Jacknife
by David Hugh Jones
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ed Harris, Ivar Brogger, Kathy Baker, Robert De Niro, Sloane SheltonDirector: David Hugh Jones
Brand: LION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-01-23
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of Jacknife
Movie Review: The best drama you've never seen
Summary: 5 Stars
Released in 1989, "Jacknife" tells the story of Megs (Robert De Niro), a Vietnam vet who looks up an old war buddy in Connecticut. The buddy is Dave (Ed Harris), a bachelor and drunkard who lives with his sister, Martha (Kathy Baker), in their inherited parent's house in the old neighborhood. Dave & Martha's situation has degenerated into lifeless habit and stagnation. Megs doesn't look up Dave because he necessarily wants to but because he has to -- they have a longstanding date to go fishing, a date with much significance.
Kathy is a biology teacher and the classic enabler, a one-woman support system enabling her brother to continue in his miserable cycle of booze/hangover/booze. She's trapped and her guilt will not let her escape, and she knows shes trapped.
There's a scene of Kathy leaving the school at the end of her work day where she goes out of her way to stop at the trophy case and looks at old pictures of her brother when he was a high school hero with much potential. You can feel what she feels as she looks at those pictures.
Dave warns Kathy about Megs -- he's half crazy and has spent a lot of time in the slammer on assault charges, but Kathy instinctively senses that Megs is their catalyst to change, their "delivererer," carbuncles and all. Yet Megs needs change as well, and Kathy is HIS deliverer. Megs is an eccentric outcast and Kathy is his golden connection to a sense of family and community, things he's been running from since he got out of the war 20 years earlier.
Kathy is a bit of a plain jane. Her stagnated lifestyle is reflected on her face. No one invited her to her Prom back in high school and who knows the last time she had a date. Yet on her initial meeting with Megs he just happens to mention she's pretty. This immediately changes her demeanor. When was the last time she felt the warmth of a genuine compliment concerning her looks? She naturally starts to develop love for this man -- a deeply flawed man -- somehthing she hasn't felt for a long, long time, perhaps never. And she slowly starts to blossom.
"Jacknife" is the perfect antidote to modern cgi-laden drivel like "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Iron Man." Don't get me wrong, those types of films have their place, like when you're in the mood for mindless entertainment -- goofy one-liners and all. By contrast, "Jacknife" is meaningful and character-driven; suspense is created via raw, unpredictable emotion and outstanding acting (by all three members of the triangle). Take, for instance, the truck-driving scene where Dave and Megs have a confrontation. Megs starts to put the meddle to the peddle as they drive down an incline. Dave had implied that Megs was crazy and now Megs is making a statement. Or is he? Who knows what he's doing?! The truck goes faster and faster and the viewer is uncertain if this lunatic is going to kill 'em both or what.
This scene is potent because it strikes the viewer as REAL. For me it brought to memory a similar situation when my wife and I were traveling through the heart of West Virginia. We drove in silence for a long time, perhaps two hours, and then I completely exploded, screaming at the top of my lungs -- spit and tears flying. Yet I wasn't yelling at her -- not at all -- it went much deeper than that. We were flying down the highway faster and faster while I continued to vent in raw emotion. Then my wife, the epitome of calm and stable, screams out, "IF YOU'RE GOING TO WRECK MAKE SURE YOU KILL US BOTH!!!" That was almost four years ago and, thankfully, nothing like it has happened since (on the road, that is). Why do I bring this experience up? Because "Jacknife," albeit a tad stagey (which is natural since it was based on a play), rings so true.
The film was shot on location in the heart of Connecticut in Meriden, Cromwell and Wethersfield (the diner scene). The story obviously takes place in November and the authentic locations are great.
BOTTOM LINE: If you're in the mood for a meaningful, character-driven drama you can't go wrong with "Jacknife."
PERSONAL GRADE: A-
Summary of Jacknife
A troubled Vietnam vet pays a visit to an old war buddy. Finding his buddy in a depressed drunken state, with only his sister for company, the vet works toward freeing the buddy from his past and provides the sister with the tender love she has never known.Based on the off-Broadway play Strange Snow, this chamber drama is essentially a three-hander between Robert De Niro, Kathy Baker, and Ed Harris. Harris is a Vietnam vet suffering the recurring effects of posttraumatic stress disorder. De Niro is an old army buddy who looks him up and helps him come to terms with the ugly memories he has of their days together in Vietnam and of a pal who didn't make it out alive. Baker plays Harris's sister, a schoolteacher and wallflower who blossoms under the attention of the rough-hewn De Niro. Harris and De Niro clash in a cathartic confrontation, but not before De Niro and Baker play an incredibly erotic and understated love scene that serves as the film's emotional core. --Marshall Fine
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