The Boy in the Plastic Bubble – John Travolta 1976

It’s a TVM – a made for television film.

Many would consider such outings as unworthy as a source of pleasure and analysis. However, TV movies have their own distinctive and individual charms – not least this film which was made between Carrie – the main steam horror that first put John Travolta on the map – and Saturday Night Fever, the Coming of Age phenomenon that catapulted him to stardom.

It has the grainy and soapy quality that we now associate with episodes of Dallas and Dynasty – not surprising here as Aaron Spelling is the producer, the company and man himself brought us these delights that encapsulated the spirit, Stateside, of the Regan/Thatcher era. But there is no such ‘greed’ philosophy underpinning this TVM. Instead what we have is lovely travelogue of an amiable and likeable boy trapped intellectually, physically and emotionally by his biological dysfunction of being born without an immune system. Unlike a lot of TVMs, it does not immediately strike as being at once emotionally manipulative. Although the cheesy music does help.

Todd Lubritch is born to a couple already weary with the fact that they cannot bear kids without this affliction, but they go ahead and have Todd anyway. Interestingly enough, the woman who plays the part of Travolta’s mother – Diana Hyland, was JT’s lover until she died of cancer sometime after. Thankfully, there is no hint of any sexual chemistry between them as the focus of this film is the relationship, though time and mutual development between the main lead and the girl next door – Gina, played by Glynnis O’Connor.

The ‘bubble’ that Todd lives in is both physical and metaphysical. He is a victim of both his condition and the doting attention of his over-protective parents. Gina and Todd first meet as five year old toddlers. Gina presses her face to a glass unit which s Todd’s transportation whist in the outside world. It is love at first sight. The movie then moves to Todd’s inevitable progression from boy to man, seen from the perspective of both Todd as frustrated by his inability to communicate properly with the outside world – and Gina’s as a girl who is nonetheless impressed with this boy next door and his ability to maintain his individualism and dignity.

At one point we doubt the credulity of Gina’s intentions and love, whilst she succumbs to teenage pressure to ridicule Todd. This is done through a particular cruel bet: Gina is egged on to persuade Todd to hold hands with her through his bubble only for Gina to tell him that this was part of a bet. The hurt in Todd is almost tangible. This is though, made up for later when, through Gina’s encouragement, Todd gets to see some of the outside world as a properly functioning human being – or at last as much as he can function in a costume straight out of 1970’s NASA.

During a visit to his school in an astronauts outfit designed to protect him from the air’s impurities, Todd is asked ‘do you ever feel like a visitor from outer space?’ ‘Yeah, all the time,’ Todd replies. ‘Me too’, comes the retort. Todd’s situation is no different to that of anyone else, it is just that he has a physical manifestation of what everyone else feels – an awkwardness of being and a constant sense of not really feeling properly engaged with the world and successfully feeling part of it.

Once Todd realises this, he makes the step of braving the outside world more and more to the point of stepping outside of his bubble and truly living. By the close of the film, Todd and Gina are sensory: Todd has stepped out of his house to join Gina to touch her face and brave their first tangible contact. The future is not clear – it could be that Todd might die from such an act, but at least he is living.

John Travolta did a lot of turkeys during his wilderness years from Grease to Pulp Fiction. This is not one from that era, but a gem showing how gorgeous he was, physically and as an actor, when he was on the cusp of acquiring wide audience appeal. A stepping stone towards making one of the best coming of age films of all time: Saturday Night Fever. Look for the scene when Todd is funky dancing to music and Gina catches him by accident: it has Tony Manero written all over it.

Thanks to ace contributor Gail Spencer for this review