BEFORE: OK, so tonight's slot was supposed to be for "All Is Lost", because I thought that tied in with "Captain Phillips" and set up a week of films about boats, but it turned out there was no way to link to Robert Redford from yesterday's film, and no way to link out of it to Thursday's film, and I decided to take that as a sign. I've now pushed that film off until Year 7, and I'm dropping this film in as a substitute. The actor linking is preserved, with Tom Hanks carrying over from "Captain Phillips", and the theme gets more focused - last night's film had the U.S. Navy in it, tonight's film features the Peace Corps, and then Thursday I'll be back dealing with the Navy again.
AFTER: The film opens with the words of John F. Kennedy, part of the "Ask not what your country can do for you" speech. Since it's set in 1962 the JFK connections seem natural, but I wonder how much of Hank's character was based on JFK himself. Kennedy established the Peace Corps and obviously never served in it, but still...
Had I watched this back in 1985 (and I'm not 100% sure I didn't, but if I did, I didn't remember a thing...) then I would not have picked up on the references to "The Bridge on the River Kwai" or "Lawrence of Arabia", or perhaps even "Apocalypse Now", by extension. With a couple nods to "Casablanca" as well, it almost feels like this is a spoof film that maybe wasn't blatant enough. There are also a few movie in-jokes, like the characters being able to read the translation subtitles on the screen, so I also wonder if this could have been more like "Airplane!" or "Hot Shots" if they had put in some more jokes. As it stands, it's a bit difficult to know whether to take this film at face value or not.
So as a result it ends up feeling really disjointed, or perhaps poorly planned. The building of a bridge in Thailand is pitched as a good thing, until it's not, and the Peace Corps leader isn't really who he said he was, and the drug lord kidnaps people but doesn't harm them (because that's what drug lords do), and by the end I'm wondering if the whole affair isn't a metaphor for U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in the 1960's - which is to say that it's a big, confusing mess.
NITPICK POINT: Hanks' character drives to the airport and gets right out on the tarmac, without dealing with any airport security? Then he gets aboard a flight to Thailand just by switching nametags with someone? Good thing nobody checked passengers' passports for international flights back then. Oh, wait, they did.
Also starring Rita Wilson (last seen in "Larry Crowne"), John Candy (last seen in "Wagons East"), Tim Thomerson (last seen in "Some Kind of Hero"), Gedde Watanabe (last seen in "Parental Guidance"), George Plimpton (last seen in "Nixon"), Xander Berkeley, Ernest Harada, Clyde Kusatsu (last seen in "Bird on a Wire"), with a cameo from Allan Arbus.
RATING: 3 out of 10 poker hands
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