Faye Dunaway deserved better: Looking back at 'Mommie Dearest'

I've written about Mommie Dearest here before. It's not just a camp classic, it's a thing to behold. Faye Dunaway's lead performance is beyond over the top -- it's pure insanity -- but also sort of breathtaking and unforgettable.

What's infuriating and sort of tragic is that this film (which has since been embraced as a cult film) effectively ruined her career.

In the wake of #MeToo, we've started to be forced to yet again look at Hollywood's policy of banishing actresses long before they're ready to pack it in. Of course, rejecting lecherous producers' advances is far from the only reason talented women have been sidelined.

In Dunway's case, the reputation for being 'difficult' is largely what dogged her -- and she very well might have been -- but being combative never seemed to hurt most male performers' careers in the slightest.

Faye Dunaway, still a babe.

During the '70s in particular, following her iconic, breakthrough '60s role in Bonnie & Clyde, Dunaway had quite a remarkable run -- with both Chinatown and Network making many all-time greats lists -- and she scored other box office hits with movies like The Towering Inferno and Three Days of the Condor.

By the time Mommie Dearest came along she was a major, in-demand draw. And when it bombed, she became something of a pariah. Yes, she did continue to work for many years, and she deserved some of the blame for picking bad projects like Supergirl. Yes, there was some unfortunate plastic surgery too, but more than a few male actors have made that mistake too and still succeeded professionally.

But how many bad movies did an actor like Matthew McConaughey have before he made his big career comeback? How many bad movies has Nicolas Cage made, and he's still hanging around, God bless him.

Male actors get a million opportunities, no matter how bad their box office or how awful their off-screen transgressions. Hell, Kevin Spacey is still appearing in movies, for God's sake.

The death of Burt Reynolds got me thinking about this -- and don't get me wrong I loved Burt Reynolds -- but the dude also got a million career life preservers, and he still is barely relevant to any filmgoer under 30.

A co-worker and I were just musing about how younger people probably have no idea who Gene Hackman is. And what about Faye Dunaway? She will sadly be best remembered now by young people as the actress who accidentally flubbed the Best Picture announcement alongside Warren Beatty (another icon becoming rapidly unsung) at the Oscars almost two years ago.

She deserves better. Better than the backlash to Mommie Dearest, better than the exile she has largely experienced over the last several decades. There are so many actresses like her who deserve second chances. They have gravitas and grit -- skills that are sorely lacking among the younger crop of up-and-coming stars.

They're just waiting for that part that is worthy of them, that will remind audiences of why they fell in love with them in the first place.

A couple years back Lily Tomlin gave a glorious, career-best performance in Grandma. That's the kind of work I'm talking about! And I don't want to hear about how audiences don't want to see older women in movies because Book Club made close to $70 million largely thanks to Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen.

It just takes a little courage, and some respect.