S.O.B.
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S.O.B. is a 1981 film written and directed by Blake Edwards starring Richard Mulligan and Julie Andrews. Robert Vaughn, Robert Preston, Larry Hagman, Shelley Winters, Loretta Swit, Robert Loggia and William Holden (in his last role) also appear.
The story is a satire which is sharply critical of the film industry and Hollywood society. The main character, Felix Farmer (Mulligan) is a phenomenally successful producer-director who has just made the first flop of his career, to the dismay of the studio and the loss of his own sanity.
After emerging from a period of shock and self-destructive behavior, he resolves to save both the film and his reputation. With great difficulty he persuades the studio and his wife Sally to allow him to revise the film as a soft-core pornographic feature. However, the egos of the filmmakers, the studio, and virtually everyone else in Hollywood continue to wreak havoc on the creative process...
The film is noteworthy in that Edwards drew upon his own experiences in writing the screenplay: the character Felix Farmer is a person very similar to Edwards, and Sally Farmer is very similar to Julie Andrews, Edwards' wife. In S.O.B., Andrews's character agrees (with some pharmaceutical persuasion) to "show her boobies" in a scene in the film-within-the-film. For this last performance, late night television comedian Johnny Carson thanked Andrews for "showing us that the hills were still alive", alluding to her most famous line from the Sound of Music.
Critical opinion on the merit of the film was sharply divided - it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and two Razzie Awards - and remains so at this time.
S.O.B. stands for "Standard Operational Bullshit" and refers to misinformation being standard, usual, and the norm.