Bottle Rocket (1996)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Wes Anderson

Writers (WGA):

Owen Wilson (written by) &
Wes Anderson (written by)

Release Date:

21 February 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

They're not really criminals, but everybody's got to have a dream.

Plot:

Focusing on a trio of friends and their elaborate plan to pull off a simple robbery and go on the run.

Plot Keywords:

Robbery | Escapade | Fireworks | Based On Short Film | Kicked In Butt

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Luke Wilson	...	Anthony Adams
Owen Wilson	...	Dignan (as Owen C. Wilson)
Ned Dowd	...	Dr. Nichols
Shea Fowler	...	Grace
Haley Miller	...	Bernice
Robert Musgrave	...	Bob Mapplethorpe
Andrew Wilson	...	Future Man
Brian Tenenbaum	...	H. Clay Murchison
Jenni Tooley	...	Stacy Sinclair
Temple Nash	...	Temple
Dipak Pallana	...	Bookstore Employee
Darryl Cox	...	Bookstore Manager
Stephen Dignan	...	Rob
Lumi Cavazos	...	Inez
Julie Mayfield	...	Wife in Motelroom

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

91 min | Argentina:95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR | SDDS

Certification:

Argentina:16 | USA:R (certificate #33597) | UK:15 | Ireland:15 | South Korea:15 | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Singapore:PG | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Dallas, Texas, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Twenty one years earlier James Caan (Mr. Henry) and Tak Kubota (Rowboat) were both in the Sam Peckinpah film, The Killer Elite (1975).

Goofs:

Continuity: During the bookstore robbery, Dignan's hand holding the gun

Quotes:

Anthony: Why aren't you over there right now?
Dignan: Because we're fugitives... and he fired me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Twelve Steps Outside (2002)

Soundtrack:

Prendeme la Vela

Interior Visions Fail

I'm fairly cool on Anderson's later projects. But this one is pretty perfect.

I watched it with another film of this type and in a week with several others. Possibly the only way to make these things work is to find a new chink, a new layer between goofiness and endearing reality to invent. I say invent rather than depict because its all about where we place ourselves; if we can place ourselves new, that's usually enough to be effective, to connect.

A large part of why this works is because it works toward an end that fails. Many movies are not about what we experience but what we remember, and the deal with this one is that we are left with someone who topples from any workable awareness. It reinvents that place where we are balanced throughout the movie. Even knowing the later films, I never wondered that this would end badly because the tone follows such a well established path, that one I've noted elsewhere. As with "Legally Blond," there's a notion that earnestness will overcome inadequacies in all other life skills.

One of the political parties in the US has appropriated this, so in a way this can be considered as a political movie.

That last look is what this is all about, just as that first look of Jack Nicholson's in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

I came to this in part because of Owen's suicide attempt: it adds context that matters.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.