Instinct (1999 film)
| Instinct | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Jon Turteltaub |
| Screenplay by | Gerald Di Pego |
| Story by | Gerald Di Pego |
| Produced by | Michael Taylor Barbara Boyle |
| Starring | Anthony Hopkins Cuba Gooding, Jr. Donald Sutherland Maura Tierney George Dzundza John Ashton |
| Cinematography | Philippe Rousselot |
| Edited by | Richard Francis-Bruce |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 126 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $80 million |
| Box office | $34,105,207 |
Instinct is a 1999 American psychological thriller film starring Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding, Jr., George Dzundza, Donald Sutherland, and Maura Tierney. It was very loosely inspired by Ishmael, a novel by Daniel Quinn.[1] In the United States, the film had the working title Ishmael. In 2000, the film was nominated for and won a Genesis Award in the category of feature film. This was the first film produced by Spyglass Entertainment after Caravan Pictures shut down.
Plot
The film examines the mind of anthropologist Ethan Powell (Hopkins) who has been missing for a few years, living in the jungle with gorillas. He had been convicted of killing and injuring several supposed Wilderness Park Rangers in Africa, and is sent to prison. A bright young psychiatrist (Gooding) tries to find out why he killed them, but becomes entangled in a quest to learn the true history and nature of humankind. Eventually it is revealed that during the course of his stay with the gorillas, the animals accepted Powell as part of their group and that he was attempting to protect his gorilla family when the rangers arrived and started shooting them. He gets a hearing to reveal the truth, but an attack by a vicious guard causes Powell to stop talking again. At the end of the film, Powell escapes from prison, using a pen to dig out the lock on a window and heads back to Africa.
Cast
- Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Ethan Powell
- Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Dr. Theo Caulder
- Donald Sutherland as Dr. Ben Hillard
- Maura Tierney as Lynn Powell
- John Ashton as Guard Dacks
- George Dzundza as Dr. John Murray
- John Aylward as Warden Jack Keefer
- Tracey Ellis as Annie
- Doug Spinuzza as Nicko
- Thomas Morris as Peter Holden
- Rex Linn as Guard Alan
Reception
The film received mostly mixed reviews. Review aggregator Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, states the film received an average score of 43 based on 23 reviews.[2] Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a critic score of 27% and an audience score of 67%.[3] The film was also a box office bomb, grossing only $34,105,207 in the United States and Canada.[4] The film won a Genesis Award for its themes of animal rights.[5]
Soundtrack
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
- "Main Title"
- "Into the Wild"
- "Back to the Forest"
- "Everybody Goes"
- "The Killing"
- "The Riot"
- "Escape"
- "End Credits"
References
- ^ O'Hehir, Andrew (June 5, 1999). "Instinct review". Salon.com. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Instinct reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
- ^ Instinct, Rotten Tomatoes, retrieved October 28, 2016
- ^ "Instinct (1999)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
- ^ Genesis Awards 2000
External links
- Instinct at IMDb
- Instinct at AllMovie
- Instinct at Box Office Mojo
- Instinct at Rotten Tomatoes