The World According to Garp (1982)

Seen on March 11, 2009 - A Netflix dvd

Based on John Irving's novel this is about a writer [Robin Williams] and his fiercely feminist mother [Glen Close](who got pregnant sleeping with a dying soldier while attending on him as a nurse during the war).
This is probably very much like the novel, an open-ended story meant to present a microcosmic sampling of the trends and types that dominated the social scene at the time. It's peopled mainly with a radical feminist single mother, a transsexual, fanatics opposed to radical ways of feminists, well-intentioned head cases, etc. The single mother is shot dead while addressing a feminist gathering while her son is shot dead by a malicious neighborhood girl in a gratuitous tragedy.
Glen Close won Best Actress Oscar for her role in this.