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Paper Moon (1973)
Rate:
9
Viewed:
8/25
8/25:
Obviously, Tatum O'Neal becoming the youngest Oscar winner at age 10 is what gets the most attention for
Paper Moon.
It remains a record to this day, and she was 8 to 9 years old in the film with virtually no acting experience.
To be honest with you, that should've been for the leading, not supporting, role because the movie was 100%
shot from her character's point of view. Had the switch been made, she would've won easily. Either way, it's
a top five performance I've seen a child thespian give.
After appearing in The Bad News Bears, Tatum O'Neal fell off the
Hollywood map for the most part due to drug abuse and her tumultuous marriage to tennis star John McEnroe. It was
just three years ago that she went into a coma by drug overdose and hadn't been the same since then.
Ryan O'Neal does a fine job. He could've gotten an Oscar nomination, but the 70's was a brutally competitive
decade for actors in general. This is him at his best along with
Barry Lyndon. Unfortunately, he punched Tatum after hearing
about it and didn't bother showing up for the Oscars. The black-and-white photography is very close to the
quality of The Last Picture Show. Instead of Robert Surtees, it
was handled by László Kovács.
In case if you didn't understand how the scam worked with the $5's and $10's, everything was sound until the
girl gave back her $5 bill to the cashier for the $10 bill because the cashier mistakenly thought these five $1
in her register and her $5 belonged to the girl. The only way to be confused was through chitchat. Okay, I'll
break it down more in the following series of transactions:
Cashier: $0
Tatum: $5
Now, Tatum buys something for 15 cents and hands the cashier $5.
Cashier: $5
Tatum: $0
Then, the cashier gives $4.85 in change to Tatum.
Cashier: $0.15
Tatum: $4.85
Tatum has another $1 in her pocket which means she now has 5 singles.
Cashier: $0.15
Tatum: $5.85 (5 singles)
Tatum gives $5 in singles to the cashier and asks for a $5 bill.
Cashier: $5.15
Tatum: $0.85
The cashier gives a $5 bill to Tatum.
Cashier: $0.15
Tatum: $5.85
Tatum gives the $5 bill back to the cashier for a $10 bill, hoping that the cashier thinks she has
$5 in singles in the register plus a $5 bill she'll receive and that it'll make sense in the cashier's head.
This is the most crucial part of the scam, and you need to think about it deeply.
Cashier: $5.85
Tatum: $0.85
The cashier gives a $10 bill to Tatum.
Cashier: -$4.15
Tatum: $10.85
Hence, everybody has it wrong...Tatum made $9.85, not $10. That's because she had to take out
another $1 from her pocket. Therefore, the true profit/loss is:
Cashier: -$4.15
Tatum: $9.85
All in all, Paper Moon is an impressive film by Peter Bogdanovich given the tall task of matching the
brilliance of The Last Picture Show.