Almost Heroes Review
by David Sunga (zookeeper AT criticzoo DOT com)June 6th, 1998
ALMOST HEROES (1998)
Rating: 2.0 stars (out of 4.0)
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Key to rating system:
2.0 stars - Debatable
2.5 stars - Some people may like it
3.0 stars - I liked it
3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie
4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out *********************************
A Movie Review by David Sunga
Directed by: Christopher Guest
Written by: Mark Nutter, Tome Wolfe, and Boyd Hale
Starring: Chris Farley, Matthew Perry, Lisa Barbuscia, Kevin Dunn
Ingredients: Skinny guy, fat guy, bumbling explorers, misfits, bear, Indians, evil conquistadors
Synopsis:
In this tongue-in-cheek farce, where the actors all look like they are having a good time, a prissy aristocrat named Lesie Edwards (Matthew Perry) and his unintelligent partner, a slovenly tracker named Bartholomew Hunt (Chris Farley) commence an expedition that involves trekking across the virgin wilderness of colonial America. Their goal is to cross the continental United States and beat explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to become the first Americans to reach the Pacific Ocean.
With the help of a letter from President Jefferson, Edwards and Hunt soon assemble a squad of geezers and losers, and embark on merry misadventures during their transcontinental crossing. The trip involves traveling by canoe and on foot, stopping at a wacky outpost called Snakes Bend, crossing the Rockies, and reaching the coast. Meanwhile they encounter whitewater, a hungry bear, a conquistador overly concerned with his hairdo, Native American tribes, and other dangers. Of course each situation is really just an occasion for slapstick and tomfoolery, using events and situations from Lewis and Clark's 1804-1806 expedition to lampoon modern times. A side plot involves model/actress Lisa Barbuscia as a Native American woman whom Edwards falls for.
Will the vainglorious and soft Edwards, the boozy maudlin Hunt, their eccentric crew, a slave, and the Native American woman reach the Pacific before Lewis and Clark?
Opinion:
Fans of comedic actor Chris Farley, who died last December of a drug overdose at age 33, might appreciate this opportunity for a last glimpse at the amusing Farley and his physical style of comedy. As bumbling boozer Bartholomew Hunt, Farley gets the lion's share of screen time in ALMOST HEROES. We get to see him flail around, fend off wild animals, get bonked in the head with a mallot, have his molar removed without anesthesia, and suffer farcical temptations.
ALMOST HEROES takes the basic Lewis and Clark geographical route and obstacles (tribes, animals, rivers mountains etc.), and applies them as a series of unrelated crises to bunglers Edwards and Hunt (Perry and Farley). Edwards and Hunt typically react incompetently, with a sendup of 1990s values only to find out that the crisis was completely exaggerated. For example, when the men paddle a canoe down a river the situation becomes a parody of APOCALYPSE NOW and other Vietnam movies. The crew becomes uncharacteristically edgy and replies with deadly force and screams and withering gunfire to the presence of a mere squirrel.
The subplot (romance between Matthew Perry and Lisa Barbuscia) is based on the 1804 Lewis and Clark expedition. In real life co-expedition-leader and American explorer William Clark took a liking to Sacajawea, a Shoshone woman who acted as an invaluable guide for the expedition. Earlier in life Sacajawea was captured and sold by Hidatsa tribesmen to an expedition member, the abusive French trader Charbonneau. In ALMOST HEROES, Edwards (Perry) falls for a Native American woman who had been sold by Native Americans to nasty French trader Fontenot, a member of the Edwards and Hunt expedition.
There are weaknesses in the film. ALMOST HEROES feels about a half hour too long, and none of the scenes seem related to each other. For example the explorers don't meet up with Indians in one scene so that they can get canoes and a guide important for the next scene. This creates a sense of discontinuity: each comedic scene is like a separate episode halted by news of a new crisis. Also, in most movies where a crew of losers must eventually save the day, each crew member is developed and given some screen time. But in ALMOST HEROES the team members are used for one or two gags, and then quickly relegated to background scenery, while Farley mostly carries the movie.
On the good side, ALMOST HEROES is funny, and that's the main purpose of a comedy. It is certainly amusing enough for a Saturday afternoon.
Historical trivia:
In 1803, Napoleon, in order to fund a brutal conquest of Europe, cheaply sold the United States enough North American territory to nearly double the size of United States. As a result, real life explorer Meriwether Lewis was commissioned by President Jefferson for 2,500 dollars to explore the new territory, but officially to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis' friend William Clark became co-leader of the expedition and they successfully trekked to the Pacific and back, covering 8000 miles in an effort that took two years and eight months.
In those early days there weren't transcontinental highways or railroads, so the U.S. government wanted to find easy water transportation to keep the trade economy going: "the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce."
At the same time the Lewis and Clark expedition was a bold scientific endeavor: Lewis and Clark studied, wrote about, collected, and sent back countless samples, from furs to soil to artifacts of indigenous clothing and weaponry. They carefully detailed the languages and ethnicities they came across, made painstaking sketches, and interviewed Native Americans as to tribal sociocultural and political organization, foreign relations, ceremonial rituals, food, and daily life; they even invited Native American leaders to Washington D.C. In all, Lewis and Clark amassed a rare and perhaps priceless collection of scientific, geographic, and ethnographic information and artifacts in addition to their stated mission of finding an aqueous commerce route.
Reviewed May 29, 1998
Copyright © 1998 by David Sunga
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