Eternal Love" (Franco Zeffirelli) was released on July 17, 1981.
"Sometimes you meet the person you are destined to spend your life with, even if that life is just beginning."
Debutó ranked #1 with a $4.1 million opening weekend. Directed by Italian Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo & Juliet), the film is based on the 1979 novel of the same name. The film's theme song, performed by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Tom Cruise's feature film debut.
The film received mixed reviews, partly due to the performance of Brooke Shields, who was coming off the success of "The Blue Lagoon" and was not considered a good actress to play such a complex character. The film featured Martin Hewitt as the young lover who causes a major tragedy in the plot. These actors were accompanied by the experienced Shirley Knight, Don Murray, Richard Kiley and the great Beatrice Straight.
With an unknown budget, it would gross $31.1 million domestically and was the 22nd most-seen film of 1981.
The original soundtrack was composed by Ennio Morricone. The producers saw that it did not fit the film, which contained contemporary songs, and decided to replace it. Ennio used the love theme in the epic "Once Upon a Time in America".