The Mosquito Coast (1986)

the mosquito coast poster

I’m watching one movie from every year I’ve been alive in chronological order. We’re now up to 1986.

Harrison Ford is such an iconic actor, he’s portrayed so many characters that are a part of our cultural consciousness – from Han Solo and Indiana Jones to Rick Deckard and Richard Kimble that it is difficult to remember just how much of an interesting actor he was. I don’t mean to take away from anything he’s doing now, but there was a time when he took risks. He made movies with some of the world’s greatest directors – Roman Polanski, Mike Nichols, Alan J. Pakula, and Peter Weir. He was so much more than the icon he has become.

In 1986 he made The Mosquito Coast with Peter Weir and it feels so many lightyears away from the types of films he’s known for, the types of films people dress up as at cons, that he’s almost unrecognizable.

He plays Allie Fox, a brilliant inventor who is what we now might call a kooky conspiracy theorist. He’s lost his faith in the American Dream and its consumerism, and undying thirst for the almighty dollar. He thinks the government is out to destroy everything good in the world. He fears an oncoming nuclear holocaust.

So, he sells everything he has and moves his family to Belize. There he buys a small village on a river in the middle of the jungle. There he tries to set up a utopian society. It kind of works for a while, especially when he invents a machine that makes ice – a novelty in the isolated village. The machine is huge and lingers over the village like a giant, metallic god. When missionaries visit the village he kicks them out. When three rebels visit…well, things don’t go so well.

The jungle and the isolation don’t alleviate any of Allie’s fears. His madness only grows worse. Eventually, he destroys nearly everything he cares for, even as he slowly stops caring for just about everything.

Harrison Ford is magnificent in this. It is so fascinating to watch him play what could only kindly be called an anti-hero, and might more correctly be called an outright villain. But he’s never intentionally terrible. Allie is a man who knows down to his bones that he is righteous, but everything keeps getting in his way. Hellen Mirren, as his wife, is good as well, but she’s not given much to do. River Phoenix reminds us of what a wonderful young actor he was and makes me wish he’s lived longer.

It is an odd little film, not really fun to watch, but interesting nonetheless.

Awesome ’80s in April: 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1983)

2010 the year we make contact poster

2001: A Space Odyssey is arguably one of the greatest movies ever made. Certainly, it is one of the greatest science fiction films ever put on celluloid. It was made by the visionary auteur Stanley Kubrick. One of the many astounding things about the film is that it is almost entirely told through visual language. Great swaths of the movie contain no dialogue whatsoever. This is also one of the reasons the film is endlessly discussed – it never tells you what’s happening, it shows you.

A sequel was made in 1984. Directed by Peter Hyams 2010: The Year We Make Contact is a pale imitation of the original. As a sequel, it is not great. Where Kubrick’s film is mysterious, asking big questions and giving no answers, 2010 is all answers.

But if you can separate it from the original, and take it on by itself, it’s actually pretty good. Admittedly, that is a difficult task, as this film is basically an answer to the questions asked by the original. Its plot takes place right after 2001 ended and its characters spend their time hunting down what happened in that movie. But if you can get the original out of your mind and just let this one do what it’s doing, then I think you can find it enjoyable.

I said it begins right after the events of 2001, but really it begins 9 years after that movie (hence 2010 in the title.) At the end of the first film, the crew from the Discovery One spaceship which was on a mission to Jupiter are lost. The HAL-9000 computer, which controlled pretty much everything on board went a little crazy and killed most of the crew. Dave (Keir Dullea) the only survivor disappeared. As an audience, we know that he discovered a giant black monolith orbiting Jupiter and was sucked inside it. A long, psychedelic trip then turns him into a cosmic space baby. But in-film, the people of Earth have no idea what happened to him.

The Americans and the Russians are both planning missions to Jupiter to find out. There is a time rush as the Discovery One is slowly losing orbit and will soon crash. The Russians will have their ship ready faster than the Americans, but it is the Americans who have knowledge of the Discovery One and are the only ones who can reboot HAL. So, three Americans Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider) who feels responsible for the entire Discovery One mishap, Walter Curnow (John Lithgow) who designed the Discovery One, and R. Chandra (Bob Babalan) who created the HAL-9000 computer, jump aboard the Russian ship.

All of this occurs during the height of the Cold War. During the mission relations between the two countries deteriorate with a Cuban Missile Crisis-type situation pulling them toward the brink of war.

The astronauts try to ignore the ongoing politics back home and instead concentrate on the mission. The film does explain what happened to HAL in 2001, but I won’t spoil that here. It explains further what the monolith is and what the aliens want, but again no spoilers. None of that is particularly thrilling or all that interesting. And if you want it to it can destroy all the mystery of 2001.

However, the design of everything is really quite good. I especially enjoyed the matte paintings and the various images of space, Jupiter and its moons and the placements of the ships within all of that. All of the space stuff is really interesting. I also enjoyed the relationships that develop between the various scientists (Helen Mirren plays one of the Russians and she’s always fun to watch, especially when attempting a Russian accent).

If this movie existed on its own, if 2001 had never been made I think 2010 would have been well-regarded. It might not be a classic, but It would definitely have a good following. I’d argue it should definitely be reconsidered, despite the Kubrick film always overshadowing it.

I wrote a different review of this film back in 2004. You can click here and read it if you like (spoiler alert, I hated it).

Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection

prime suspect the complete collection

Prime Suspect is one of my all-time favorite detective television shows. Helen Mirren stars as Jane Tennison, one of the few female Detective Chief Inspectors in London. The series follows her as she fights against institutionalized sexism, her own destructive personality, and solves some pretty gnarly crimes. It is incredibly well made and Mirren is absolutely brilliant. I highly recommend the show as you can see from the review I wrote of the complete series that came out on Blu-ray a few years back.