"You won't forget me, will you?"
"They hound people in this world. Anybody who's different. They can't stand it."
— Judy
Judy is a 2019 American biopic about Judy Garland, directed by Rupert Goold and starring Renée Zellweger in the title role. It is also an adaptation of End of the Rainbow, a play about Garland's final months.
In 1968, thirty years after The Wizard of Oz made her a star, Judy is newly divorced and performing shows in London to adoring fans and less-than-enthused critics. Though she starts a whirlwind romance with Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock), her health and singing voice begin to decline, and she starts to reminisce about her career and personal life.
Jessie Buckley plays Garland's loyal assistant Rosalyn Wilder, Rufus Sewell plays her ex-husband Sidney Luft, while Gemma-Leah Devereux and Bella Ramsey play her daughters Liza and Lorna. Michael Gambon and Richard Cordery appear in minor roles. The film premiered September 27, 2019 in the US and October 2, 2019 in the UK.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – History:
- Flashbacks to Judy's younger years suggest that The Wizard of Oz was her first film for MGM, and she's shown walking around the set in awe as if she's never been on a film set before. She actually had been with them for four years when she made that film. And The Wizard of Oz was not her big break (she was a star already, having been teamed with Mickey Rooney many times), and was not considered her defining role until the end of the 50s when it was shown repeatedly on television.
- The film also seems to imply that she was a
One-Hit Wonder only remembered for The Wizard of Oz. Judy Garland was actually a huge star, who was actually one of the most bankable in Hollywood right until the end of the 1940s (The Pirate in 1948 was her first film to ever lose money at the Box Office). Aside from her singing "The Trolley Song" from Meet Me in St. Louis, none of her other roles are acknowledged. - Lorna and Joe Luft had decided to stay with their father much earlier than when the film depicts. Their ages are also younger; Lorna was seventeen and Joe fourteen in 1969.
- The friendly encounter between Judy and Liza Minnelli is completely invented for the film. They were estranged at this point, and Liza was out of town, leaving strict instructions with her door man to not let her mother into her house.
- Judy met Mickie Deans in New York rather than at a party in Los Angeles. They also went to London together, and it was him who proposed to her. They also stayed together until her death.
- The film depicts Judy getting fired from her Talk of the Town series. In reality, she finished the entire run.
- Biopic: About Judy Garland and the months leading up to her death.
- Composite Character: While the sequence of Judy meeting two gay fans and going back to their flat with them for a while is fictional, by 1968 Judy did actually occasionally stay with fans when she wasn't crashing with friends.
- Descent into Addiction: Judy's overreliance on drugs is pushed on her by Hollywood producers to keep the former child star happy and her weight low.
- Drugs Are Bad: Substance abuse is part of what ruins a young Judy Garland's life, and she has trouble maintaining performance quality in adulthood because of them.
- The Film of the Play: A screen adaptation of End Of The Rainbow.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Sid Luft, Judy's third husband, is portrayed as a responsible Foil for her lousy parenting. This leaves out the fact that he had a reputation as a heavy drinker and gambler, pushed Judy to keep working even after her suicide attempts, and reportedly beat her.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: While Louis B Mayer did call Judy "my little Hunchback" and had her on strict diets to micromanage her appearance, he did not haunt the sets of her films just to tell her she was fat and ugly. He was in fact more invested in her health than anyone else in her life, and personally funded many of her stays in rehab.
- LGBT Fanbase: Garland's real life gay fanbase is presented In-Universe with the two gay men who meet her at stage door.
- A Minor Kidroduction: A minor teen introduction here: the beginning sees 15-year-old Judy being praised for her talent before cutting to her in her forties.
- Mononymous Biopic Title: A film called Judy for Judy Garland.
- Serial Spouse: As in real life, Garland had multiple husbands, with the man she meets at the beginning (Mickey Deans) becoming Spouse #5.
- Signature Song: In-Universe, "Over the Rainbow" is presented as Judy's most iconic song: it's part of the film that made her a global star, and though she can barely keep it together by the end of the film, she manages to sing it one more time to thunderous applause.
