DKosty123 A lot of not has been made of a very well known cast here. Bud Yorkin who would go on directing and do a lot of television including Sanford and Son does pretty well here controlling a talented cast with a lot of well known stars and characters. Dick Van Dyke is very good in this film and Debbie Reynolds while not as attractive as usual throughout the early parts gets it on later in the movie. The opening sequence of the divorce meetings with the Lawyers more worried about Golf and other cases is spot on. This couple is divorcing more because of a miss understanding than about a relationship problem. Then the Lawyers and the court run away with it. As for the story that the husbands got the shaft in these things in the 1960's- that it totally accurate. The only thing the film does not put enough of a point on is the fact that the mothers almost automatically got the kids custody during this era and courts never cared about their thoughts often.Still it is here, though the reason for that is it is made as a comedy. The sequence where all the children are together from previous marriage inside of as with Tom Bosley (Happy Days) doing the score card is funny. Bosley goes through how each kid arrived there and which marriage each kid is from, who the kids parents are, and who was married to who is amazingly complex. Makes things sound like a Peyton Place with staggering effectiveness. The old "ball and chain" references are still here. I did not recognize a younger Eileen Brennan in the cast until the credits roll. She has the least script here which is a waste of talent. This is a good movie that really does a good job of stereo typing people from the 1960's.The message of trying to stop this madness is a good one but was ignored in the 1960's and beyond until today, Not only are a lot of relationships rocky but we are now adding gay relationships into the mix.

fung0 It's amazing how preconceptions can affect a movie's popularity. Multiple reviewers seem to feel Divorce American Style should be "funnier," because they've apparently decided it's a comedy. (And one of a particular type, presumably.) Unfortunately, this isn't a film that fits into any such predefined mold. It's a dark satire, dealing with the insane approach to divorce current at the time of its making (especially in California). And it succeeds splendidly on that level.No, we're not expected to guffaw as we watch Dick Van Dyke being first railroaded into divorce, then reduced to poverty by punitive alimony payments. We're expected to shake our heads and smile wryly at the folly of the times. And to walk out just a little more determined to push for true equality of the sexes, and a truly rational legal framework for their relations.We're not there yet, but things have moved forward so unimaginably far that today's viewers may not understand the attitudes in this film. To put it in context, compare it to The Dick Van Dyke Show. Divorce was utterly unthinkable in the cozy world of Rob and Laura Petrie. Yet here, just a few years later, we see Van Dyke and Reynolds playing essentially the same Rob and Laura roles, and not only admitting the possibility of divorce, but tackling some of its uglier ramifications. It was a huge leap forward, for Van Dyke, for Hollywood, and for society as a whole.Of course, on a dramatic level, Divorce American Style still has a lot of that old-time Dick Van Dyke Show sensibility. But it's sharper than many similar films of the time (courtesy of Norman Lear, no doubt), and benefits from some great performances (especially by Dick Van Dyke, Debbie Reynolds and Jason Robards). The conditions it dissects may no longer exist, but that doesn't have to spoil our enjoyment.

moonspinner55 Norman Lear-written divorce-comedy has bickering, bored married couple Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds splitting up, re-entering the bewildering dating scene. Begins well, with amusing, satirical jabs at suburban married life, but it runs out of gas early on. Conrad Hall's evocative cinematography is a plus, and some of the dialogue has snap, but Lear's ideas get bogged down in sitcomville. The introduction of a second couple (Jason Robards and Jean Simmons) doesn't work at all, perhaps because neither actor seems to realize this is supposed to be a comedy, and a segue to "Hip Hypnotist" Pat Collins is simply desperate. Van Dyke and Reynolds are both fair. ** from ****

Critic-50 Divorce-American Style, a surprisingly intelligent effort from writers Kaufman and Lear and TV power-house director Bud Yorkin, was first in series of witty, satirical releases that included "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" and "Lovers and Other Strangers". This way-paving comedy featured the delightfully flustered pairing of Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds as a successful 'Married With Children' duo who, after years of supporting each another, simply tire. despite it's (minor) shortcomings, the sharp dialogue certainly justifies the screenplay oscar nod. Nice work. ***1/2 out of ****