Secondhand Lions
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Secondhand Lions | |
 Secondhand Lions film poster |
|
| Directed by | Tim McCanlies |
|---|---|
| Produced by | David Kirschner Scott Ross Corey Sienega |
| Written by | Tim McCanlies |
| Starring | Michael Caine Robert Duvall Haley Joel Osment Kyra Sedgwick |
| Music by | Patrick Doyle |
| Cinematography | Jack N. Green |
| Editing by | David Moritz |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | September 19, 2003 |
| Running time | 111 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Gross revenue | $47,902,566 |
Secondhand Lions is a 2003 American adventure/comedy film written and directed by Tim McCanlies. The film stars Haley Joel Osment, Michael Caine, Robert Duvall and Kyra Sedgwick. It is about a young boy who is sent to live with his two eccentric but mysterious great-uncles on a farm in the U.S. state of Texas. The movie was filmed in Lockhart, Texas. This film was first released in the United States on September 19, 2003. The movie was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for "thematic material, language and action violence."
Contents |
[edit] Plot
In the 1960s, 14-year old Walter Coleman (Haley Joel Osment) is sent to live with his uncles by his mother (Kyra Sedgwick), so that he can find the fortune they have supposedly accumulated. When they first arrive, Hub and Garth McCann (Robert Duvall, Michael Caine) are knee-deep in their pond, shooting at bass with shotguns. His cousins, also strong believers in the fortune, arrive a day after his mother leaves to ingratiate themselves into the good graces of Hub and Garth. They scare Walter away, and he runs to telephone the court reporting school where his mother had claimed to have gone. He discovers that she is not actually enrolled at the school, but has lied — again.
With no recourse but to return to his uncles' farm, Walter eventually becomes used to their quirky, socially atypical mannerisms and they become used to him and his shyness. While encouraging them to eat vegetables and stop shooting at visiting salesmen, he becomes aware of his uncles' mysterious past. Garth reveals to him that he and Hub were adventurers beginning in World War I.
Hub and Garth arrived in France the day that Germany invaded the country. Garth believed they should return home, but Hub proposed that they tour Europe just ahead of the invading armies. On their last night in France, after enjoying the local nightlife in Marseilles with two French soldiers, they find themselves shanghaied on a ship, conscripted into the French Foreign Legion. The two brothers fought in many battles, and Hub saved Garth's life several times, in many different battles.
Following their army service, Garth became a guide in Africa, while Hub helped anybody who deserved it. Hub meets and falls in love with Jasmine (Emmanuelle Vaugier), a beautiful princess. She, however, was promised to be a powerful sheik's wife. Hub rescues Jasmine from the sheik, who then put a price of ten thousand gold pieces on Hub's head. Garth, disguised as a bounty hunter, turned in Hub for the reward, whereupon Hub escaped, having won a duel's victory from the sheik. Having earned the sheik's respect, the assassination attempts stop. Later, the sheik makes his fortune in trade of petroleum.
Meanwhile, Hub, Garth and Walter have adventures of their own. They order an aging lioness (from a Circus animal dealer), whom Walter adopts and names Jasmine, thereby keeping Hub from killing her. Hub and Garth frighten off Walter's cousins and purchase a clay pigeon thrower, a succession of ever-larger boats, and a biplane. Hub gets into a fight with several Greasers within an hour after having a heart attack, wins the fight, drives them back to the farm, then feeds them (after hunting for the lioness, which escaped), and gives them a lecture on what it means to be a real man. Walter subsequently finds that his uncles have been hiding their money in a room beneath their barn.
Fresh from Las Vegas (where she had been instead of at the school), Walter's mother and her current suitor named Stan (Nicky Katt), a drifter calling himself a 'detective', arrive at the farm and demand to know where the money is. Stan tells Walter that Hub and Garth actually were bank robbers, that Jasmine was their accomplice, and the fortune is for the taking. Walter decides he will believe in the tales of his uncles, and Stan begins to beat Walter. Jasmine (the lioness) attacks Stan and seriously wounds him, but the lioness dies of a heart attack in the process.
Walter is taken away by his mother, but after she informs him that she has no intention of leaving Stan, he jumps out of the car. In an emotional argument, Walter asks her to "do something for me for once" and she lets him return to his uncles' house.
Several years later, Walter (Josh Lucas), now a successful cartoonist whose comic strip is based on his experiences with his uncles, returns back to the farm after learning that his uncles have flown their biplane into their barn and died. The sheriff who informs Walter of his uncles' demise passes their will to Walter. As Walter reads their will ("The kid gets it all. Just plant us in the damned garden with the stupid lion.") and laughs to himself about his uncles' unique approach to life, a helicopter touches down and a Middle Eastern man steps out. He explains that, while in Texas tending to his oil interests, he heard of the men's deaths on the news and thought they might be the two courageous Americans that his grandfather (the sheik) had told him about long ago. Walter says that, yes, they were, and the two are happy to realize that the stories which had inspired them for so long were true—that the two men "really lived".
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Michael Caine | Garth |
| Robert Duvall | Hub |
| Haley Joel Osment | Walter |
| Kyra Sedgwick | Mae |
| Nicky Katt | Stan |
| Josh Lucas | Adult Walter |
| Michael O'Neill | Ralph |
| Deirdre O'Connell | Helen |
| Christian Kane | Young Hub |
| Kevin Haberer | Young Garth |
| Eric Balfour | Sheik's grandson |
| Emmanuelle Vaugier | Jasmine |
| Adam Ozturk | The Sheik |
| Mitchel Musso | Boy |
| Marc Musso | Boy |
[edit] Production
The film had a different ending originally, but it was not well received by the test audience and a new ending was shot.[1] In the original ending to the movie, instead of the sheik's grandson, a tractor-trailer pulls up at the gravesite and a detachment from the French Foreign Legion rides out on horseback and act as an Honor Guard. Shortly thereafter, the sheik himself, now wheelchair-bound and elderly, arrives in a limousine surrounded by his harem to pay his respects. The four greasers that Hub beat up also make an appearance at the funeral, showing that Hub's speech did have an impact, as the men are now mature and respectable.[2]
The comic strip drawn in the film by the adult Walter were drawn by Berkeley Breathed, creator of Bloom County.[1]
[edit] Music
The film score was composed by Patrick Doyle and features music by The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ona Onabule, in addition to Patrick Doyle. The film also features "A Lot of Livin' To Do" (performed by Sammy Davis Jr.), "Let Me In" (performed by The Sensations), "Big Balls in Cowtown" (performed by Don Walser), "Rolling Stone From Texas" (performed by Don Walser), "Texas Playboy Rag" (performed by Pine Valley Cosmonauts), "Red Skin Gal" (performed by Don Walser) and "Help Me" (performed by Sonny Boy Williamson).
[edit] References
- ^ a b Epstein, Daniel Robert (2004). "Tim McCanlies Interview". UGO Networks. http://www.ugo.com/channels/dvd/features/secondhandlions/timmccanlies.asp. Retrieved on 2009-04-05.
- ^ Secondhand Lions. [Motion picture (Deleted scene)]. New Line Cinema. 2003. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt327137/. Retrieved on 2009-04-05.
