Maverick (film)

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Maverick
Directed by Richard Donner[1]
Produced by Bruce Davey
Richard Donner
Written by William Goldman
Based on Maverick 
by Roy Huggins
Starring
Music by Randy Newman
Cinematography Vilmos Zsigmond
Editing by Stuart Baird
Mike Kelly
Studio Icon Productions
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release dates May 20, 1994
Running time 127 minutes[2]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $75 million[3]
Box office $183,031,272[4]

Maverick is a 1994 Western comedy film directed by Richard Donner and written by William Goldman, based on the 1950s television series of the same name created by Roy Huggins. The film stars Mel Gibson as the eponymous Bret Maverick, a card player and con-artist collecting money to enter a high-stakes poker game for the prize and to prove himself the best player. He is joined in his adventure by Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster), another con-artist, and legendary lawman Marshall Zane Cooper (James Garner). The film also stars Graham Greene, James Coburn, Alfred Molina and a large cast of cameo appearances by Western film actors, country music stars and other actors.

The film received a favorably critical reception for its light-hearted charm, and was financially successful, earning over $180 million during its theatrical run. It received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Plot

The story, set in the American Old West, is a first-person account by wisecracking gambler Bret Maverick (Mel Gibson), of his misadventures on the way to a major five-card draw poker tournament. Besides wanting to win the tournament for the prize money, he also wants to prove, once and for all, that he is "the best".

Maverick rides into the fictional town of Crystal River intending to collect money owed to him, as he is $3,000 short of the poker tournament entry fee of $25,000. His efforts to make up this $3,000 provide some plot motivation, as well as diversions caused by three people he encounters at Crystal River: an ill-tempered gambler named Angel (Alfred Molina), a young con-artist calling herself Mrs Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster), and legendary lawman Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner). The first two are also rival poker players.

Maverick, Bransford and Cooper share a stagecoach (the driver of which dies at the reins at full gallop). They help a wagon train of migrant evangelist settlers who have been waylaid by ruffians (for a fee which Maverick in the end is too big-hearted to accept) and are headed off by a troop of Indians led by Joseph (Graham Greene). Unknown to his companions, Joseph and Maverick are good friends, and Maverick allows himself to be "captured." Joseph is another one of his unreliable debtors, and in and around his tribal grounds they collaborate on a scheme to swindle a Russian Grand Duke.

Angel receives a mysterious telegram ordering him to not allow Maverick to reach the poker game. He has also learned that Maverick had conned him in Crystal River. Angel catches up with Maverick, beats him up and attempts to hang him. Despite being tied to both a tree and to his horse, Maverick escapes. He makes it to the poker tournament aboard the paddle steamer, the Lauren Belle. Bransford and Angel each have a seat in the game, while Cooper has been engaged to oversee its security. Learning that Bransford is still short several thousand dollars of the entry fee (and being two thousand short himself), Maverick finds the Grand Duke on board and cons him for the remaining money.

After the others are eliminated, the four finalists are Maverick, Bransford, Angel, and Commodore Duvall (James Coburn), the boat's owner and the tournament organizer. Maverick almost fails to reach the final table by the 5:00 AM deadline, having had his stateroom door chained shut (by an unknown person) after a tryst with Bransford. The game proceeds, with Bransford the first eliminated. A "fixed" hand is dealt to the three remaining players. The Commodore is given four 8s and Angel is given a low straight flush, whilst Maverick has the 10, jack, queen and king of spades. The Commodore and Angel each bet "all in". Maverick observes the dealer bottom-dealing to the others, protests, then agrees to accept one card dealt by Angel; Maverick refuses to look at the card. It turns out to be the ace of spades, giving Maverick an unbeatable royal flush and the championship. An enraged Angel draws his gun, but he and his stooges in the audience are gunned down by Cooper and Maverick.

Three plot twists follow. First, Cooper steals the $500,000 prize money instead of presenting it to Maverick. Second, it is revealed that the Commodore and Cooper were secretly in cahoots and that Angel had actually been working for the Commodore. Third, the Commodore betrays Cooper, but before he can shoot, Maverick ambushes the two around a campfire and steals back the money, leaving them a single gun to settle their affairs. The gun turns out to be unloaded. Cooper beats up the Commodore, then sets out after Maverick.

Later, Maverick is relaxing in a bathhouse when Cooper finds him. The two drop the facade to reveal (to the audience) that Cooper is in fact Maverick's father. The real conspiracy was between the two of them. However, Bransford enters the bathhouse and robs the two (whose relationship she had surmised from their similar mannerisms). After she escapes, Maverick reveals that she only got away with half of the money, as Maverick had hidden the rest in his boots, admitting that he had allowed the money to be stolen, as he looks forward to the chase of getting it back from her.

Cast

There are multiple cameo appearances in the film from Western actors, people who have formerly worked with Donner, Gibson, Foster, or Garner, and other celebrities including: Danny Glover, Hal Ketchum and Corey Feldman as bank robbers; Read Morgan and Steve Kahan as card dealers; Dub Taylor as a room clerk;[5] Art LaFleur and Leo Gordon as poker players at Maverick's first game; Paul Brinegar as the stagecoach driver; Denver Pyle as an old gambler;[5] Robert Fuller, Doug McClure and Henry Darrow as riverboat poker players; Dan Hedaya as Twitchy, another Riverboat Poker Player; Dennis Fimple as Stuttering, a player beaten by the Commodore; Bert Remsen as an elderly riverboat gambler beaten by Maverick;[5] and Margot Kidder as missionary Mary Margaret in an uncredited appearance.[5] Glover's cameo appearance references Donner's Lethal Weapon film series starring Glover and Gibson as cop partners. Their meeting in Maverick sees them share a moment of recognition.,[6] and as he leaves, Glover says Roger Murtaugh's catchphrase: "I'm getting too old for this shit."

Country singers also cameo including Carlene Carter as a waitress, Waylon Jennings and Kathy Mattea as a gambling couple with concealed guns, Reba McEntire, Clint Black as a sweet-faced gambler thrown overboard for cheating, and Vince Gill and his then-wife Janis Gill (as Janice Gill) as spectators.

Production

James Garner as Bret Maverick (1959)

The steamboat used in the film—dubbed the Lauren Belle—was the Portland, the last remaining sternwheel tugboat in the US, that at the time belonged to the Oregon Maritime Museum in Portland. Over several weeks, the boat was decorated to alter its appearance to resemble a Mississippi style gambling boat, including the addition of two decorative chimneys.[7] In August 1993, the production requested permission to film scenes of the riverboat along the Columbia River in Washington state. The artificial smoke released by the boat's chimney was considered to violate air-quality laws in Washington and Oregon and required approval for the scenes before their scheduled filming date in September 1993.[8] After filming concluded, the decorations were removed and the boat was returned to its original state.[7]

In Five Screenplays with Essays, Goldman describes an earlier version of the script, in which Maverick explains he has a magic ability to call the card he needs out of the deck. Although he is not able to do so successfully, the old hermit he attempts to demonstrate it for tells him that he really does have the magic in him.[9] This scene was shot with Linda Hunt playing the hermit but it was felt it did not work on the context of the rest of the movie and was cut.[10]

Reception

The film has received generally favorable reviews.[6] The film garnered a 74% approval rating from 38 critics – an average rating of 6 out of 10 – on the review-aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, which said, "It isn't terribly deep, but it's witty and undeniably charming, and the cast is obviously having fun."[11]

James Berardinelli, from reelviews.net, gave the film three and a half stars out of four. He stated, "The strength of Maverick is the ease with which it switches from comedy to action, and back again....it's refreshing to find something that satisfies expectations."[12] Reviewing it for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of a possible four, writing: "The first lighthearted, laugh-oriented family Western in a long time, and one of the nice things about it is, it doesn't feel the need to justify its existence. It acts like it's the most natural thing in the world to be a Western."[5]

Box office

The film earned $101,631,272 (55.5%) in North America and $81,400,000 (44.5%) elsewhere for a worldwide total of $183,031,272.[4] This gross made it the number 12 highest grossing film in North America and the number 15 highest grossing film worldwide of 1994. As of 2013, the film is the number 6 highest grossing Western film in North America.[4]

Pre-release tracking showed that the film would open strongly,.[6] During its opening weekend in North America, Maverick earned $17.2 million million from 2,537 theaters – an average of $6,798 per theater – ranking as the number 1 film of the weekend,[4] and took a total of $41.8 million over its first two weeks of release.[6]

The movie was a box office success as it grossed over $183 million worldwide.[13][14]

Soundtrack

Main article: Maverick (soundtrack)

References

  1. ↑ Hall, Carla (May 15, 1994). "SUMMER SNEAKS '94 : Was, Is and Always a Maverick : His signatures are Rockford and Maverick--can anybody in Hollywood do cool and canny better than James Garner?". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 23, 2010. 
  2. ↑ "Maverick". bbfc.co.uk. British Board of Film Classification. May 26, 1994. Retrieved August 31, 2012. 
  3. ↑ Box Office Information for Maverick. The Wrap. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Maverick". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved August 31, 2012. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Ebert, Roger (May 20, 1994). "Maverick". Chicago Sun-Times (Sun-Times Media Group). Retrieved September 3, 2012. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Weinraub, Bernard (June 23, 1994). "At The `Maverick' Helm". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 2, 2012. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Portland, Steam Tug" (pdf). National Park Service. June 25, 1997. Archived from the original on February 2, 2013. Retrieved February 1, 2013. 
  8. ↑ "'Maverick' Scene Hinges On Approval". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved October 24, 2010. 
  9. ↑ Goldman, William (2000). William Goldman: Five Screenplays with Essays. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 474–479. ISBN 978-1-55783-362-4. 
  10. ↑ Goldman, William, Which Lie Did I Tell?, Bloomsbury, 2000 p 68
  11. ↑ "Maverick (1994)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 2, 2012. 
  12. ↑ "James Berardinelli review of Maverick". Retrieved February 12, 2010. 
  13. ↑ Fox, David J. (May 23, 1994). "Maverick Wins Big Pot at Box Office : Movies: An estimated $17.2-million take for the weekend is the biggest opening this year.". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 23, 2010. 
  14. ↑ Fox, David J. (June 1, 1994). "Memorial Day Weekend Box Office : A Mighty Big Take at the Cash Register". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 23, 2010. 

External links

Films directed by Richard Donner
Randy Newman
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Compilations
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Songs
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Works by William Goldman
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