Brow Beat

Garry Marshall Was the Rare Hollywood Filmmaker Who Valued Women’s Stories

Marshall and a few of his muses: Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Garry Marshall, and actress Julia Roberts arrive at the premiere of Valentine’s Day in 2010.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

If you had a soft spot for Garry Marshall, you’re probably not alone: The director and producer, who died Tuesday at 81, was the force behind iconic TV favorites like Happy Days and The Odd Couple. But when you look more closely at his (staggeringly huge) body of work, a theme emerges: From Laverne & Shirley to Pretty Woman to his final feature from earlier this year, Mother’s Day, Marshall had a soft spot for women-led stories.

Marshall may be best known to viewers of a certain generation for directing 1990’s Pretty Woman, the movie that put Julia Roberts on the map. It would be a “big mistake … huge(to paraphrase Vivan Ward) to overstate just how major this movie was at the time, and as a result of it, how much Roberts became the star of the ’90s, America’s sweetheart to end all sweethearts. It’s a legacy that continues through to today—aren’t we still looking for the one who will finally dethrone her? The movie’s famous shopping scenes, when fancy salesladies look their noses down at Roberts’ character in a clothing boutique, only for her to return later, well-dressed and weighed down with shopping bags, to rub their noses in it, is a Cinderella-level wish-fulfillment fantasy, the kind of moment that never gets old to watch and rewatch. The saleswomen are so perfectly snobby, Roberts so amazingly righteous, and Marshall has us in the palm of his hands.

This is not to say this movie is perfect, or even great—the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold thing is hardly politically unassailable—but the way it showcased Roberts’ talent, goofiness, and trademark grin is worth remembering. Marshall was a generous filmmaker in that way, always willing to let his movies be stolen by a charming or star-making performance; all the better if it was one by a woman. Goldie Hawn does it in 1987’s Overboard, too: Marshall just puts the camera on her, and lets her shine.

Many other examples from his impressive resume abound. Beaches, the ultimate in corny chick flicks, is a movie about female friendship, and features big performances by Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. It’s sappy as all get-out (that montage to “The Wing Beneath My Wings,” oy), a Garry Marshall joint through and through. Late into his career, he helmed live-action Disney princess movie The Princess Diaries. (I suspect having granddaughters to impress factored into his decision.) The unabashedly girly movie proved to be, in addition to a box office hit, a breakout vehicle for Anne Hathaway, not unlike Roberts’ turn in Pretty Woman a decade earlier, as well as a pretty rare opportunity to see Julie Andrews on screen in all her distinguished glory.

Some of Marshall’s most memorable acting work also points toward his appreciation for women and their stories. I love him in A League of Their Own as Walter Harvey, the candy magnate sponsoring a women’s baseball league. And there was no good reason for him to show up in Never Been Kissed, Drew Barrymore’s sweet 1999 romantic comedy about a journalist who goes undercover to go back to high school—but you can tell he got a kick out of playing the loud-mouthed editor-in-chief of a Chicago newspaper who antagonizes Barrymore’s hapless heroine.

The Times’ obituary quotes Marshall as saying, “I like to do very romantic, sentimental type of work. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.” In Hollywood, the road to prestige often means the opposite of sentimental: macho, action-packed, monsters, aliens, franchises, explosions, violence. But lighthearted, sentimental movies just so happen to frequently be the ones that privilege women’s perspectives and women’s stories, the ones that give actresses a chance to shine, and the ones that give moviegoing women a chance to prove that they are in fact a valuable audience. So thank you to Garry Marshall for making the kind of movies girls will watch at sleepovers for years to come, movies for and about the female perspective.