Only now does it occur to me... that if you've been wondering all this time what a Nick Nolte Indiana Jones would have looked like (Nolte notably passed on the roles of Han Solo in STAR WARS and Jones in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK), then you need look no further than this freeze frame from the John Steinbeck adaptation, CANNERY ROW:
Heh, weird that you posted this I just finished watching CANNERY ROW. Hadn't seen it in more than 20 years and I dunno, it aged quite well for me. I loved its eccentric, oddball rhythms. Nolte and Winger had fantastic chemistry together and man, if she didn't look great!
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing has a very stylized vibe to it like Coppola's ONE FROM THE HEART and a kinda goofy vibe that maybe I was just in a receptive mood. I might revisit this one on my blog!
Weird! See, I had just re-read CANNERY ROW, and then read SWEET THURSDAY for the first time a few weeks ago, and something about this film felt "off," despite the solid performances. I think that the goofiness wasn't working for me in the same way that many a Vonnegut adaptation kind of fails to fully capture his madcap humanist vibe and ends up feeling forced. That kind of larger than life material works better for me in something like WISE BLOOD, where the comedy is pitch black instead of good-natured. Anyway, I hope to read your assessment– I'd definitely be interested in reading the full Radiator Heaven treatment.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I will admit that I haven't read the books so maybe that colored my opinion. I did some digging and found that Steinbeck fans weren't too fond of the film as it took too much from SWEET THURSDAY and not enough from CANNERY ROW and also did not like how the changed Doc's character. So, I can certainly see why it is far from a beloved film. The reviews back in the day were pretty bad and it flopped at the box office. Oh well.
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