Armand solitude of a man. his family as his victim. a character who reminds Lope de Aguirre or Brian Fitzgerald. in different tone. maybe, because the story is real and Harrison is far to be Klaus Kinski. a film about obsession, fear and madness.crumbs from flower power movement, extraordinary images, good performances and admirable illustration of man 's fragility, force and hope. a powerful film , beautiful for its profound thrill, one of interesting roles for Conrad Roberts and good occasion for remember the art of young River Phoenix. a film about duty. and its roots. a must see. for the landscapes and for images. for the story and for the acting. for the metamorphose of a man. for the struggle of his family. for the vain search of purity. for the links between father and sons.

leplatypus I'm always interested in movies which tell the adventures of people who leaves their usual life to follow their heart (as I would five everything to do the same...). So I couldn't miss this one and if it has a big lump in the middle, it' still a great one. Tagged forever with blockbusters, Harrison is unfairly not rated as a true actor and it's a pity as here, he is just amazing: Usually quiet, he is rather expansive now, so driven by his dreams and convictions! We have never seen him like this before and he is great! He manages so well the character that you can notice that since the beginning, he is on the edge so his later fall is expected! The story is thus interesting as for one time, one man and his family fulfills his dream and lose everything due to hazard! Beyond the personal story, it's also a strong ecological tale and an intelligent reflexion about civilization and religions. It's funny to see that the catholic evangelist is pretty authoritative and intransigent when he should be all love and compassion. On the other hand, Harrisson is also on the wrong path in my opinion: reject modernity and civilization and living like the first man may seem positive but in the end, it's mixing a mean with an end. Which goal Harrison wanted with his family unhappy? This kind of idea just forget the incredible creative human mind and technology is first build to help and protect mankind! Finally, I would say that Weir was one of the best director in the 80s: « witness », « mosquito », « green card », « dead poets » and i wonder what happened to him as i don't heard about him anymore !

btg-810-920456 A tale of an eccentric genius with an equally eccentric dream and his desire to escape a supposedly doomed America with his family to form a retro civilization in the tropics. It's difficult to like Harrison Ford (Allie)-especially in the last third of this movie when he starts really going off the deep end. But it is unique and really illustrates the mindset of an eccentric genius character well. If you are a middle-of-the-road (perhaps slightly Democratic) person with a 9-5 job-you know...the kind that the doomsayers claim has not "woke up" to what is going on, then you won't get it. You won't like it at all either. But art is not about being liked and often it is not even about passing judgment. Art is about illustrating the phenomenon of what it is to be human-without using crayons.

Rockwell_Cronenberg The Mosquito Coast was the second collaboration between Harrison Ford and Peter Weir, coming directly on the heels of their first, the superb Witness. Like his work with Mel Gibson at the beginning of the decade, Weir's teaming up with Ford allowed the director to find a muse who would not only be able to accurately portray the complex themes and emotions of the character, but also give the actor a rare chance to demonstrate his true worth as a versatile performer.Harrison Ford, as the eccentric inventor Allie Fox, is given full control here and takes on a character that no one would ever expect to see him in, or would ever really expect to see him in again. He has played the guy who is fed up before, but Allie Fox is fed up to the point of insanity. He's had it with America and in an ongoing series of Howard Beale-esque diatribes on the state of his once great country, he decides to pick up his family and move them all to the jungle, to experience life at it's most basic. At first it's a dream come true, but soon the Fox family finds that it's not America that's lost it's way, it is the whole of society and you'll encounter it wherever you go.The Mosquito Coast is more about it's themes than anything else, taking on serious explorations of the American family, the loss of innocence in a father/son relationship where the son must become a man and stand up to his father and many facets of religion and it's place in the family and society. I felt like the mother's unwillingness to stand up to Allie was a little unbelievable as his descent into madness progressed, but it was a necessary artificiality in order to bring the character study full circle and turn Allie into the kind of menace that he was constantly accusing America of being. He brings his family down much in the way that he claims America is bringing everyone else down, and it's a powerful dissection of this deeply flawed and arrogant man.Ford delivers what could well be the finest work of his career, stripping away all of his immense charm and taking on a deeply unlikeable character. This is a man who could have easily been torture to have to sit with for two hours, but Ford's charisma and always engaging screen presence is able to make him a fascinating man to study. River Phoenix does fine work as the eldest son of the family, as does Helen Mirren as the mother.Weir's absorbing direction takes a bit of a backseat here, settling for a more conventional tone and instead allowing the story and the character to take over the picture, which is a bold and appropriate move for him to make. It speaks to his intelligence as a director that he knows when to step back and let the other elements take the front seat, although there are still a few magnificently staged sequences that stand strong in Weir's roster of them.