The Mosquito Coast

This article is about the film. For the Central American area, see Mosquito Coast.

The Mosquito Coast
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Peter Weir
Produced by	Jerome Hellman
Screenplay by	Paul Schrader
Based on	The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
Starring	Harrison Ford Helen Mirren River Phoenix
Music by	Maurice Jarre
Cinematography	John Seale
Editing by	Thom Noble
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	November 26, 1986 (1986-11-26)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million (estimated)
Box office	$14,302,779 (North America)

The Mosquito Coast is a 1986 American film directed by Peter Weir, based on the novel by Paul Theroux. The film stars Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix. The film tells the story of a family that leaves the United States and tries to find a happier and simpler life in the jungles of Central America. However, their jungle paradise quickly turns into a dystopia as their stubborn father's behavior becomes increasingly erratic and aggressive. It was shot in the cities Cartersville and Rome in Georgia, in addition to Baltimore, Maryland, and Belize.

Plot

The film opens with Charlie Fox (River Phoenix) explaining that his father, Allie Fox (Harrison Ford), is a Harvard drop-out and brilliant inventor with "nine patents, six pending." Allie has grown fed up with the American Dream and American consumerism, believing that Americans "buy junk, sell junk and eat junk," and that there is an impending nuclear war on the horizon as a result of American greed and crime.

Allie and Charlie go to a hardware store to buy components for a new invention, an ice machine known as Fat Boy. Upon seeing that the product was made in Japan, Allie refuses to purchase it. Allie and Charlie acquire the components at a local dump. Allie finishes assembling his creation. Allie's boss and asparagus farm owner, Mr. Polski (Dick O'Neill) complains that Allie is not tending to the asparagus, which is rotting. Allie, Charlie, and Allie's youngest son, Jerry (Jadrien Steele), meet Mr. Polski, and Allie shows him "Fat Boy." The machine leaves Polski unimpressed. As he drives past the fields, a dejected Allie comments on immigrants picking asparagus, and says that where they come from, they might think ice was a diamond of some sort. The home of the migrant workers is in a state of disarray exemplifying their poverty.

That night, Jerry tells "Mother" (Helen Mirren), that he believes something terrible is about to happen, which Mother rebuffs, explaining that she believes something good will happen. The next morning, Allie throws a party for the immigrant workers, before telling his family that they're leaving the United States. Boarding a Panamanian barge, Allie shouts a defiant "Goodbye, America!!! Have a nice day!!!," as the barge sails. Aboard, Allie's family meets Reverend Spellgood (Andre Gregory), a Christian missionary, his wife (Melanie Boland), and their daughter, Emily (Martha Plimpton). Emily flirts with Charlie. Allie and the Reverend begrudgingly try to get along, despite having entirely different religious views. The barge docks in Belize City. The families disembark and go their separate ways. Allie, with the consent of the Belize government, purchases a small village called Jeronimo in the rainforest along the river.

Mr. Haddy (Conrad Roberts) takes Allie and his family upriver to Jeronimo. Allie meets the inhabitants and proceeds to start building a new, 'advanced' civilization, in the process inventing many new things. The locals take kindly to Allie and his family, but Allie's will to build a utopic civilization keeps them working to their limits. One day, Reverend Spellgood arrives to convert Jeronimo's citizens. In the process, Allie and Spellgood angrily denounce each other, leading to a permanent schism: Allie believes Spellgood to be a religious zealot; Spellgood believes Allie to be a Communist. Allie sets to constructing a huge version of "Fat Boy" that can supply Jeronimo with ice. Upon completing the machine, Allie hears rumors of a native tribe in the mountains that have never seen ice. Allie recruits his two sons to carry a load of ice into the jungle to supply the tribe. Upon arriving, Allie find that the load has melted, and that the tribe has already been visited by missionaries. When Allie returns to Jeronimo, he learns that Spellgood has left with much of the populace, scaring them with stories of God's biblical destruction.

The near-empty town is visited by rebels, who demand to use Jeronimo as a guerrilla base. Allie and his family accept to accommodate them while Allie constructs a plan to be rid of them. Set on freezing them to death, Allie bunks the rebels up in the giant ice machine, tells Charlie to lock the only other exit to the machine, leaving them no escape route, and starts the machine. The rebels, waking in panic, try to shoot their way through. This causes an explosion, blows up the ice machine and, thereafter, Jeronimo. Allie and his family watch on in horror.

Forced downstream, Allie and his family arrive at the coast. Mother and the children rejoice, believing they can return to the USA. Allie, refusing to believe his dream has been shattered, announces that they have all they need on the beach and, lying, tells the family that America's been destroyed in a nuclear war. Settling on the beach in a houseboat he built, and refusing assistance from Mr. Haddy, a paranoid Allie believes that the family's accomplished building a utopia. One night, there is a terrible storm, nearly forcing the family out to sea, until Charlie reveals he's been hiding motor components given to him by Haddy, allowing them to start the motor on the boat. The family becomes physically and emotionally weaker for lack of food, shelter and other human companionship. Traveling upstream once again, Allie and his family stumble across Spellgood's compound. Coming ashore, Allie sees barbed wire, and believes the settlement to be a Christian concentration camp. While the rest of the family sleeps, Charlie and Jerry sneak over to the Spellgood home. After finding out that the US was not destroyed by a nuclear war and that Emily will assist them in escaping from Allie, Charlie obtains the keys to a jeep. Before Charlie can convince Mother and his sisters to leave, Allie sets the Spellgood church on fire. Reverend Spellgood shoots Allie, paralyzing him from the neck down. The family escapes aboard the boat.

The film concludes with the group traveling downriver again, where Allie drifts in and out of consciousness. Allie asks his wife if they are going upstream. She lies to him - going against the wishes of her husband for the first time. Charlie's final narration reports the death of Allie but gives hope that the rest of the family can live their lives freely from now on.

Cast

• Harrison Ford as Allie Fox
• Helen Mirren as "Mother" Fox
• River Phoenix as Charlie Fox
• Conrad Roberts as Mr. Haddy
• Andre Gregory as Reverend Spellgood
• Martha Plimpton as Emily Spellgood
• Melanie Boland as Mrs. Spellgood
• Dick O'Neill as Mr. Polski
• Jadrien Steele as Jerry Fox
• Hilary Gordon as April Fox
• Rebecca Gordon as Clover Fox
• Alice Heffernan-Sneeds as Mrs. Polski
• Jason Alexander as Hardware Clerk
• William Newman as Captain Smalls
• Aurora Clavel as Mrs. Maywit

Production

Producer Jerome Hellman bought the rights to Theroux's novel as soon as it was published, and Weir committed to filming it. Jack Nicholson was originally offered the lead role, but backed out partly because he could not watch the LA Lakers from Belize, where part of the film was to be shot. He instead went on to star in Terms of Endearment, a role Ford had also been offered.

As the film went into pre-production, and Weir was in Central America scouting for locations, the financial backing for the film fell through and the project was suspended indefinitely. In the meantime, Weir was approached to direct Witness starring Harrison Ford. The film, which was Weir's first American production, was a critical and commercial success, garnering eight Academy Award nominations including Weir for Best Director, Ford for Best Actor, and the film itself for Best Film. During the production of Witness, Weir discussed The Mosquito Coast with Ford who became interested in the role of Allie Fox (though Ford's agent was less enthusiastic). With Ford attached to the project, financial backing and distribution for the film was easier to find (ultimately from Saul Zaentz and Warner Bros.).

Filming began the week of February 7, 1986 in Belize and finished there on April 26 before moving to Georgia (Weir and Ford famously missed the Academy Awards ceremony for which they had both been nominated for Witness). (the film won two Oscars, for Best Screenplay and Best Film Editing). Some post-production editing was done in Australia.

The film contains the last feature film role of Butterfly McQueen, who had a prominent role in Gone with the Wind. She plays a lapsed churchgoer, and in real life was a vocal atheist. The film also features a brief appearance by Jason Alexander, who would go on to star as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld.

River Phoenix and Martha Plimpton started dating after the two met while making this film; the relationship lasted for several years, during which they also co-starred in Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty. It was also his performance as the son to Harrison Ford's character that led Ford to recommend Phoenix to Steven Spielberg for the part of teenage Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Reception

Critical response

The film met with critical and commercial disappointment. Siskel & Ebert were split, Siskel giving the film a "thumbs up" and Ebert giving it a "thumbs down," criticizing it as "boring." Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "utterly flat." In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley wrote, "Sooner or later a man of invention will pollute paradise, a grand contradiction that gives Mosquito its bite and Ford inspiration for his most complex portrayal to date. As a persona of epic polarities, he animates this muddled, metaphysical journey into the jungle." In her review for the Los Angeles Times, Sheila Benson wrote, "He's orchestrated The Mosquito Coast's action to match Fox's progressive mental state, from rage to explosion to squalls and finally to hurricane velocity; however, the film leaves us not with an apotheosis, but exhaustion." In his review for the Globe and Mail, Jay Scott wrote, "The Mosquito Coast is a work of consummate craftsmanship and it's spectacularly acted, down to the smallest roles ... but its field of vision is as narrow and eventually as claustrophobic as Allie's." The negative reviews the film received prompted Harrison Ford to defend the film in the media: "there have been mixed reviews and I think the film has been very unfairly treated in some quarters. I have never seen a serious film treated so badly by the critics. And I think they're wrong. I don't mind saying I'm here trying to counter those negative reviews ... I'm not defensive about the picture, but I want the public to hear another point of view. Critics see a film and then rush to review it. This is the sort of movie that really doesn't sink home for about three days. It is disturbing and makes you think. It stays with you."

Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 75% of 20 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews and that it got a rating average of 6.4 out of 10.

Out of a budget of $25 million, the film made only a little over $14 million in North America.

Despite being one of his least successful films, Ford has defended it, saying in one interview:

It's the only film I have done that hasn't made its money back. I'm still glad I did it. If there was a fault with the film, it was that it didn't fully enough embrace the language of the book (by Paul Theroux). It may have more properly been a literary rather than a cinematic exercise. But I think it's full of powerful emotions.

External links

• The Mosquito Coast at the Internet Movie Database
• The Mosquito Coast at AllRovi
• Production notes