
UNC Health Care


The latest figures show that about 65 percent of adults and 15 percent of children in the United States are overweight. At the same time another group of people—those with anorexia nervosa – are literally starving to death.

How can these two problems coexist? And more importantly, how can we prevent and treat obesity without encouraging unhealthy dieting behaviors we see in anorexia nervosa?

You can hardly pick up a newspaper or a magazine without hearing about the obesity epidemic. American adults are heavier than they have ever been and many will face reduced quality of life and earlier deaths as a result of their weight. Overweight children are developing medical problems like high blood pressure and type II diabetes, once only seen in adults. The medical, social, and economic toll of the obesity epidemic is staggering.

Simultaneous to Americans’ growing waistlines, about 1 percent of the population is suffering from anorexia nervosa – a disorder marked by low body weight, fear of gaining weight and seeing oneself as fat even though dangerously thin. Anorexia nervosa once was thought to be the province of adolescent girls alone, but now younger girls, adolescent boys and adult women and men are all afflicted.

Experts estimate that between 10-15 percent of women experience milder forms of the spectrum of eating disorders, including unhealthy dieting, excessive exercising, fear of weight gain or unhealthy purging behaviors. Just looking at adult women, with 65 percent overweight and perhaps another 15 percent showing symptoms of an eating disorder, there are a vanishingly small 20 percent in the middle with healthy body weight and eating habits.

Although superficially obesity and anorexia nervosa look very different, many of the same social and biological forces influence them – just in different directions. Both obesity and anorexia are classic examples of how genes and environment interact. We know that genes influence a person’s likelihood of developing either obesity or anorexia.

However, having those high-risk genes does not make developing obesity or anorexia inevitable. The environment plays a substantial role in determining whether someone’s genetic predisposition ever gets expressed. Colloquially, genes load the gun and environment pulls the trigger.

Since it takes generations for the gene pool to change, the burgeoning obesity epidemic has to be strongly influenced by environmental forces. The fact that our society is obsessed with the thin ideal and with losing weight actually influences both obesity and anorexia. A walk through the check-out counter at any grocery store is like a gauntlet of the latest and greatest quick fixes for weight control.

These powerful messages influence people who are obesity-prone to continue to try unhealthy diets that will inevitably fail, and they influence people who are anorexia-prone to believe that dieting is the norm and that to remain successfully thin in a society that is becoming increasingly overweight is a worthy accomplishment. The problem is that they take the messages to an extreme and go even beyond the “thin ideal.”

A second factor influencing both conditions is food advertising. On the obesity side, marketing and advertising have created an explosion of portion sizes and calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods. Given clever marketing, parents wonder if peanut butter candy-flavored cereal drenched in chocolate milk constitutes a healthy breakfast! The increasing number of “low-fat,” “low-carb” or “low cal” foods simultaneously promise the key to successful weight loss to those prone to obesity while providing those vulnerable to eating disorders a seemingly healthy justification for avoiding needed nutrients.

So how can we strike a balance? The answer is really quite simple and practical. The messages need to be those of moderation and health – the difference is the direction of the changes that need to be encouraged. The two primary means to achieve healthy weight (either more or less) are appropriate physical activity and energy intake. The moderation message works for both groups.

We need to help overweight people increase levels of physical activity and help people with anorexia nervosa decrease levels. Overweight individuals need clear, practical, and inexpensive strategies for increasing both their exercise and non-exercise activity (like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, decreasing time spent in front of the television and computer screen and not driving around to find the closest parking space). People with anorexia nervosa need support to put the brakes on in order to reduce their excessive activity to healthy levels (many people with anorexia nervosa will exercise for hours every day even when injured).

Messages helping people understand what moderate portion sizes are can be directed to overweight people to help them re-learn hunger and fullness cues and to help people with anorexia and related disorders increase their portion sizes beyond the tiny portions that they view as adequate. Likewise, fats, calories, and even “carbs” (recently marred by bad press) are required by the body to carry out the basic functions of life. In countries that have not yet experienced the obesity epidemic, these nutrients are more appropriately proportioned – not eliminated.

As any person who is overweight or anorexic will tell you, there is much more to reaching and maintaining a healthy weight than just adjusting activity levels and portion sizes. Careful individualized treatment is often required. However, on a societal level, we need to take hold of the reins, and provide our own healthy messages that outweigh those of the advertising industry.

Rather than extremes becoming the norm, it would be a welcome relief to pick up a favorite magazine and see images of women at a healthy weight accompanied by newsprint that makes you feel better about yourself rather than preying on your inadequacies (thighs too large?, hips too wide?, wrinkles getting you down?). Or, reading about guidelines for moderation rather than fad diets that encourage extremism.

Happy mediums are difficult to attain. But, the rates of problems at both ends of the weight spectrum tell us that the messages of moderation and health are taking second fiddle to the messages of extremes. Reversing the obesity epidemic and the rising rates of eating disorders require societal change – making moderation an attractive goal is a good first step.


Cynthia M. Bulik, PhD, is the William R. and Jeanne H. Jordan Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Eliana Perrin, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.