I debated making this a short versus a complete update, but ultimately, there is a variety of fur in this film, and it does remain on screen long enough to enjoy it. That is if you can get through the melodrama seeping from every frame of the film. Let’s talk about all the furs in a movie named after something you don’t generally associate with fur: Beaches.
Beaches – The Film
Childhood friends endure love and loss together until one of them gets cancer and dies. Oh, uh… spoilers. If you recall the hit song “Wind Beneath My Wings,” it’s from the soundtrack to this movie.
Beaches – The Furs
While the movie has a beach, it does not take place exclusively on one, so we can enjoy some decent and rare late 80s furs. Most are worn by Broadway star C.C. Bloom (Bette Midler), but layer/socialite Hillary Whitney (Barbara Hershey) gets one of her own: a pretty conservative mink coat.
She meets up with CC for dinner with the guys they’ll eventually divorce (oops, spoilers). CC brings along a black fox stole. It is worn in such a way that I originally thought it was a muff with tails, but she removes it, and it is just a stole wrapped around her forearm.
The marquee fur coat in the film lands around the 1-hour mark, where CC and Hillary visit a department store, and CC wears a lynx fur stroller coat.
The coat receives a decent amount of screen time, even if that screen time is particularly melodramatic.
There is one more fur in the film, a mouton or possibly a sheared fur of some variety. It shows up about twenty minutes later. I can only assume the furrier was out of decent-looking coats to rent that day.
That’s Beaches, the movie with furs and a title about a place where you don’t usually find furs. The movie has about six minutes of fur, with most of that devoted to the lynx fur stroller. Because transparent tearjerking melodramas run over two hours, that doesn’t crack 5% on the ratio. Just liberally exercise your fast-forward finger, and you should be fine.
- Fur Runtime: 5:48 minutes
- Film Runtime: 123 minutes
- On-Screen Ratio: 4.72%
Find-a-Fur: Beaches, 1988
(All times are approximate and are affected by the cut of the film.)
- 49:45 – 53:00 – black mink coat and black fox stole
- 54:20 – 57:30 – lynx jacket
- 1:22:00 – mouton?
Fur Fashion Gallery – Beaches, 1988
