Blown Away (1994 film)
- For the 1992 film, see Blown Away.
| Blown Away | |
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| Directed by | Stephen Hopkins |
| Produced by | Pen Densham Richard Barton Lewis John Watson |
| Written by | John Rice Joe Batteer Jay Roach |
| Starring | Jeff Bridges Tommy Lee Jones Lloyd Bridges Forest Whitaker |
| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) |
| Release date(s) | July 1 1994 (USA) |
| Running time | 121 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English/Irish |
| Budget | $50,000,000 |
| Box office | $30,155,037 (USA) |
Blown Away is a 1994 action film starring Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins.
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[edit] Plot
Ryan Gaerity (Tommy Lee Jones), an Irish terrorist, escapes from his cell in a castle prison in Northern Ireland.
In faraway Boston, meanwhile, Lt. Jimmy Dove (Jeff Bridges) is a veteran disposal technician for the police bomb squad. He irritates his captain, partner and everyone else when he plays hero and disarms explosives.
Nobody, except for his uncle Max (played by Jeff's real life father Lloyd Bridges), knows of Jimmy's dark past. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jimmy's actual name is Liam McGivney. He had been friends and partners with Gaerity, who, unbeknownst to Liam, was a freelance terrorist. After a botched attempt to stop Gaerity led to the bomber's imprisonment and the death of his girlfriend (Gaerity's sister), Liam fled to Boston and became Jimmy Dove.
Gaerity comes to Boston to seek vengeance against Jimmy, who is semi-retired but working as an instructor. Gaerity begins taunting his old protégé with threats and his homemade explosives and causing the deaths of Jimmy's colleagues Blanket, Cortez and Rita. With his new family now in danger, Jimmy reveals his secret to his wife Kate (Suzy Amis). He returns to action to hunt for Gaerity, while an officer named Anthony Franklin (Forest Whitaker) investigates Jimmy, suspecting a connection between the two.
Max is brutally killed by Gaerity and even though Dove arrives in time, he is helpless to do anything but watch. Dove proceeds to track Gaerity to his steamboat hideout, booby-trapped with explosives. After a brief fight, he cuffs himself to Gaerity, prepared to die in order to keep his secret and prevent any more deaths. He is saved by Franklin at the last minute, leaving Gaerity to die when the boat detonates.
Dove and Franklin hurry to reach a performance of the Boston Pops orchestra before it ends. They need to get to Kate, a musician, in time to rescue her (after Gaerity reveals that he has booby-trapped her car). After a harrowing chase, they disarm the bomb.
Franklin tells Dove that he knows his secret, but will leave the matter alone if Dove lets him (Franklin) be the hero and take all the credit for taking down Gaerity. Dove gives Franklin his badge and gun and walks away with his family.
[edit] Cast
- Jeff Bridges - Jimmy Dove/Liam McGivney
- Tommy Lee Jones - Ryan Gaerity
- Lloyd Bridges - Max O'Bannon
- Forest Whitaker - Anthony Franklin
- Suzy Amis - Kate Dove
- Stephi Lineburg - Lizzie
- John Finn - Captain Fred Roarke
- Caitlin Clarke - Rita
- Christofer de Oni - Cortez (as Chris de Oni)
- Loyd Catlett - Bama
- Ruben Santiago-Hudson - Blanket
- Cuba Gooding, Jr. - Cameos as a Bomb Squad Class member
- Daniel Applegate - Dog walker; kid in stadium
- Ed OKeefe as press photographer
[edit] Pop culture reference
- The Whitest Kids U' Know has a sketch where Trevor believes Zack is Forest Whitaker after watching Blown Away and Zack is confused about Trevor, who later admits he has a disease where he sees "everyone is Forest Whitaker".
- Some U2 songs heard in the film, example: "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". The album The Joshua Tree is mentioned in a scene along with U2 being mentioned as an "Irish born band", like the antagonist.
- In the Chuck Hogan novel Prince of Thieves, which became the basis for the Ben Affleck film The Town, the narrator (presumably, Hogan himself) calls this film "one of the all-time worst motion pictures ever made."
[edit] Classical culture reference
- The final concert : The Boston symphonic orchestra performs the Tchaikovsky 1812 overture op 49
[edit] Crtical Reception
The film was widely criticised for the poor Irish accents of the three Irish characters, with Tommy Lee Jones' portrayal of Ryan Gaerity coming in for particular criticism.[1]
[edit] Release
The VHS of the film was released in 1994. The UK rental tape of the film notably featured a Tango Orange advertisement in the trailers at the start which was banned from television for being frightening.
[edit] See also
- The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
- Recent crime films based in or near Boston:
- The Boondock Saints (1999), set in South Boston
- The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009), set in Ireland and South Boston
- The Departed (2006), concentrating on criminals from South Boston
- Gone Baby Gone (2007), concentrating on the Dorchester section of Boston
- Mystic River (2003)
- Shutter Island (2010)
- The Town (2010), set in Charlestown
- Edge of Darkness (2010)
[edit] References
- ^ "The worst Irish accents in Hollywood movies". Irish Central. 20-03-2011. http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/The-worst-Irish-accents-in-Hollywood-movies-139685233.html. Retrieved 12-09-2011.
[edit] External links
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