The Semiquincentennial Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).
Week # 13: Rhode Island -
Details about Rhode Island:
State bird: Rhode Island red hen
State flower: violet
State tree: red maple
Additional historical trivia:
Rhode Island is the smallest state in the union. In terms of size, you could fit 450+ Rhode Islands inside the boundaries of Alaska (the largest state in the union.)
The official "family-travel ambassador" of Rhode Island is Mr. Potato Head, which was invented in Pawtucket.
Although Rhode Island did not support the passing of the amendment to initiate Prohibition, there are still some "stick-in-the mud" sectors within the state. In Scituate you can be ticketed if you have beer in the car, even if it's unopened. (So much for the grocery store beer run trip, bub...)
The "sideburn" style of men's haircut was popularized by Ambrose Burnside (get it? "Burnside" "sideburn"...) Burnside was a former Civil War general and governor of Rhode Island.
Rhode Island is not a place to visit if you are a zombie. It's illegal to bite of someone's limbs in the state.
It was the first state to disband from English rule in the American Revolution, but it was the last state (of the original 13) to join the union of the states after the Revolutionary War.
The first Baptist church, as well as the first Jewish synagogue, in the country were both established in Rhode island'
Famous Rhode Islanders: Gilbert Stuart (the guy who painted the original portrait of George Washington now seen on the $1 bill), H. P. Lovecraft (horror author), George M. Cohan, Van Johnson and Viola Davis all hail from Rhode Island.
The Witches of Eastwick (1987):
Apology: I'm a bit behind on my schedule. As stated in my last review, i am having some health issues and been in and out of hospital recently. Hope to get back on schedule soon;
Sexual liberation of the female gender was a popular topic in film in the 1980's. The idea that a woman could be independent from the strictures of a male dominated society had been percolating for a couple of decades already, but the release of those strictures really started to come out beginning in the 80's. Witness the empowerment and sexuality Alex Woods (Jennifer Beals) derives from her desire to be the woman she wants to be in Flashdance. Or the independence that Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) strives for in Pretty in Pink and "Baby" Houseman (Jennifer Grey) in Dirty Dancing .
One of the more interesting films that explored this sexual revolution was The Witches of Eastwick, a film about three women who are seeking satisfaction on their own terms in a male-dominated community. As opposed to the John Updike novel that inspired the movie, however, these three women aren't exactly "witches"; rather they are three women who stumble upon their ability in a impromptu discussion over wine, describing their own ideal man.
The discussion ends up calling up the Devil himself, in the form of Daryl Van Horne (Jack Nicholson). Side note: Personally I would not consider a balding 50-year old Nicholson the ideal man, but he pulls it off with some aplomb.
The three women in question have all been recently, in one way or another, divested of their own form of male domination. Alexandra Medford (Cher) is a widow, who has one child from her marriage. Sukie Ridgemont (Michelle Pfeiffer) was deserted by her husband, with whom she has had six(!) children. And Jane Spofford (Susan Sarandon) has just recently become divorced from her husband.
As mentioned above, the three have a regular get together where over drinks they discuss the ideal man. Somehow this conjures up a newcomer to the straight-laced community of Eastwick. A mysterious man has bought the local Lenox Mansion. Interestingly, no one seems to be able to recall the man's name. (An ominous beginning if there every was one...) Most of the town folk are either ambivalent or intrigued by this newcomer, but one woman, Felicia Alden (Veronica Cartwright), is very suspicious. She is a very religious person, and senses there is something sinister about this newcomer.
The mysterious figure makes his presence known (to the audience at least) by his appearance at a recital in town. He falls asleep and snores very loudly and falls out of his chair, thus attracting attention. And suddenly the forgetfulness of the town as to the mystery man's name vanishes. It's Daryl Van Horne (Jack Nicholson).
Van Horne has ulterior motives on the three main characters, ultimately trying to get them out of their comfort zones, sexually. As such he seduces all three women. Initially neither of the women know anything about the relationship that Van Horne has developed between the other two friends, but he uses his wiles to get them in the sack and then uses those same wiles to get them more comfortable in their own supernatural abilities. Essentially he transforms each into the witch aspect of their personalities that they originally had only an inkling of.
Meanwhile, goody-two-shoes (and, apparently, despiser of sexually liberated women) Felicia uses her influence on her husband, Clyde (Richard Jenkins) to try to expose the sinister Van Horne and the now liberated women. Clyde is the publisher of the local newspaper, and even though his star reporter, Sukie, is unaware of it, he publishes an expose that Felicia has browbeaten him to publish. The result of which is that now not only Van Horne is in hot water, but so are the three women.
The film starts to take a dark turn from it's comedic stance when Felicia becomes more and more obsessed and psychotic over the way that Van Horne is influencing the women and the obvious freedom that his influence has over them. Plus, reminiscent of a scene straight out of The Exorcist, Felicia ends up puking up a vast amount of cherry pits, which is paralleled by the witches eating cherries with Van Horne. She also causes Clyde to kill her, probably because he thinks she is possessed...
As a result of the outrage caused by Felicia's expose, they try to distance themselves from him. But, secret exposed, Van Horne is more than he seems. Although the film never actually comes right out and says it, he is obviously the Devil and, thus, an unwanted interloper in the staid community. But Van Horne is unwilling to go gently into that good night. He starts to exert more influence on the women, going so far as to use their fears to exact revenge.
The women decide that the only way to divest themselves of Van Horne's influence is to work voodoo on him (as to how that is possible, since he is the Devil himself, is a question best left unanswered...) The film returns to it's comedic roots as they work out a voodoo doll of him and use all sorts of tricks on him. Seeing Nicholson getting his comeuppance in this is a treat.
Interesting casting tidbit. Originally Bill Murray was going to be portraying Van Horne, and Nicholson dropped into the role after Murray dropped out.
Rotten Tomatoes has the film at 67% Fresh. It was profitable on it's release, pulling in $103 million on a $22 million budget. Roger Ebert was among those who liked it, but thought that final sequence was a bit over the top. My personal opinion is that that scene was what saved the movie after the surprisingly dark turn the film took in the middle of the movie. Despite the title of the movie, the real star here is Nicholson. There is one particularly interesting scene in the movie where Nicholson is ranting around his mansion and bumps into a life size doll that looks remarkably like a version of the Joker from the Batman comics. (Batman was still a couple years away in Nicholson's filmography at this point...)
Not that Cher, or Sarandon, or Pfeiffer are not up to snuff in the film. All three manage to carry their own throughout. But each pales by comparison when Nicholson is in the scene.
I saw this movie in the theater when it was released. I have no idea what drew me to it at the time. I would have thought it was a "chick flick" if I were to see it advertised today, and I wasn't a huge Nicholson fan at the time, even though I like The Shining and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by then. On retrospect of seeing it for only the second time, 40 years hence, I thought it was fairly well done.
