Bottle Rocket

Red = Spoilers 

Bottle Rocket is Wes Anderson’s first film from 1996. It’s a comedy/drama/love story that takes place in Arizona. It was co-written by Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson and was the first movie starring the Wilson brothers.  

What’s it about? Anthony, who is currently staying in a mental hospital, pretends to break out for the sake of his friend, Dignan, who is obsessed with becoming a career criminal. They go on to rob Anthony’s house and try to plan more crimes with their friend Bob. They then go on to rob a bookstore and go on the run from the law to a small hotel where Anthony meets Inez, the housekeeper. After a brief infatuation, Bob takes his car back, and Anthony and Dignan are forced to go home. Anthony begins to work with Bob while Dignan begins working with Mr. Henry, a notorious thief. Dignan convinces Anthony to get him and Bob to come and work with Mr. Henry on a job and it all goes wrong, getting Dignan tossed in jail while Mr. Henry ends up robbing Bobs house.  

What’s good? It has a lot of good scenes. The robbery scenes are pretty funny. They’re an inept bunch of guys trying to do a job meant for professionals. That’s kind of the point. As usual, with Wes Anderson films, the dialogue is the centerpiece of the film. It’s the conversation between the people that really makes everything happen. Everything else is secondary. And the delivery of the people, even though they’re all just beginning their careers, is done as well as any other seasoned actor could’ve done it. 

What’s bad? It does get kind of flat at some points. It seems to drag on a little in the middle, with the hotel bit. I don’t even think that went anywhere with Inez. That just kind of fizzled out. But that’s besides that point. All in all, it worked out well. 

The acting? The acting by the main cast was done very well. The Owen brothers and Robert Musgrave did a great job in their roles. Even Inez, for the short time she was on camera, did a good job. En Espanol, at any rate… 

The effects? There really weren’t any effects to mention. And even if there were, they were practical, so you wouldn’t have noticed them anyways. The blood on Luke Wilson’s nose in the scene where Owen punched him was probably a popped blood packet or something. That was really the only special effect in the entire movie. 

The cast? For Wes Anderson’s first film, you can’t expect him to get superstars. This was the Owen Brother’s first film. It launched their careers. And James Caan wasn’t exactly a lightweight, either.  

The Owen Brothers. They were unknown before this movie, and most people don’t even know about this movie. I know I didn’t hear about it until recently. It had a limited release in theaters and wasn’t a big commercial success. But like most other Wes Anderson films, it went over well with critics and fans alike, and propped up the people in it, and onward the Owen Brothers went… 

Wes Anderson’s first movie. This began Wes Anderon’s weird and wacky migration through moviemaking. His ideas for filmmaking are unrivaled by anybody else. He’s not better than everyone else, there’s just nobody that can do it like he does. 

It got a lot more energetic near the end. Near the end, with the robbery and everything else starts to go wrong, well, I guess that’s the climax of a story, isn’t it? It only makes sense that everything gets a lot more energetic. Now that I’m writing it, I almost feel foolish… 

It ended well. Apart from that, it did end well, I think. You get a little bit of a joke at the end when Dignan tries to convince the others to help him break him out of jail, because you’re pretty sure that he would want to try it. But it’s a good ending the way that it goes. 

So, you should definitely see this relatively obscure Wes Anderson film. Not only is it the beginning of several very prominent careers, but it’s just in and of itself, worth watching. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…