Maverick (film)
Maverick | |
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Directed by | Richard Donner[1] |
Screenplay by | William Goldman |
Based on | Maverick by Roy Huggins |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond |
Edited by |
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Music by | Randy Newman |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 127 minutes[2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $75 million[3] |
Box office | $183 million[4] |
Maverick is a 1994 American Western comedy film directed by Richard Donner, written by William Goldman, and starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner. Based on the 1957–1962 television series of the same name created by Roy Huggins and originally starring James Garner, the film stars Gibson as Bret Maverick, a card player and con artist who collects money in order to enter a high-stakes poker game. He is joined in his adventure by Annabelle Bransford (Foster), another con artist, and Marshal Zane Cooper (Garner), a lawman. The supporting cast features Graham Greene, James Coburn, Alfred Molina and many cameo appearances by Western film actors, country music stars and other actors.
Maverick was filmed from August to December 1993. Released theatrically by Warner Bros. on May 20, 1994, the film was both a critical and commercial success, having grossed over $183 million worldwide. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
Plot
In the
Maverick and Bransford share a stagecoach with Marshal Zane Cooper, and together the three set out of Crystal River. They narrowly escape a fatal plunge into a ravine after their elderly driver suddenly dies, and later aid a group of missionary settlers who have been robbed by bandits disguised as
Still seething over his loss in the Crystal River game, Angel receives a telegram instructing him to stop Maverick. Angel and his men catch Maverick and try to hang him, but he escapes after they have departed. Still $2,000 short, he makes his way to the Lauren Belle and finds Bransford, who is still $4,000 short herself. Spotting the Archduke aboard, Maverick poses as a Bureau of Indian Affairs agent investigating the shooting of Indians for game, conning the Archduke out of $6,000 to cover his and Bransford's entry.
During the closing ceremony, Cooper steals the prize money and escapes. Later that night, Cooper secretly meets with Duvall, revealing that the two had struck a deal to steal the money for themselves and that Angel was working for Duvall. As Duvall draws a gun and tries to break the deal, Maverick appears and takes back the money, having tracked them down. Some time later, Cooper corners Maverick while the latter is enjoying a hot bath; the two are revealed to be father and son who had planned the scheme long in advance. As both men relax in the baths, Bransford arrives, having discerned their relationship from their similar physiques and mannerisms. She takes the satchel containing the prize money and departs, after which Maverick reveals to Cooper that he had followed the latter's advice and hidden half of it in his boots. He muses that retrieving the remaining $250,000 will be "fun".
Cast
- Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick
- Jodie Foster as Annabelle Bransford
- James Garner as Zane Cooper
- Graham Greene as Joseph
- Alfred Molina as Angel
- James Coburn as Commodore Duvall
- Dub Taylor as Room Clerk
- Dan Hedaya as Twitchy
- Paul L. Smith as Archduke
- Geoffrey Lewis as Matthew Wicker / Eugene (bank manager)
- Max Perlich as John Wesley Hardin
There are various 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 (uncredited), Hal Ketchum and Corey Feldman as bank robbers; Read Morgan and Steve Kahan as card dealers; Art LaFleur and Leo Gordon as poker players at Maverick's first game; Paul Brinegar as the stagecoach driver; Denver Pyle as a cheating old gambler;[5] Robert Fuller, Doug McClure, Henry Darrow, William Smith and Charles Dierkop as riverboat poker players; William Marshall as a riverboat poker player defeated by Angel; 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 Margaret Mary, colleague of missionary Mary Margaret, in an uncredited appearance. Additional cameos cut from the film included Alice Cooper as the town drunk, Linda Hunt as a magician and Clint Walker as a sheriff.
Leo Gordon had played a semi-regular supporting character in seasons one and two of the original Maverick TV show, gambler Big Mike McComb. Gordon also later wrote a few episodes of the show. Margot Kidder had been Garner's co-star and onscreen love interest in the short-lived western TV series
Various country music singers also cameo, including
Production
Development
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.[7] The scene was shot with Linda Hunt playing the hermit but it was felt it did not work in the context of the rest of the movie and was cut.[8]
Garner wrote in his memoirs that Richard Donner originally wanted Paul Newman to play Zane Cooper but Newman was not interested.[9]
Filming
Principal photography began on August 16, 1993 and concluded on December 10. Parts of the film were shot at
Vehicles
The steamboat used in the film—dubbed the Lauren Belle—was the
Soundtrack
The soundtrack featured three chart singles: "Renegades, Rebels and Rogues" by Tracy Lawrence,[13] "A Good Run of Bad Luck" by Clint Black (which also appeared on his album No Time to Kill),[14] and "Something Already Gone" by Carlene Carter. Also included on the album was an all-star rendition of "Amazing Grace", from which all royalties were donated to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.[15]
Reception
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 made it the 12th highest-grossing film in North America and the 15th highest-grossing film worldwide of 1994. As of 2013, the film is the 6th 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 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.[16][17]
Critical response
Maverick has received generally favorable reviews.[6] On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 68% rating based on reviews from 56 critics, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's consensus states: "It isn't terribly deep, but it's witty and undeniably charming, and the cast is obviously having fun."[18] On Metacritic it has a score of 62% based on reviews from 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[19] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A− on scale of A to F.[20]
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."[21] Reviewing it for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, writing that the film is "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]
Other media
In September 1994, Data East pinball released a pinball machine based on the film. The backglass featured the likeness of Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and other stars of the film.[22][23]
References
- The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 23, 2010.
- ^ "Maverick". bbfc.co.uk. British Board of Film Classification. May 26, 1994. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
- The Wrap. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
- ^ Amazon.com. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
- ^ a b c Ebert, Roger (May 20, 1994). "Maverick". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
- ^ a b c d Weinraub, Bernard (June 23, 1994). "At The 'Maverick' Helm". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 2, 2012.
- ^
ISBN 978-1-55783-362-4.
- ^ Goldman, William, Which Lie Did I Tell?, Bloomsbury, 2000 p 68
- ISBN 978-1451642612.
- ISBN 9781423605874.
- ^ a b "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Portland, Steam Tug" (pdf). National Park Service. June 25, 1997. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 2, 2013. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
- ^ "'Maverick' Scene Hinges On Approval". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-89820-177-2.
- ^ Whitburn, pp. 50-51
- ^ Maverick (CD booklet). Various artists. Atlantic Records. 1994. 82595.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 23, 2010.
- The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 23, 2010.
- ^ "Maverick". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 20, 2022.
- ^ "Maverick". Metacritic. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
- ^ "MAVERICK (1994) A-". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018.
- ^ "James Berardinelli review of Maverick". Retrieved February 12, 2010.
- ^ "Maverick Pinball Machine (Data East, 1994) | Pinside Game Archive".
- ^ "Internet Pinball Machine Database: Data East 'Maverick the Movie'".
External links
- Maverick at AllMovie
- Maverick at Box Office Mojo
- Maverick at IMDb
- James Garner Interview Archived January 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine on the Charlie Rose Show