50 Years Later, We Are Still Feeling The Effects Of The Legendary Documentary Grey Gardens

Grey Gardens, which hit theaters 50 years ago this week, is widely regarded as one of the best documentaries ever made. Indeed, after rewatching it for the first time in years, as I continue my odyssey through the great movies released in 1976, the film has had a lasting impact on everything from documentaries to reality TV. Not all of that is good, though.

It’s Understandably Lauded For Its Filmmaking

My first experience with Grey Gardens didn’t come from the film itself. Instead, I was introduced to it through the documentary satire show Documentary Now! starring Fred Armisen and Bill Hader. If you’re familiar with that series, you know that the first iconic documentary that they mocked was Grey Gardens, in the very first episode, "Sandy Passage."

It hooked me, and I quickly sought out the original film. I marveled at the original, directed by Albert and David Maysles, who I was familiar with because of their legendary concert film and music documentary, Gimme Shelter. I, like many others, gawked at the two women at the heart of the story, Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale.

How could two people from such a prominent family (Big Edie was Jackie Kennedy’s aunt, Little Edie was her cousin) end up living in that kind of squalor? A once beautiful house, in one of the richest towns in the world, East Hampton, NY, was literally being eaten by raccoons. The two women were seemingly living in one or two rooms in the mansion, while the rest fell apart around them. I was entranced.

It was clear that there was some mental illness involved, but I didn’t let that stop me from gawking, as it’s undeniably fascinating filmmaking. Therein also lies the issue with the film.

The Problems With Grey Gardens

The obvious problem with the movie is that, yes, clearly at least Little Edie had some untreated mental health issues. I’m more unsure about Big Edie, though certainly she has her uneasy moments, too. Little Edie was living in denial about the condition of the house, and as the younger of the two (Big Edie was around 80 years old when it was filmed), it should have fallen to her to mind the house and her mother. Sadly, neither were well cared for at all, and their mental health is never addressed.

Instead of addressing the underlying issues of why the two women were living as they were, we are treated to a carnival show. Little Edie is shown bullying her elderly mother, making outlandish statements about their history and their present conditions, and clearly living in a past that was long gone and never likely to return. No information is provided by the filmmakers about why the two had no money, despite their family’s notorious wealth. Nothing is ever really explained as to how they were stuck living in this house. Nothing. As viewers were left dumbfounded watching these two “crazy” women act as they do.

Even In Its Time, It Was Controversial

Grey Gardens was lauded when it was released, but it also garnered some pushback from some critics who, even in 1976, thought it was exploitative of the two women at the heart of the story. In a contemporaneous review in the New York Times, critic Walter Goodman wrote:

It’s a question that is still asked today of the documentary, though the filmmakers pushed back over the years, explaining that the Beales were in full agreement with the film, and even had the family lawyer work on the negotiations. Their need was simple: money. They needed it, and this was an easy way to make it. I have to say that doesn’t make me think it's any less exploitative. It did, however, open the doors to much of what we see on TV today.

Reality TV Today Owes A Debt To The Movie, But Is That A Good Thing?

A couple of months ago, I wrote about reality TV in the late ‘00s and how gross it started to make me feel with shows like Hoarders and Intervention. Like Grey Gardens, the makers of these shows find people at their lowest moments and use that to make engaging television that, in the end, is little more than a circus sideshow. Sure, the people are paid, like the Beales were, and usually there is at least a little thought put into the mental health of the people on these shows (unlike the Beales), but it still feels icky to watch.

So much of what we see on a certain kind of “reality” show is the same kind of reality we see in Grey Gardens. People who, desperate for money, fame, or both, are willing to reveal themselves at the very lowest moments to achieve it. Sure, the Beales needed money, lots of people do, but does that mean the only way to help them is to pay them to be ridiculed and mocked? Especially when they come from a family like the Bouviers?I don’t know. I don’t ever want to sound like the morality police, but I know, at least for me, I don’t like watching this kind of thing anymore.

There are certainly things about Grey Gardens to admire. They say that great documentaries are 50% skill and 50% luck, and that is certainly true of this film. The Maysleses were unquestionably very talented, but this movie doesn’t work without the “luck” of finding someone as quotable and as willing to go on camera as Little Edie, especially.

I’m ultimately glad I used my HBO Max subscription to rewatch the film with a more critical eye than I have previously, but I still can’t help but feel a little guilty for enjoying the parts of it that I did.