Revolution (1985 film)

Revolution
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hugh Hudson
Written by	Robert Dillon
Produced by	Irwin Winkler
Starring	Al Pacino Donald Sutherland Nastassja Kinski
Cinematography	Bernard Lutic
Edited by	Stuart Baird
Music by	John Corigliano
Production company	Goldcrest Films
Distributed by	Columbia-Cannon-Warner Distributors
Release date	25 December 1985 (1985-12-25) (US)
Running time	124 minutes[1]
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$28 million[2] (£19 million)[3]
Box office	$358,574[2]

Revolution is a 1985 British historical drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Robert Dillon, and starring Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland, and Nastassja Kinski. The film stars Pacino as a frontiersman in the Colony of New York who involuntarily gets involved in the Revolutionary cause during the American Revolutionary War.

Revolution received negative reviews upon release and was a financial disappointment; its official release was delayed in Pacino's native New York City.^[4] Under withering criticism, Pacino took a four-year hiatus from films until 1989, when he made a successful comeback with Sea of Love.

Plot[edit]

On 4 July 1776, fur trapper Tom Dobb (Al Pacino) and his young son Ned (Sid Owen) sail to New York City; they witness a riotous mob tearing down a statue of the King of England while declaring their independence from English rule. The mob seizes Dobb’s boat and cargo to sell for funds, compensating him with a “note” for future reimbursement. Dobb is unable to get his wares returned, while Ned signs up for the Continental Army as a drummer boy against his father’s wishes. Dobb reluctantly enlists to stay with his son and protect him.

Daisy McConnahay (Nastassja Kinski), an idealistic aristocrat, volunteers as a nurse and cook for the Patriots’ cause. While looking for soldiers to feed, she discovers Dobb and Ned lying in a field, who describe to her the chaos of fighting the British at Brooklyn Heights. Daisy pleads with her merchant father back home in New York to support the Patriots but is largely ignored and admonished for her views.

Dobb and Ned participate in another battle, where they encounter the arrogant British Sergeant Major Peasy (Donald Sutherland). The Americans are swiftly defeated and forced to retreat. Dobb and Ned become disillusioned and desert the Army; returning to New York, they discover that it is now under British occupation. Daisy unintentionally exposes Dobb as a former Continental when she admonishes him for cowardice, resulting in his arrest. She later spoils a party at her parents’ home after stabbing a British officer who behaves inappropriately; her mother (Joan Plowright) forces her to choose between her family or the Patriots.

Dobb and a fellow prisoner are made to participate in a "fox hunt" by sadistic British soldiers, dragging an effigy of George Washington through the wilderness. Dobb manages to escape the British while the other man is mauled to death. Ned, now running with a gang of homeless young men, is impressed into British service by Peasy, along with his friend Merle. When Ned refuses to obey orders, he is whipped on the soles of his feet and tied up outside in the cold.

Dobb sneaks into the encampment and rescues his son and Merle. He ambushes and kills two Iroquois warriors sent by Peasy to track them. The trio are given food, shelter, and time to heal from their wounds at a village of Huron natives sympathetic to their cause. Dobb and Ned reenlist in the Army six months later, after Ned’s feet have fully healed, and are pardoned for their previous desertion.

Dobb and an older Ned (Dexter Fletcher) run into Daisy, now a hardened Patriot camp follower, at Valley Forge. Ned becomes friends with Bella, the daughter of a gunner in the fort. Dobb and Daisy confess their love for each other, dreaming of sailing away together one day. Daisy joins a wagon train leaving with wounded volunteers; to Dodd's horror, the convoy is attacked and torched by armed Loyalists. Ned and Bella get married before he and his father march off again with the Continental Army.

Three years later, the two men participate in the overrunning of British defenses during the Battle of Yorktown. Despite having a wounded Peasy at their mercy, they chose to let him live with his failure instead. The war soon ends with the Americans victorious. Returning to New York City, Dobb learns that his note has become worthless, and decides to stay in New York to start over. Ned and a pregnant Bella head upriver to start a farm and raise a family. Dobb eventually finds Daisy, who survived the attack in Valley Forge, and the two embrace.

Cast[edit]

Development[edit]

The film was the idea of producer Irwin Winkler who felt the American Revolution would make an ideal subject for a film. After having just made The Right Stuff, based on a true story, Winkler decided to focus on a fictional father and son. Winkler had a development deal at Warner Bros., and the studio agreed to finance a script by Robert Dillon. Warners did not like the script and didn't agree to finance it, so Winkler bought it back, attached Hugh Hudson as director and took the project to other studios to see if they were interested. He showed the script to Sandy Lieberson of Goldcrest, who was enthusiastic.^[5]

Goldcrest agreed to finance provided a U.S. studio could be brought in to co-produce. Warner Bros. then agreed.^[6]

Production[edit]

The movie was filmed largely in the old dock area of the English port town of King's Lynn, Norfolk. The main battles scenes were filmed at Burrator Reservoir on Dartmoor in Devon and on the coastal cliff top near Challaborough Bay, South Devon where a wooden fort was built. Military extras were recruited from ex-servicemen mainly from the Plymouth area. Many other scenes were filmed in the battle training area near Thetford, Norfolk, and extras were recruited from the King's Lynn area. Melton Constable Hall in Norfolk was used for some scenes.

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Revolution cost $28 million to make, and it was a box-office disaster, grossing $346,761 in the United States.

Goldcrest Films invested £15,603,000 in the film and received £5,987,000, losing £9,616,000.^[7]

Critical response[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 10% based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Unlikely to inspire any fervor with its miscast ensemble and ponderous script, Revolution is a star-spangled bummer."^[8] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 22 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".^[9]

Variety's staff commented "Watching Revolution is a little like visiting a museum – it looks good without really being alive. The film doesn’t tell a story so much as it uses characters to illustrate what the American Revolution has come to mean."^[10]

A reviewer for the UK-based Time Out called it "an almost inconceivable disaster which tries for a worm's eye view of the American Revolution...maybe the original script had a shape and a grasp of events. If so, it has gone. There has clearly been drastic cutting, and nothing is left but a cortège of fragments and mismatched cuts. It's also the first 70 mm movie that looks as if it was shot hand-held on 16 mm and blown up for the big screen. Director? I didn't catch the credit. Was there one?"^[11] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a mess, but one that's so giddily misguided that it's sometimes a good deal of fun for all of the wrong reasons. Characters who have met briefly early in the film later stage hugely emotional, tearful reconciliations."^[12] Pauline Kael commented that "everything in this picture, which goes from the beginning of the American War of Independence in 1776 to the end of combat in 1783, seems dissociated. The director, Hugh Hudson, plunges us into gritty, muddy re-stagings of famous campaigns, but we don't find out what's going on in these campaigns, or what their importance is in the course of the war...Hudson and the scriptwriter, Robert Dillon, present the war as a primal Oedipal revolt of the Colonies against the parent country, and the relationships of the characters are designed in Oedipal pairs; Hudson also stages torture orgies to indicate how sadistic the redcoats are, and scenes are devised to set up echoes of the Rocky series and Rambo. This is a certifiably loony picture; it's so bad it puts you in a state of shock."^[13]

Accolades[edit]

Revolution was nominated for four Golden Raspberry Awards:

• Worst Picture
• Worst Director - Hugh Hudson
• Worst Actor - Al Pacino
• Worst Musical Score - John Corigliano

The film won the Stinkers Bad Movie Award for Worst Picture.^[14][15]

Music[edit]

The score was composed by John Corigliano, who promised Hudson he would be available for the job after a scheduling conflict prevented him from scoring Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. Corigliano created three main themes for the film - a love theme for Tom and Daisy, a “children’s theme” conveying innocence and purity, and a theme of lament for the war itself. The score features James Galway performing the "children's theme" on flute and tin whistle.

Corigliano was unhappy with how the score was ultimately mixed and dubbed in the final cut. He returned to composing strictly concert works shortly thereafter and would not compose the score for another film until The Red Violin (1999).

A soundtrack recording release was initially planned by RCA Records, but it was cancelled after the film’s critical and commercial failure. The masters, originally thought to have been lost, were discovered mislabelled in a vault in 2007 - a CD was subsequently released by Varese Sarabande in 2009.^[16][17][18]

Director's cut[edit]

Revolution was rush-released in December 1985 for the Christmas market and for Academy Award consideration. Dissatisfied with the version of the film released to theatres, Hugh Hudson released Revolution: Revisited on DVD in 2009. This new cut added narration by Pacino (recorded for this release), and numerous scenes were trimmed or deleted outright (running at 115 minutes, the Director's Cut is approximately 10 minutes shorter than the theatrical version). Also included is a conversation with Pacino and Hudson who discussed the film's being rushed for a U.S. release during Christmas, being trashed by the critics, and having other issues related to the making and release of the film.^[19][20] Reviewing the new version of the film for Variety, Jay Weissberg wrote: "The results generally improve the movie, now titled Revolution Revisited, but numerous problems are insurmountable."^[21]

The film was re-released in the UK in 2012 by the British Film Institute in a Blu-ray Disc/DVD combo. This edition came with both cuts of the film, as well as a booklet with essays written by Nick Redman, Michael Brooke and critic Philip French, who argues that the film was a victim of bad publicity and cultural misunderstandings, and regards the Revisited cut as a "masterpiece."^[22]

See also[edit]

• List of films about the American Revolution
• List of television series and miniseries about the American Revolution

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

• Eberts, Jake; Ilott, Terry (1990). My indecision is final. faber and faber.

External links[edit]

• Revolution at IMDb
• Revolution at AllMovie
• Revolution at the TCM Movie Database
• Revolution at Box Office Mojo
• Revolution at Rotten Tomatoes
• BFI page on Revolution
• Revolution (1985 film) at Discogs