Journey of Natty Gann (1985)

starring

Meredith Salenger

John Cusack

Ray Wise

Lainie Kazan

Scatman Crothers

Jed

Directed by Jeremy Kagan

Original Score by James Horner

The original theatrical trailer for The Journey of Natty Gann. The score used in the trailer is by Elmer Brenstein, and not the James Hoerner score used in the final film. I love Bernstein, but after listening to both scores I would say Hoerner's is the better fit.

I'm sure parents who took their children to see Natty Gann, a film carrying the Disney label, were surprised and shocked to discover that it was not necessarily a film for younger children. Released in 1985, the film had no Computer Wearing Tennis shoes, no Worlds Greatest Athlete, No Invisible College Student, and no Barefoot Chimpanzee Executive. It is often a dark, realistic, and gritty film, set in the era of the Great Depression. At it's heart, it is a story of a young girl traveling across country to find her father, but it is also the story of people searching for hope and trying to survive in an age when just having food on the table was a daily struggle.

Natty Gann (Meredith Salenger) lives with her widower father, Sol (Ray Wise), in an apartment house located in Chicago and run by Connie (Lainie Kazan) during the Depression. Right away we learn how desperate the situation is for just about everybody as Director Jeremy Kagan focuses on the plight of the thousands hoping desperately for a days work, and others who know they are being hired dirt cheap at slave wages because the bosses know they have no choice but to accept what is offered.

While Sol looks for work, Natty wanders the streets of Chicago, making friends, picking up stray dogs, and just hanging out with her friends. One such friend is Sherman (Scatman Crothers), a street peddler, whom we meet as he tries to sell a woman a pot while she debates whether or not it is worth ten cents. When Natty offers him fifteen cents, the woman quickly changes her mind and gives Sherman the fifteen cents Natty had offered. The scene may seem unimportant on the surface, but it goes a long way into setting what will become the prevalent theme through out the film. No matter how dark things may be, no matter how much we may despair over our situation, as long as we have some amount of hope to cling to, whether its small or large, then we can retain our unrelenting will to survive. It is that strong desire to live on that makes us no different from any species on the planet, but it is the feeling of hope that sets us apart.

Siskel and Ebert review Journey of Natty Gann after they first review Better Off Dead. Although they give rave reviews for Natty, they pan Better Off Dead. Something I don't agree with.

When Sol is offered a job in a logging camp in Washington, he is only given moments to come to a decision: Either take the job and leave Natty behind, or stay in Chicago with Natty and hopefully find work elsewhere. At first, rejecting the job offer, he steps forlornly out into the Chicago streets.

But outside, just as Sol does, we see the faces of all those who have little hope if any left. They have been beaten downward into an abyss of desperation which they may not survive once that last glimmer of hope is extinguished. It is after this brief but telling moment that Sol realizes, as we do, there is no decision to be debated over. If Sol, and Natty are to survive, then he has no choice but to accept the work in a Seattle lumber camp. Unable to find Natty, who is wandering the streets, Sol is reluctantly forced to leave her in the care of Connie.

But we are well aware that Natty has nothing but disdain for the overbearing Connie. The tension between the two of them brings things to a head, and after Natty overhears Connie reporting her as an abandoned child, she decides not to wait for her father to send for her, and begins an arduous journey across country to find him.

If ever there was a film that is a picture of contrasts it's this one. Early in the film we are given the harsh reality of depression era Chicago. Director Jeremy Kagan does not spare us from the details. We watch as men stand hopelessly and helplessly praying and hoping for work. There is a harsh scene where Natty witnesses a friend of hers and his family being evicted from their home.

Later, as Sol is heading to Washington in the bus, we see another family on the road with their meager belongings strapped to their car as they head west, their car no longer operable. When Natty walks through the market place vendors sell what meager items they have just to get buy on the nickels dimes and pennies they may or may not bring in. After Natty runs away we see her fishing for food out of a trash can for an edible morsel. Later, as she travels westward, there is beautifully photographed scenery of forests and mountains doubly emphasizing Natty's lonely quest, but Director Kagan astutely reminds us of the bleakness of the depression with many scenes of the struggle in rural America, ranging from a scene of a farmer and his much pregnant wife plowing a field to scenes of orphaned and abandoned children left to be wards of the state.

This is not your Daddy's Disney, nor your grandfather's. Dick Bush's cinematography of the wilderness is breathtaking, yet in the scenes set in Chicago and even in the farm towns of America, he mutes his colors to enhance the contrast between beauty and desperation. James Horner's score is also exceptionally brilliant, but Bush uses it only when the scene absolutely calls for it. For instance, in the early scenes in Chicago, it is not used at all.

When Natty jumps her first train, she is helped and befriended by Harry (John Cusack), who is also riding the rails. Cusack in his first major dramatic role after The Sure Thing, shows for the first time that he was not just a comedic actor, but had dramatic prowess as well. Harry may be very young, but Cusack gives him the edge of a man aged well beyond his years. His venture westward will make or break him.

The other star of this film is Wolf (played by the brilliantly trained Malamute-wolf mix Jed). In one of her stops Natty stumbles upon a building used for dog fights and it is a battle to the death. There can only be one survivor. When Wolf tries to escape, and there appears to be no exit, Natalie holds the door open for him. Later, Natty meets up again with Wolf when she tries to jump a train, but Wolf will have none of it. Natty chooses another box car. But in time, Wolf overcomes his suspicions, Natty overcomes her timidity, and they soon begin to depend on one another for their very survival.

Salenger, as Natty, is more than just a teenage actress plopped in here as the generic teenager. Her characterization draws us into the story from the first moments of this film to the last. It is the key that holds this film together and if it had been put into less capable hands the film would surely not have succeeded as well. Certainly she showed she had the ability to carry a film, the question is why she was never afforded the opportunity to do so later in her career.

A Musical sample of James Hoerner's terrific score.

There is no doubt though that Natty's quest to reunite with her father is a journey for the ages, and one you will not soon forget. And if you are a journey for the ages I have no choice but to give you a very well deserved A, with a Caveat.

The Caveat:

In what may be the most remarkable live action film to come out of the Disney studios during the 80's or even the 70's for that matter, I find the treatment it has received from it's own studio appalling. The best thing I can compare it to is having a ruby but discarding it because you only prefer diamonds. Considering all the costume jewelry Disney released in the aforementioned decades, you would think they would have more respect for this outstanding gem.

The transfer of this wonderful film is appalling. It's bad enough when a film that shouts "wide screen" is only released in a very horrid poorly done pan and scan and cropped version, but the full screen transfer is one of the worst if not the worst I have ever seen. It gives new meaning to the word grainy. At times the picture jitters, something that is very apparent especially early in the films. There are signs of the film's age running rampant throughout and no visible effort to clean it up digitally or otherwise. I'm not one to believe every film should come with a boatload of extras, and have no problem if a studio wants to give us just the film, but there is absolutely no excuse for the poor picture quality of this DVD.

This movie is a gem, and for the Disney studios to tarnish it and treat it in this unconscionable manner, saddens me terribly. What is more frustrating is the fact that Disney can do quality video releases, so just a decent film to DVD wide screen transfer would not have been a lot to ask for. If you don't want to treat your merchandise with the care that it deserves, then sell the rights to a company who might such as Anchor Bay or Criterion. It's damn bad enough that you couldn't even find the film in print for many years as it was abandoned completely, but to release it on a DVD that isn't even upto par with VHS should rain shame on your Studio. If Walt were alive, I guarantee you that no Disney film, regardless of what some idiotic stupid studio head thought of the quality, would be released in the condition that this film was. Disney you deserve an F.

(Note: It was necessary for me to touch up and make some effort to improve the pictures in the review to make them appear better than they do on the DVD. Here are some actual screen captures presented in their original state)

Night of the Comet (1984)

(Just the usual caveats. The screen captures are mine, along with some of the captions. Other captions are taken from the film. In order to read some captions, it may be necessary to click on the picture to enlarge it. None of the videos belong to me and to leave comments on any youtube video simply double click to be taken to the account of the person who did upload it. Also, if any video clip no longer is functional, leave a message in the comments section so I can remove it. (Update: To emphasize what I said, two of the video clips have been removed because they are no longer functional. I'll see if they can be replaced as time permits )

Written and Directed by Thom Eberhardt

starring
Catharine Mary Stewart
Kelli Maroney
Sharon Farrell
Mary Waronov
Geoffrey Lewis
Michael Bowen

If you've ever seen any film such as The Day After, The Stand, Armageddon, Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, or one of their hundreds of counterparts, the end of the world would seem to be pretty serious business for us to have to deal with it sometime down the road. Film directors and writers one and all want us to believe it's all doom and gloom what with asteroids zooming around haphazardly in space, aliens needing to ravage us and the planet, global warming screwing up the weather or some deadly virus escaping some government lab infecting mankind with a super flu. But writer and director Thom Eberhardt is one person who doesn't find the end of mankind as we know it to be a totally dreary prospect, and in fact finds a bit of humor in the situation by way of telling the story of two of the possible survivors, teenagers Reggie Belmont (Catherine Mary Stewart) and her sister Sam (Kelli Maroney).

Somewhere out there in the final frontier where no man has gone before is a comet zipping around with nothing better to do but to pay all of us here on earth a quick friendly visit. No, it doesn't exactly have earth's name on it, but it does want to take a cue from Tom Cruise in Top Gun and do a major fly by just so it can get up close and personal with us. Of course since the inhabitants of earth think ever situation is just another reason to party, we decide to have one big planet wide comet festival just to welcome it into our solar system and to greet it with one huge worldwide "Howdy". There are comet tee shirts, comet hats, people have comet barbecues, and everything is just one big gigantic comet celebration.

One of these comet parties in Suburbia, USA is being hosted by Doris Belmont (Sharon Farrell), wicked step monster to Reggie and Sam. Reggie and Sam's father is off doing army duty, and it's left up to Doris to keep the two girls safe and out of trouble. In the case of Doris, that means being a first class bitch to the girls while screwing the next door neighbor on the side.

On the night of the big comet party, Reggie is pulling her shift at a local movie theater which means spending most of her time playing the video game Tempest so that her initials can occupy all of the top ten scores. When her boyfriend Larry (Michael Bowen), who works at the theater as a projectionist, asks her to spend the night in the projection booth with him, it is left up to Sam to help Doris serve chips and dips at her party.

During an argument, Doris hits Sam with a right hook. Furious, Sam leaves Doris to serve her own chips and dip when she isn't resting her hand on Chuck's ass. Eventually the comet does pass overhead, and being the grateful kind of comet that knows how to treat its host, it leaves us all a nice comet welcoming gift of its own by turning the vast majority of the human population into orange pixie dust.

Of course, if you happen to be one of the very lucky few, like Reggie and Sam, you may have survived. It turns out if you were in a dwelling of some sort completely encased by steel, then you also got to wake up the next morning by the the dawn's early light in as good of a shape as you always were, minus a few friends, relatives and acquaintances of course. Reggie, having spent the night in the theater projection room which just happens to be steel lined, does survive. Boyfriend Larry survives as well of course, but it turns out to be only a temporary reprieve for that putz.

Sam, who found herself somehow spending the night in a steel shed survives as well. Yeah, I know. What are the odds?

However, if you were only partially protected by a steel enclosure, then you only get to survive temporarily as you turn into a cannibalistic zombie. How fast this switcheroo happens depends on how much leakage of comet entrails that your enclosure allowed.

Then there are those scientists led by Audrey (Mary Waronov) and Carter (Geoffrey Lewis) who were scientifically aware of the probably danger but instead of warning us to momentarily hop into our Kenmore refrigerators, they built themselves a huge enclosure of their own out in the desert to protect only themselves. So not only are they extremely selfish scientists, they are also straight out of the Fred MacMurray School of Absent Minded Professors because although I'm sure they wear their seat belts and lock their car doors, they somehow forget to close the vents on their Comet Proof Bomb Shelter. Thus, unless they find a cure they will soon be walking around looking for their next meal. The problem is, the only way they might be able to develop a cure is to round up some of the few remaining humans and pump their blood out of them.

If it all sounds kind of goofy and wacky it certainly is all of that. Early in the film, you may have a bit of trouble buying into the proceedings but you'll eventually be seduced by the perkiness and charm of Stuart and Mulroney, the snappy dialog that inhabits Eberhardt's script, and the over all absurdness of it all.

For instance, when Reggie returns with an arsenal to fight off zombies, Reggie complains that, `Dad would have gotten us Uzis'. And what are two teenage girls to do when faced with the apocalypse?

Samantha plays D.J. on the only radio station:

"This is Samantha Belmont, one third owner of the Greater Los Angeles Basin. Most of you guys had finals this week. Later. They're History. They're cancelled.

The drinking age is now 10, but you will need ID. Let's be real.

I'll be taking requests from all you teenage comet zombies on the hotline."

They also meet up with and vie for the affections of truckdriver Hector (Robert Beltran) who may or may not be the only eligible bachelor in town.

They gather up some machine guns and practice their craft on the nearest parked cars, lamenting the fact that they don't have uzi's.

They later lift their spirits by going shopping at the mall to the music of Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Well, isn't that what everybody would do considering the situation? It is at the mall where the gals also meet up with the new owners, who are just about on the edge of zombieism.

The special effects and zombie makeup aren't much to speak of but they they were never meant to be. The film is obviously meant to be paying homage to similar fables that once inhabited the drive-ins and theaters in the fifties and early sixties. And besides, it's the sharp script by Eberhardt and the wonderfully winning and energetic performances by Mary Catherine Stewart and Kelli Maroney that carry the day here.

It's obvious that Eberhardt was working from a somewhat miniscule budget, and although there are a few scary moments when Zombies pop out of nowhere, it's the whole premise of two Valley Girls trying to survive in a desolate Los Angels while being chase around by monsters and evil scientists that will win you over. It's obvious from the narration in the opening moments that this is a B movie, but Eberhardt keeps things on track by never taking himself seriously or asking us to either.

Night of the Comet is currently available on DVD from MGM after having been out of print for ages so snatch it up while you can for less than 10 bucks. It has also popped up in a glorious HD version on MGM-HD so check the listings there as well.

It takes an offbeat sense of humor to make a film like Night of the Comet and have it succeed as well as it does. It takes a quirky sense of humor for someone watching it to appreciate the film for what it is: a cheesy plot-hole ridden B movie, with a lot of odd humor and with two lead actresses that are good enough to take us along for the ride. I bought into all of it, hook, line, sinker, cheap special effects and everything else that went with it. And if I can buy into all this I have no choice but to give you my grade which for Night of the Comet is a B. Now excuse me for a second while I go check out the vents on my comet shelter.