Freeway (film)
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| Freeway | |
|---|---|
 Freeway DVD cover. |
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| Directed by | Matthew Bright |
| Produced by | Chris Hanley Brad Wyman |
| Written by | Matthew Bright Oliver Stone |
| Starring | Kiefer Sutherland Reese Witherspoon Wolfgang Bodison Dan Hedaya Amanda Plummer Brooke Shields Michael T. Weiss Bokeem Woodbine |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
| Cinematography | John Thomas |
| Editing by | Maysie Hoy |
| Distributed by | Dayton Way Pictures Iii Roxie Releasing |
| Release date(s) | August 23, 1996 (Los Angeles, California) |
| Running time | 110 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,000,000 (estimated) |
| Followed by | Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Freeway is a 1996 thriller film starring Kiefer Sutherland, Reese Witherspoon and Brooke Shields. It was written and directed by Matthew Bright. The original music score is composed by Danny Elfman. The film is marketed with the tagline "Her life is no fairytale."
The movie is a dark comedy loosely modeled after the story of Little Red Riding Hood; Witherspoon is Red Riding Hood, while Sutherland plays the Big Bad Wolf.
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[edit] Plot summary
Vanessa Lutz is a poor illeterate teenage girl living in the slums of Los Angeles. After having her mother arrested in a prostitution sting, she runs away with a stolen car from her social worker guardian to stay with her grandmother in Stockton. Bob Wolverton, a serial killer and rapist known as "the I-5 killer", picks her up after her car breaks down, and promises to take her to her grandmother's house. After manipulating Vanessa into confessing to him the details of her painfully dysfunctional life, including a prostitute mother and a sexually abusive stepfather, Bob reveals his true nature and tries to kill her. The tables are turned, however, as Vanessa eventually shoots him several times and escapes. Vanessa is quickly arrested and questioned by two detectives who write her off as a carjacker, even though she insists Bob had tried to kill her and had told her about his other murders. Bob survives, but the bullet wounds have left him severely handicapped, costing him an eye and disfiguring his face, and Vanessa is put on trial, with everyone believing (at first) that Bob is the innocent victim he claims to be. Vanessa goes to prison, while Bob and his socialite wife, who knows nothing of his crimes, are treated like heroes.
Scared at first, Vanessa eventually makes friends in prison, including a heroin-addicted lesbian and a Hispanic gang leader, who helps her escape.
Meanwhile, the detectives look back over the evidence and find that Vanessa was telling the truth. They search Wolverton's home, finding violent pornography and human remains in his garage. Confronted at last with what her husband really is, Wolverton's wife commits suicide. Arriving home to find a police car at his house, Wolverton panics and flees to Vanessa's grandmother's house.
Posing as a prostitute, Vanessa steals a car and drives there as well. She finds her grandmother dead and Wolverton waiting for her with a gun. After a struggle, Vanessa kills him just in time for the detectives to arrive.
[edit] Cast
- Kiefer Sutherland – Bob Wolverton
- Reese Witherspoon – Vanessa Lutz
- Wolfgang Bodison – Detective Mike Breer
- Dan Hedaya – Detective Garnet Wallace
- Amanda Plummer – Ramona Lutz
- Brooke Shields – Mimi Wolverton
- Michael T. Weiss – Larry
- Bokeem Woodbine – Chopper Wood
- Guillermo Díaz – Flacco
- Brittany Murphy – Rhonda
- Alanna Ubach – Mesquita
- Susan Barnes – Mrs. Cullins
- Conchata Ferrell – Mrs. Sheets
- Tara Subkoff – Sharon
- Julie Araskog – Prosecutor
[edit] Trivia
- The scenes that take place on the northbound I-5 freeway actually were filmed on the I-5.
- Wolverton's character may have been inspired by real-life serial killer Randall Woodfield, who committed many of his crimes at the I-5 Highway, and was also known as "the I-5 killer".
- Composer Danny Elfman scored the film as a favor to Bright, charging only a nominal fee of $1 for his services; he and Bright had known each other as children. A suite of Elfman's score can be found on his Music for a Darkened Theatre Volume 2.
- At one point in the film, Vanessa shows Bob a photo she keeps in her wallet of her biological father. The photo used is actually a picture of Richard Speck.
[edit] Censorship History
- The film originally received a NC-17 rating by the MPAA. It was trimmed to obtain an R rating, with the censored version being released theatrically and on VHS/DVD.
- The US R-rated version of Freeway was initially refused classification by the Australian OFLC. Two scenes were removed - explicit sexually abusive dialogue between Bob and Vanessa during the car trip on the I-5, and a cutaway shot of Vanessa's dead grandmother towards the end of the film - before the film was classified R18+. In lieu of recent R18+ classifications of "extreme" films, were the film submitted for classification in its uncut form today (e.g. DVD release) it would likely receive an uncut R18+.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Freeway at the Internet Movie Database
- Refused Classification Censorship details of Freeway.
- Freeway Movie Images 350+ sequenced images from the 1996 movie
