The Coca-Cola Kid.
Premiered August 29th, 1985.
Directed by Dusan Makavejev.
Starring Eric Roberts, Greta Scacchi, Bill Kerr.
Music by Neil and Tim Finn.
*NOTE: I found this whole film on YouTube, but scene clips were scarce, so when I link to a scene it'll be in the middle of this master upload. I'll site and rough end time.*
This is the only foreign film I chose for this assignment. It was originally produced and released in Australia and features a cast almost entirely made of local talent. This one required a little more after thought and a little more focus and occasionally some rewinding and re-watching. This is, by no stretch of the imagination, an American Hollywood film. Fun fact: the Coco-Cola Corporation had no hand in any of the production or release. They are in no way affiliated with the film, but they did get a ton free advertising out of it.
The story focuses on Becker (Roberts), an American executive from Coca-Cola sent to the Australian head office to do some market expansion and morale boosting. He's hopelessly out of place down under,and while he's mostly oblivious to this, most of the people he meets don't really know what to make of him. However, despite his best efforts of resistance, he falls in love with his scattered, spontaneous, single mother of a 6 year old secretary, Terri (Scacchi). It takes him the whole movie to realize it, but he gets it eventually. All this happens while he tries to bring his beverage to a county that's owned by T. George McDowell (Kerr), who makes his own soda and has subsequently never allowed Coke to be distributed on his land. It becomes Becker's ultimate goal to break the old McDowell's will and bring Coke to Anderson Valley, but he soon finds it won't be as easy as he originally thought.
This movie is like a big string of pretty run of the mill stuff with these little bits of amazing and interesting and indescribably cool sprinkled throughout. At first, I interpreted the story as disjointed and poorly constructed, but then I thought that maybe that was just the crushing realism the film employs catching me off guard. Like life, not everything is amazing or touching or perfect, and like life, sometimes it doesn't do what you're expecting. and a lot like life, it's nothing like Hollywood. I think it threw me originally because I was expecting a typical, sanitized, predictable story. I wasn't expecting to get a scene with a wallaby and an old woman in an airplane that's in there for no other reason than to build character (the scene's here and it stops at 27:00 mins. Becker is on his way to Anderson Valley for the first time). I wasn't expecting the slightly abrasive and passionately driven Becker to be so kind and affectionate to Terri's daughter when he finds her in the photocopy room of their office while her separated parents fight ferociously in the hall outside (scene is here, stops at 23:48). I certainly wasn't expecting to see a nude scene without a single hint of sexuality. It's just a mother and her daughter being naked (it's here, and stops at 50:35. It's the cutest thing). If you didn't bathe with your parents when you were little, I'd be really surprised. But you'd never see that in an American film. And, principally, it's striking because it feels so normal, and yet, nudity without the accompaniment of sexuality is a thing North American audiences never see on the silver scene. So, all these scenes, stuck in a pretty normal movie, make for something really special and really real. I decided that what I was experiencing with this film wasn't a bad reaction, it was just one I didn't recognize.
There's not a lot that's really technicality special about this one. There are a couple of really cool shots, and some scene concepts that are really cool, but that's about it. This scene is a good example (stops around 15:00 min. mark). The one and only sex scene is really neat. They've got this really pretty feather thing happening exampled here (stops at 1:21:18 mark). There's another one here (stops at 36:35) where Becker is being asked to leave McDowell's property. At one point he dumps the rest of his tea on his fire and this huge plume of smoke billows over the cliff and off into the wind and it looks really cool, but it also looks really natural. It doesn't feel forced or contrived. It feels like it would happen whether the film makers wanted it to or not. And that's the vibe the whole movie gives off.
The music is a special note, as well. You may have heard of the early 80's band Split Enz that then became the late 80's/early 90's band Crowded House. Both bands were fronted by brothers Neil and Tim Finn, and they composed the music for this film, and it's awesome. You might have heard this one, or this one, or this one, or this one (which was originally recorded for this film). Tim actually appears in the film when Becker hires a band to record a jingle to air in Australia. It is maybe the best jingle I've ever heard. It's here (stops at 54:42). It's super great.
7.5/10. Not a fabulous film, but it still manages to be really compelling. A nice break from American studio work.
Honorable mentions for this year are Back to the Future (Mart McFly and Doc Brown are the dream team), Witness (Harrison Ford and the Amish are a surprisingly good combo), Out of Africa (all hail the goddess among mortals Meryl Streep. Also Sydney Pollack directed, who did Tootsie, so that's awesome), After Hours (the only Scorsese film I can stomach), The Breakfast Club (one of my all-time favorites. You all know what it's about. You all know it's good. You all know Vernon raids Barry Manilow's wardrobe), Fright Night (a surprisingly good film, and also surprisingly Chris Sarandon is a hot vampire), The Goonies (a.k.a. the stuff of legends), Legend (speaking of legends, Tim Curry makes an excellent devil...and Tom Cruise is still short and creepy), Pale Rider (squinty Clint Eastwood is squinty), Private Resort (not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but Johnny Depp is in it and he's 22 and he's so cute), The Purple Rose of Cairo (another Woody Allen masterwork), and Weird Science (I too would make Kelly LeBrock if I was designing the perfect woman).
Peace,
Gang.
The story focuses on Becker (Roberts), an American executive from Coca-Cola sent to the Australian head office to do some market expansion and morale boosting. He's hopelessly out of place down under,and while he's mostly oblivious to this, most of the people he meets don't really know what to make of him. However, despite his best efforts of resistance, he falls in love with his scattered, spontaneous, single mother of a 6 year old secretary, Terri (Scacchi). It takes him the whole movie to realize it, but he gets it eventually. All this happens while he tries to bring his beverage to a county that's owned by T. George McDowell (Kerr), who makes his own soda and has subsequently never allowed Coke to be distributed on his land. It becomes Becker's ultimate goal to break the old McDowell's will and bring Coke to Anderson Valley, but he soon finds it won't be as easy as he originally thought.
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7.5/10. Not a fabulous film, but it still manages to be really compelling. A nice break from American studio work.
Honorable mentions for this year are Back to the Future (Mart McFly and Doc Brown are the dream team), Witness (Harrison Ford and the Amish are a surprisingly good combo), Out of Africa (all hail the goddess among mortals Meryl Streep. Also Sydney Pollack directed, who did Tootsie, so that's awesome), After Hours (the only Scorsese film I can stomach), The Breakfast Club (one of my all-time favorites. You all know what it's about. You all know it's good. You all know Vernon raids Barry Manilow's wardrobe), Fright Night (a surprisingly good film, and also surprisingly Chris Sarandon is a hot vampire), The Goonies (a.k.a. the stuff of legends), Legend (speaking of legends, Tim Curry makes an excellent devil...and Tom Cruise is still short and creepy), Pale Rider (squinty Clint Eastwood is squinty), Private Resort (not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but Johnny Depp is in it and he's 22 and he's so cute), The Purple Rose of Cairo (another Woody Allen masterwork), and Weird Science (I too would make Kelly LeBrock if I was designing the perfect woman).
Peace,
Gang.
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