From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Daniel Petrie
Starring
Burt Lancaster
Suzy Amis
Patricia Clarkson
Frances Conroy
Sinéad Cusak
Bill Pullman
John Glover
Kevin Spacey
Macaulay Culkin
Simply an enchanting little film... what can I say?
It has so many things going for it. It's difficult for me to connect with the fact that not many people went to see it when it was first released to theaters in 1988 and apparently for the few who did, most of them were not gurgling with enthusiasm. I'm neither sure of why that is nor objective about it. If one can't find something to enjoy here, one just shouldn't be allowed inside another theater.
First and foremost it stars Burt Lancaster. If you're not a fan then skip this paragraph. I was a huge fan... huge, I tell you. I was a pre-teen when I first saw him swashbuckling across the Technicolor screen. He pulled me in and I never was disappointed in five decades of watching him act. Here, in his penultimate feature film and an old man, Rocket Gibraltar shows that he still had it going on.
Additionally it's a lovely family film. Among its many characters is nary a villain, misfit or jerk. This is about the head of the Rockwell clan, Levi, an elderly widower whose family is throwing him a 75th birthday party on the grounds of his spacious beach property. The family arrives caravan style and consists of three daughters and a son. One daughter is unattached while the others bring along spouses and a combination of eight grandchildren. If you're counting, that's 15 people arriving to disturb the the old man's serenity. Lordy, I'd be in a canoe paddling downstream. Turn out the lights when you leave.
Everyone pretty much figures out that this could possibly be Dad's last birthday so the mood is especially festive so that it will be a good one. Dad must think the end is near as well since he talks with his grandchildren on the beach about wanting to have a Viking funeral when he goes. He regales them with exciting tales of the Vikings, complete with a huge beach bonfire and talk of sending his body out to sea in a boat that is set afire. His young listeners are enthralled.
The children come across a battered canoe with the words Rocket Gibraltar still clearly seen on the side and they decide to gussy it up, Viking-style, and give it to their beloved grandfather as a birthday gift. They're convinced it will be his favorite.
In their treehouse, the children rig up a spying operation so that they can hear directly into their grandfather's bedroom. It is during one of these times that the old man hears that his time is quite limited... his heart is giving out.
When he dies the following day, the grandkids not only keep his death a secret from their parents (Grandpa has been spending time in his upstairs bedroom while the party is getting underway) but are able to spirit the corpse out of the house and into a van of one of the guests and then to the beach where the Rocket Gibraltar is waiting.
The ending is touching as the parents, in hot pursuit, think that Grandpa has driven his grandchildren somewhere. They arrive at the beach just as the boat has been set ablaze and realize what has happened, given that Grandpa has spoken of his love of Viking funerals before.
I've always found it to be a lovely film for children of a certain age to see on the subject of death of a grandparent. It's done without fear or anxiety and the children work together to give their grandfather something they know he wants. The attention paid to such a weighty subject for youngsters has a soft, lyrical, mystical quality that is so tenderly rendered.
It doesn't hurt that it was filmed at Sagaponack on Long Island with those grassy sand dunes that I love so about Atlantic beaches. There are enough beach and town shots of the kids riding their bikes to satisfy nearly everyone. It also has scenes in the kitchen as the adults wake up that pay homage to similar ones in The Big Chill. You remember that happy occasion.
My favorite scene, other than the ending, is when the family is gathered at two picnic tables (adults table and kids table, of course) and the old man gets up and dazzles his family with his knack of entertaining. At the end of this scene, the children have gathered a short distance away from the adult children and Levi silently watches them lip sync to some current music. As he tears up, the camera lingers on the aging actor's face and I always think of it as him saying goodbye. Guess who else turns on the waterworks?
Lancaster didn't look well... or he's an even better actor than I thought. And yet I thought his bespectacled, grizzled look was the perfect one. His character had heart troubles and six years later the actor would die of a heart attack at age 80. He, in fact, would be taken off his next film, Old Gringo, because he couldn't get insurance. He did, however, go on to make his final film, Field of Dreams (1989).
Never an easy man to work with, his health and fewer working opportunities made him arrive on the set in a crabby mindset. Upon meeting Macaulay Culkin, making his first film at age seven, Lancaster asked the youngster if he had any acting tips. The kid said just don't step on my lines... funny for sure but Lancaster flew into a rage. He knew better and quickly apologized and the two got along famously during the shoot.
Of the eight kids, Culkin was the youngest and had the largest part and was adorable. His character, Blue, is quite taken with his grandfather and looks after him.
Lancaster's children were well-played by Amis, Clarkson and Conroy. Glover played his son who can't stay off the phone talking on urgent business matters. Married to Clarkson, Pullman is a pro baseball player who is helicoptered off the property for a big game before the party begins. Conroy is married to Spacey who is a standup comic. Glover's wife is played winningly by Cusak. Amis, the unattached sibling who she keeps in shape with visiting beaus, is the liveliest member along with Spacey.
If I didn't actually say it already, Lancaster is terrific. I hope he was pleased portraying an occasionally crabby, liberal-minded ex-teacher who loves his large family but who has found the onslaught of all of them exhausting. This was an actor who made only a couple of bad movies ever but never gave a bad performance. His character is obviously the centerpiece but how nice it was that the old warhorse shared the pasture with his many costars.
All those costars and their individual stories caused another actress to have her role completely excised from the final cut. Pam Grier played the longtime Rockwell housekeeper who was having an affair with ol' Levi. But in the editing room director Petrie thought her scenes cluttered up the story too much.
Petrie was not the original director. That role was filled by Amos Poe who was also the writer and a good one as I see it. Too bad the directing gig didn't work out. Apparently, according to some, he was in over his head. It's never been said that Lancaster was involved although I'm skeptical about that one.
I think part of the reason this lovely film didn't do better in theaters is because most of the cast was either unknown or barely known. That has since changed, of course, but back then, who really knew them? Young people, the chief ticket buyers, were not only not rushing to a Burt Lancaster film but most probably didn't know who he was. By the time the video was released, Lancaster had died and word had spread on his delightful performance. Furthermore, several of the other cast members had gathered a following.
Just a thought... perhaps you already realized it. Levi died on his birthday... as did William Shakespeare... as did Ingrid Bergman... and as I want to. I've always wanted to. It seems like the perfect day to check out. It's the final thing on my bucket list.
Have a peek at what you probably missed:
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Another good 80's film
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