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 "excerpt": "Making Love is a 1982 American drama directed by Arthur Hiller, starring Michael Ontkean, Kate Jackson, and Harry Hamlin, about a married doctor confronting his attraction to men.",
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 "markdown": "# Making Love\n\n**Making Love** is a 1982 American drama directed by [Arthur Hiller](https://www.edgepedia.org/arthur-hiller), in which a married Los Angeles doctor confronts his repressed attraction to men, begins an affair with a gay novelist, and leaves his wife. It was produced by Twentieth Century-Fox and Indieprod, written by Barry Sandler from a story by A. Scott Berg, and starred [Michael Ontkean](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-ontkean), Kate Jackson, and [Harry Hamlin](https://www.edgepedia.org/harry-hamlin).<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56843-MAKING-LOVE?cxt=filmography)</sup> The film is remembered as the first major studio production to present gay characters and relationships in a positive light.<sup>[2](https://cah.ucf.edu/news/making-love/?dept=10)</sup>\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | February 12, 1982, wide release by 20th Century Fox; 113 minutes; rated R<sup>[3](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0084293/)</sup> |\n| Cast | Michael Ontkean as Dr. Zack Elliot, Kate Jackson as television executive Claire Elliot, Harry Hamlin as novelist Bart McGuire<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56843-MAKING-LOVE?cxt=filmography)</sup> |\n| Writers | Screenplay by Barry Sandler, story by A. Scott Berg; producers Daniel Melnick and Allen Adler<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56843-MAKING-LOVE?cxt=filmography)</sup> |\n| Box office | $11,897,978 domestic gross, including a $3,015,497 opening weekend, against a reported $14 million budget<sup>[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Making-Love)</sup> |\n| Historical position | Described as the first major studio production to present gay characters and relationships in a positive light<sup>[2](https://cah.ucf.edu/news/making-love/?dept=10)</sup> |\n| Title song | \"Making Love,\" written by Carole Bayer Sager, Burt Bacharach, and Bruce Roberts and performed by Roberta Flack, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song<sup>[5](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56843)</sup> |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nZack Elliot, a successful young Los Angeles doctor, and his wife Claire, a television executive, live a comfortable married life. Their stability is unsettled when Bart McGuire, a gay novelist, comes into Zack's office for a physical exam and awakens unfamiliar feelings in him. Zack cancels dinner with Claire to go out with Bart, and the two begin an affair that Bart keeps at arm's length. When Bart finally ends the relationship, Zack, feeling alone for the first time in his marriage, tells Claire the truth; she is shocked and accuses him of deceiving her from the start.<sup>[3](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0084293/)</sup>\n\nThe film's structure frames the story with direct-to-camera interviews: the opening footage, shot after the events of the story, shows Claire and Bart individually speaking about how their relationships with Zack began, and the film is periodically intercut with further interview segments set before and after.<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56843-MAKING-LOVE?cxt=filmography)</sup>\n\n## Development and production\n\nA. Scott Berg conceived the story in 1978 as one of three feature film ideas, after observing married friends struggle to come to terms with their sexuality. In 1979 he brought the concept to screenwriter Barry Sandler, who was initially reluctant to write a script about homosexuality; six months later Sandler agreed and submitted a 125-page rough draft to Fox executives [Sherry Lansing](https://www.edgepedia.org/sherry-lansing) and Claire Townsend in the fall of 1980. Producers Daniel Melnick and Allen Adler and director Arthur Hiller were then hired.<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56843-MAKING-LOVE?cxt=filmography)</sup> Sandler later said Berg was instrumental in pushing him toward what they saw as the first gay-themed Hollywood film with a positive portrayal of gay people.<sup>[6](https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2012/07/14/how-making-love-changed-us)</sup>\n\nSandler has credited two women at the studio with getting the film made: Sherry Lansing, head of production at Fox, and Claire Townsend.<sup>[7](https://www.queerty.com/making-love-celebrates-35-years-barry-sandler-muses-far-cinema-come-20170709/)</sup> \"I don't know if a male head of a studio, straight, gay, or indifferent, would have made this movie, but really I think it took a woman in 1980 to be able to say, 'Yes, I'm going to make this movie,'\" he told *The Advocate*.<sup>[6](https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2012/07/14/how-making-love-changed-us)</sup>\n\n[Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) ran from February 23 to May 13, 1981, in Los Angeles and [West Hollywood, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/west-hollywood-california), finishing four days ahead of schedule. The filmmakers visited several gay bars and consulted gay people for what production notes called \"accuracy.\"<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56843-MAKING-LOVE?cxt=filmography)</sup>\n\nCasting was difficult. The filmmakers hoped to cast [Michael Douglas](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-douglas) as Zack and also approached [Tom Berenger](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-berenger), Harrison Ford, William Hurt, and [Peter Strauss](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-strauss); director Arthur Hiller said most actors he approached advised him not to even consider them.<sup>[8](https://www.netflixmovies.com/making-love-1982)</sup>\n\n## Release and reception\n\nFox planned a sixty-city release in 350 theaters beginning February 12, 1982, with expansion planned after two or three weeks.<sup>[5](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56843)</sup> The film opened at number two with a $3,015,497 weekend in 363 theaters, but receipts fell 40 percent the following week, and the run ended after seven weeks at $11,897,978.<sup>[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Making-Love)</sup> Against a reported $14 million budget, this made the film a financial loss.<sup>[9](https://filmdb.co.uk/box-office/movie/making-love-1982-box-office)</sup> The film's release had reportedly been delayed for almost a year, in part because [Marvin Davis](https://www.edgepedia.org/marvin-davis), the oil tycoon who bought 20th Century-Fox in April 1981, stood up at a private screening, shouted a homophobic insult at the screen, and stormed out.<sup>[8](https://www.netflixmovies.com/making-love-1982)</sup>\n\n**Critical response was divided.** Roger Ebert, the film critic of the *Chicago Sun-Times*, gave the film two of four stars, calling it essentially a TV docudrama \"in which the subject is announced loud and clear at the outset and there are no surprises,\" and criticizing its dialogue as among the worst he could imagine.<sup>[10](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/making-love-1982)</sup> [Gene Siskel](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-siskel) of the *Chicago Tribune* took a different view: \"Making Love is not a perfect film, but it is far above the usual treatment of gays as leather freaks and suicidal narcissists.\"<sup>[11](https://escholarship.org/content/qt4d75k139/qt4d75k139_noSplash_d1e52cc619b78b53434d3d25ede11239.pdf)</sup> Feminist scholar [Camille Paglia](https://www.edgepedia.org/camille-paglia) has called it her favorite film to date about gay men.<sup>[11](https://escholarship.org/content/qt4d75k139/qt4d75k139_noSplash_d1e52cc619b78b53434d3d25ede11239.pdf)</sup> A 1985 scholarly analysis grouped it with four other 1982 Hollywood films dealing with homosexual expression, *Victor/Victoria*, *Personal Best*, *Deathtrap*, and *Partners*, arguing that as a group they worked through paradoxes between the homosexual as inferior and the homosexual as a healthy member of the mainstream.<sup>[12](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295038509360061)</sup>\n\nAmong gay audiences the response was more supportive, encouraged in part by the studio: a Fox publicist urged viewers to answer hostile critics with letters to the editor. While promoting the film, Sandler came out openly as a gay man, which was considered risky at the time; Gregg Kilday of *Film Comment* called that \"the most heroic aspect of the whole enterprise.\"<sup>[11](https://escholarship.org/content/qt4d75k139/qt4d75k139_noSplash_d1e52cc619b78b53434d3d25ede11239.pdf)</sup> A year after its theatrical run, the film aired on network television, reaching, in one account, many more millions of viewers than in theaters.<sup>[11](https://escholarship.org/content/qt4d75k139/qt4d75k139_noSplash_d1e52cc619b78b53434d3d25ede11239.pdf)</sup>\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe film's on-screen kiss between Michael Ontkean and Harry Hamlin has been described as a milestone in LGBT cinematic history, and the film includes frank lovemaking scenes between the two men.<sup>[13](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084293/)</sup> Its significance rests on what it did not do: as one retrospective audience review put it, for once the homosexual character did not commit suicide, turn to drugs or alcohol, or end in misery.<sup>[14](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/making_love)</sup> Sandler, who later taught screenwriting at the [University of Central Florida](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-central-florida), discussed the film at a 35th-anniversary screening during Gay Pride month in 2017.<sup>[2](https://cah.ucf.edu/news/making-love/?dept=10)</sup>\n\n## References\n\n1. [Making Love (1982), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56843-MAKING-LOVE?cxt=filmography)\n2. [Screenwriter Barry Sandler talks about film 'Making Love', UCF College of Arts and Humanities News](https://cah.ucf.edu/news/making-love/?dept=10)\n3. [Making Love (1982), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0084293/)\n4. [Making Love (1982), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Making-Love)\n5. [Making Love (1982), AFI Catalog movie details](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56843)\n6. [How Making Love Changed Us, The Advocate](https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2012/07/14/how-making-love-changed-us)\n7. ['Making Love' celebrates 35 years, Queerty](https://www.queerty.com/making-love-celebrates-35-years-barry-sandler-muses-far-cinema-come-20170709/)\n8. [Making Love (1982) on Netflix, NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/making-love-1982)\n9. [Making Love (1982) box office, FilmDB](https://filmdb.co.uk/box-office/movie/making-love-1982-box-office)\n10. [Making Love movie review & film summary, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/making-love-1982)\n11. [Hegemonic negotiation and LGBT representation thesis material, eScholarship (University of California)](https://escholarship.org/content/qt4d75k139/qt4d75k139_noSplash_d1e52cc619b78b53434d3d25ede11239.pdf)\n12. [Homosexuality in Hollywood films: A contemporary paradox, Critical Studies in Mass Communication](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295038509360061)\n13. [Making Love (1982), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084293/)\n14. [Making Love, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/making_love)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1980s › Released 1980 to 1985*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n",
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 "credit": "\"Making Love\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/making-love. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.",
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