Almost four decades after Natalie Wood died, her family would love to have the world remember a lot more about her films and a little less about her death.
Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, a two-hour family-endorsed documentary airing Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, makes an indisputable case that Wood packed a whole lot into her 43 years of life.
She made an indelible cinematic mark even though she basically took her 30s off to raise the children she had with her husband, Robert Wagner.
By then, she was already a certified movie star from films like Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, Inside Daisy Clover, West Side Story, Gypsy, and Love With the Proper Stranger.
As this suggests, Wood came from the era of splashy musicals and character dramas. She wore some memorable costumes, but she never played a Marvel-style superhero – unless that definition includes a woman who wasn’t afraid to show self-confidence in a male-dominated world.
What Remains Behind repeatedly asserts that Wood didn’t see actresses only in the supporting player role to which Hollywood had traditionally relegated them. She insisted on the same treatment given to her male co-stars, probably to the point of becoming an irritant, and the women she played would often take their own path, not the path chosen for them by their man.
She definitely knew show biz. She was “discovered” as a preschooler and grew up in the movies, including roles like the skeptical young girl in Miracle On 34th Street.
She managed the difficult transition from cute kid to restless teenager by doing Rebel, where coincidentally, she co-starred with two other actors who also died young, James Dean and Sal Mineo.
She made the equally challenging transition to adult star, and at the time of her death in 1981, she was tackling the next phase, finding roles that address the dramas of women in their 40s and up.
That’s a struggle that continues today for almost all actresses, and it’s intriguing to speculate how far Wood could have gone.
That became a moot point on Nov. 29, 1981, when she drowned off Catalina Island.
The official verdict called it accidental. Wood had been on the family boat with Wagner and Christopher Walken, who was co-starring in her last film (Brainstorm), and police said the evidence suggested she had slipped and fallen into the water. The fact she was inebriated made the story sound plausible, albeit no less tragic.
Immediately afterward, and periodically since then, the official finding has been questioned by some who suggest a darker scenario involving a jealous Wagner and Walken, both of whom had been drinking themselves.
What Remains Behind will have none of that. No one with an alternative theory, including the captain of the boat and the authors of several books, is seen here. Walken isn’t seen, either, though a vintage clip has him saying he was asleep and knows nothing.
Wagner, a constant screen presence here with nothing but praise for his late wife, says the official finding is exactly correct. None of the family members and friends here betrays a hint of doubt. The director of the film Wood and Walken were making says he’s sure Wood and Walken couldn’t have been having a relationship because, in the love scenes they filmed, “They had no chemistry.”
Wagner and Wood’s daughters focus instead on the good times, recalling Wood’s cinematic triumphs and providing extensive footage of Wood hosting mega-celebrity parties by night and playing in the backyard with the children by day.
As portrayed here, she was able to do it all: be a normal Mom and remain one of the last of the old-style Hollywood movie stars, friends with everyone who was anyone. Fred Astaire sang at her parties.
Her fierce temper and her apparent fondness for wine are noted only in passing. While rebranding herself and finding a new phase to her career had been a challenging process, no one – including Wagner – suggests she was under any particular stress at the time of her death.
In the end, What Remains Behind gives us engaging and valuable source material on the life of an actress whose work holds up nicely many decades later. As Natalie Wood appears here, there’s very little not to like.
Someone who wants to know all the dimensions of this complex woman, however, may want to check out other sources as well.