An Unmarried Woman.

This movie was I am sure groundbreaking in the 70's because of the fact the main character Erica (Jill Clayburgh) became an independent woman. In this film Erica's husband Martin (Michael Murphy) told her that he was in love with another woman and that he was leaving her. Although Erica did not come to her independence on her own, she eventually embraced it and decided to break the mold that had been set for the women of that time. Right after Erica found out about her husband's decision to leave her, she decided to start going to a therapist. The advice that was given to her by her therapist, was to go out and start to see other men. At first she was not very keen on the idea of seeing other men, being as she hated all men at the time but she shortly after decided that she would take her therapists device and start seeing other men.

She goes to the bar and sees one of her co-workers Chalie (Cliff Gorman) and she tells him to go buy her a drink and before they even finish their drinks she tells him to take her to his loft. When they got to his loft she didn't want to make any small talk so she got right to business and slept with him and when they were done she left. By her leaving right after she slept with him she was making a statement showing that she didn't need a man to depend on; she was showing that she wasn't desperate for a man to take care of her all she wanted was to satisfy herself.

Soon after her encounter with Charlie Erica meets Saul (Alan Bates) in an art gallery, where he is putting up one of his paintings. Saul flirts with her a little bit and before you know it you see the two of them in Saul's loft putting their clothes back on, eluding to the idea that the two of them had just slept together. Saul then asks erica where they are going to dinner and Erica let him know that she was not interested in going out with him and all she wanted was to see what it was like to sleep with someone that she had no emotional attachment to. After telling him this Saul asks her what it felt like and she let him know that she felt empty. Saul was not willing to let their relationship end at that because he truly cared for Erica, so he decided to try and show her that he was not like all other guys. Before too long the two of them became an "item". I think that this was a struggle for he because she had deep feelings for Saul but she did not want to fall into the same "trap" that she was in with her husband.

Saul asked Erica to go to Vermont with him for the summer and leave her job and her life there in New York behind so that they would be able to spend time together. This scared her because the whole time she had been trying to become independent and now her boyfriend was asking her to leave her job and come with him where she would be dependent upon him. She ended up compromising with him and telling him that she would come visit him on holidays and maybe even some weekends. I think that in doing this she proved to herself that she had achieved her independence. The final scene of the movie Saul is packing his car with his things for his trip to Vermont and he asks Erica to hold on to a very large painting for him. After she takes hold of the painting Saul gets in the car and starts to drive away, she asks him what she was supposed to do with the painting and he told her that it was a gift for her. Erica then proceeds to carry this large painting through New York back to her apartment. I think that this last scene was ultimately a scene depicting her independence once again, instead of leaving the painting there or asking for help she decides to carry the painting on her own.

I can imagine that in the 70's and even still today that Erica's character was a role model that women looked up to and admired.