Debut
Wes Anderson made his feature film debut in 1996 with this film, a strange story that crosses humor and drama and that begins when Dignan rescues his friend Anthony from a psychiatric clinic and shows him a plan that he has developed that consists of carrying out a series of robberies
Wes Anderson (Houston, May 1, 1969), film director, screenwriter, producer and actor, who has to his credit titles such as ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’, ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’, ‘Trip to Darjeeling,’ Rushmore Academy ‘or’ El Gran Hotel Budapest ‘, and that these days the filming of the western’ Asteroide City ‘has ended in Chinchón (Madrid), he debuted in the feature film’ Bottle Rocket ‘. From a very young age he made home movies on Super 8 and acted in school theater performances. He studied philosophy at the University of Austin (Texas) where he met the future actor Owen Wilson, with whom he wrote the script for a short film called ‘Bottle Rocket’, starring Owen himself with his brother Luke Wilson.
The short, shot almost without means and in black and white, is presented at the Sundance Film Festival where it attracts the attention of producer and director James L. Brooks, who convinces them to turn it into a feature length by offering to collaborate on the production. Between Anderson and Owen Wilson they write the new script, a strange story that crosses humor and drama that begins when Dignan rescues his friend Anthony from a psychiatric clinic, shows him a plan that he has developed and that consists of carrying out a series of robberies. As a practice, they both break into Anthony’s house to steal certain items that they have listed; However, Dignan steals a pair of earrings from his friend’s mother and is enraged. Anthony looks for his younger sister at school to ask her to return the earrings. Later Dignan recruits Bob as a driver and they rob a bookstore, where they obtain a small amount of money. Anthony meets Inez at a motel where they are staying, a young woman of Latino origin who cannot speak English. Upon learning that his brother has been arrested for marijuana possession, Bob leaves his teammates. With their paths separated due to a confrontation, Dignan joins a gang led by Lord Henry, and with his help locates Anthony to reconcile. In his next planned heist, things spiral out of control when Bob accidentally fires his gun. The police arrive at the scene, Dignan is arrested and meanwhile Mr. Henry steals the furniture from Bob’s house. Anthony and Bob visit Dignan in prison who tells them that he has an elaborate plan to escape.
Anderson does not find it difficult to put together the cast, with many of the actors in his short film and with brothers Luke Wilson as Anthony Adams and Owen C. Wilson, for whom it is also their first feature as a performer, as Dignan. Along with them, Robert Musgrave as Bob, James Caan as Mr. Abe Henry, Lumi Cavazos as Inez, Ned Dowd, Shea Fowler and Haley Miller. Anderson wanted Bill Murray, who would become in later films as one of his fetish actors, for the character of Mr. Henry, but the lack of agreement forced him to choose James Caan.
The movie costs $ 5 million, and over time the box office barely exceeds half a million. It premiered in the United States on February 21, 1996, with an acceptable critical reception – it achieved a New Generation Award from Los Angeles critics – but without box office success, which caused it to be released directly on video in many countries. Not so in Spain, which opens in theaters in Madrid and Barcelona on May 23, 1997, although only in the original version with subtitles. It speaks of a generational story told with sensitivity and freshness and of a cast in a state of grace with characters treated with affection and tenderness. Anderson combines drama, comedy and action through a staging in which flashes of his genius can already be traced. His characters, hyperbolic and bizarre, possess all the credentials of Anderson’s later cinema. In addition to an intelligent mix of genres, where the melodramatic elements, such as the friendship put to the test of the main trio, passing through the odd romantic element and even the most hooligan comedy, combine with crazy and somewhat surreal gun-in-hand chases that border on the absurd or the conversation between adults and children where the latter seem much more mature than the former.
Although the financial failure seems obvious, the great support of the film emerges unexpectedly, when Martin Scorsese says that it is one of his favorite films of the decade, which immediately makes it a cult film, and Anderson the prestige enough to to be able to continue making cinema without problems.
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