Bottle Rocket
The Motel Adventure
Wes Anderson (1996)
It would seem that my buddy Nathan and I have watched Bottle Rocket too many times. When he traveled to a different part of the world, our subject line for our emails would contain lines from the film.
When I told him, it was time for him to visit, it read "Anthony, when are you coming home?"
He responded with "I can't come home Grace, I'm an adult now." (By the way my name is not Grace)
And when he could come, it read "Mr. H, we are coming home."
When we lost touch with a common friend "He flew the coup."
When he started something new, my response was "I have never known you to be all that athletic."
Now to many of you who have not watched this film, all this must sound like a complete nonsense. But if you have watched this film more than once maybe not as many times as me, these lines might start a giggle or two. No Shakespearean grandness of meaning or importance. Like its title, there is a childlike lightness in Bottle Rocket, an element you can find in all of Wes Anderson's films. The characters are stuck in some childhood past, unable to grow up and even when they consciously try to become or think like adults, their solutions and actions are childlike. Take for example, Dignan's (Owen Wilson) notes or plans for him and Anthony (Luke Wilson) for the next 25 years-
Anderson's other (wonderful) films seem to be variations on Bottle Rocket. Like his characters, Wes Anderson seems to have also refused change.
There is many reasons why I love this film, one of the sillier ones is my fetishism for motels. Not the run down, beat up ones with a pimp and a prostitute around every corner but the flat sprawling ones in the middle of nowheres. I just love the flatness, cement floors, the communal archietecture, walking barefoot to get ice or the pool that is been barely touched. People, lives, drama hiding behind closed doors. Everyone including yourself with a different but mysterious reason to be in this transitionary place. Anthony, Dignan and Bob find themselves at the motel because they are on the run from "Johnny Law" as they have just robbed a bookstore. Expecting a bigger high, Anthony and Bob are disappointed as they quickly find themselves bored. Dignan, the self-appointed leader, decides to show them that "crime does pay" by booking a room in the motel. However, the piddly booty can only afford a small cramped room.
The murky pool is no better.
Emerging from the water, Anthony is disappointed. But a sweet, foreign tune starts to call his attention.
posted by Ajit Anthony Prem at Wednesday, April 13, 2005 0 comments
Wes Anderson (1996)
It would seem that my buddy Nathan and I have watched Bottle Rocket too many times. When he traveled to a different part of the world, our subject line for our emails would contain lines from the film.
When I told him, it was time for him to visit, it read "Anthony, when are you coming home?"
He responded with "I can't come home Grace, I'm an adult now." (By the way my name is not Grace)
And when he could come, it read "Mr. H, we are coming home."
When we lost touch with a common friend "He flew the coup."
When he started something new, my response was "I have never known you to be all that athletic."
Now to many of you who have not watched this film, all this must sound like a complete nonsense. But if you have watched this film more than once maybe not as many times as me, these lines might start a giggle or two. No Shakespearean grandness of meaning or importance. Like its title, there is a childlike lightness in Bottle Rocket, an element you can find in all of Wes Anderson's films. The characters are stuck in some childhood past, unable to grow up and even when they consciously try to become or think like adults, their solutions and actions are childlike. Take for example, Dignan's (Owen Wilson) notes or plans for him and Anthony (Luke Wilson) for the next 25 years-
Anderson's other (wonderful) films seem to be variations on Bottle Rocket. Like his characters, Wes Anderson seems to have also refused change.
There is many reasons why I love this film, one of the sillier ones is my fetishism for motels. Not the run down, beat up ones with a pimp and a prostitute around every corner but the flat sprawling ones in the middle of nowheres. I just love the flatness, cement floors, the communal archietecture, walking barefoot to get ice or the pool that is been barely touched. People, lives, drama hiding behind closed doors. Everyone including yourself with a different but mysterious reason to be in this transitionary place. Anthony, Dignan and Bob find themselves at the motel because they are on the run from "Johnny Law" as they have just robbed a bookstore. Expecting a bigger high, Anthony and Bob are disappointed as they quickly find themselves bored. Dignan, the self-appointed leader, decides to show them that "crime does pay" by booking a room in the motel. However, the piddly booty can only afford a small cramped room.
The murky pool is no better.
Emerging from the water, Anthony is disappointed. But a sweet, foreign tune starts to call his attention.
posted by Ajit Anthony Prem at Wednesday, April 13, 2005 0 comments
