Endless Love is a 1981 American romantic drama film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and starring Brooke Shields, Martin Hewitt, Shirley Knight, Don Murray, Richard Kiley, Penelope Milford and Beatrice Straight.

Despite the poor reviews, its eponymous theme song, performed by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, became a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

David is devastated, believing that Hugh wants to destroy their relationship, but Ann calmly assures him that the time apart is for the best and will go by quickly.

Inspired by this grim story, David starts a fire on the Butterfields' front porch after their late-night party and walks away.

Following the trial, David is convicted of second-degree arson, sentenced to five years' probation, committed into a mental hospital for evaluation and forbidden to go anywhere near Jade or her family again.

Meanwhile, David receives his many letters upon his exit, and after realizing why Jade never wrote back, he decides to pursue her, although he knows it is a violation of his parole.

Later, Jade goes to David's hotel room and tells him that they have to leave their relationship in the past and move on with their lives separately.

He pulls her back as she tries to leave, throwing her on the bed and holding her down until she admits she still loves him and they stay the night together.

It is also the film debut of Hewitt, Tom Cruise, Jami Gertz, Jeff Marcus and Ian Ziering.

Director Franco Zeffirelli subsequently made several cuts in the love scenes between Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt to achieve a lower rating.

The film premiere for Endless Love took place on July 16, 1981, at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City.

It made $4,163,623 on its opening weekend and went on to gross $31,184,024 in total, becoming the twenty-second highest earning film domestically in 1981.

Roger Ebert compared the film unfavorably with the novel, describing Martin Hewitt as miscast and criticizing the narrative, although he did praise Brooke Shields' performance:Is there anything good in the movie?

[7]Janet Maslin in The New York Times wrote:There are two sorts of people who'll be going to see Endless Love — those who have read the richly imaginative novel on which the movie is based and those who have not.

"[9] In 2014, Scott Spencer, the author of the novel on which the film was based, wrote, "I was frankly surprised that something so tepid and conventional could have been fashioned from my slightly unhinged novel about the glorious destructive violence of erotic obsession".

[10] Spencer described the film as a "botched" job and wrote that Franco Zeffirelli "egregiously and ridiculously misunderstood" the novel.