Mask (1985) Universal/Drama RT: 127 minutes (Director’s Cut) Rated PG-13 (language, some sexual content, drug abuse, mature themes) Director: Peter Bogdanovich Screenplay: Anna Hamilton Phelan Music: Dennis Ricotta Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs Release date: March 8, 1985 (US) Cast: Cher, Sam Elliott, Eric Stoltz, Estelle Getty, Richard Dysart, Laura Dern, Micole Mercurio, Harry Carey Jr., Dennis Burkley, Lawrence Monoson, Ben Piazza, L. Craig King, Alexandra Powers, Kelly Jo Minter, Joe Unger, Todd Allen, Steve James, Cathy Arden, Andrew Robinson, Ivan J. Rado, Norman Kaplan, Nick Cassavetes, Les Dudek, Wayne Grace, Marsha Warfield. Box Office: $48.2M (US)
Rating: ****
I saw Mask at an advance sneak preview a week before its official release. It was co-featured with the most recent adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. I’m glad I saw that one first. What a bummer. After enduring nearly two hours of ugliness, suffering and despair, I was more than ready for a movie celebrating the triumph of the human spirit over adversity.
Mask marked a comeback for Peter Bogdanovich who followed a string of hits (The Last Picture Show, What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon) with a stream of flops (Daisy Miller, At Long Last Love and Nickelodeon) that all but killed his career. I had a good feeling about Mask as I waited for it to begin. I knew it would be special and I was right. It’s an outstanding film.
Based on a true story, Mask tells the story of Roy “Rocky” Dennis (Stoltz, The Wild Life), a teenager with an extremely rare medical condition called craniodiaphyseal dysplasia that causes disfiguring cranial enlargements and (typically) death at a young age. It’s similar to what John Merrick (aka The Elephant Man) had. It’s often referred to as “lionitis” because it gives the patient the appearance of a lion.
Rocky lives in Azusa, CA with his mother Rusty (Cher, Moonstruck), an irresponsible drug addict who hangs out with a biker gang. Despite her questionable lifestyle, she loves her son and fights for him to be accepted anywhere they go. As the movie opens, Rusty tries to enroll him at the local junior high school only to be told by the principal (Piazza, The Blues Brothers) that he might be better off in a special school. She bluntly informs him that his school will meet his needs just fine and refers all further inquiries to her lawyer B.D. Higgins. That’s B.D. as in Bull Dozer (Burkley, Wanted Dead or Alive), a hulking member of the biker gang she runs with. A routine visit to Rocky’s doctor becomes a real learning experience for the arrogant new doctor (Robinson, Dirty Harry) who volunteers to inform Rusty of her son’s short life expectancy (3-6 months, as usual). She heard this same song many times over. Her response is classic, “If I dug a grave every time one of you geniuses told me he was gonna die, I’d be eating f***in’ chop suey in China by now!” Let’s see June Cleaver or Carol Brady top that!
Mask follows Rocky through his final year of junior high. It’s always tough for the new kid to fit in and it’s doubly hard for Rocky due to his appearance. Not one to back down from a challenge, he perseveres and makes a success of the school year. Outside of the halls of junior academia, he’s an avid baseball card collector who’s especially fond of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers. He’s planning a motorcycle trip across Europe with his best friend Ben (Monoson, The Last American Virgin) after they graduate high school.
Meanwhile, Rocky worries about his mother and her wild lifestyle. He wants her to stop using drugs, but she doesn’t want to hear it. It looks like she might settle down after her old boyfriend Gar (Elliott, Roadhouse) rides back into town. He’s the proverbial “one that got away”. He loves Rusty and cares about Rocky as if he were his own son. He wants to provide stability for the both of them; he just finds it difficult to deal with Rusty’s addiction.
To be more precise, Mask takes us through the final year of Rocky’s life. We all know this is how his story ends; therefore, it isn’t a spoiler. No complaints to the contrary if you don’t mind. I’ll touch briefly on the major events. He graduates junior high with honors. His entire surrogate family is there to cheer him on. After a row with his mother, Rocky announces he’ll be volunteering at a camp for blind kids over the summer. It’s there he meets his first love, a beautiful blind girl named Diana (Dern, Blue Velvet). Back at home, Rusty is having a difficult time of it. She misses her son terribly. She has a complete emotional meltdown while trying to write him a letter. He eventually comes home and life goes on until…. well, you know.
Rarely have I watched a film with the emotional impact of Mask. I don’t just mean it in terms of it being a tearjerker. It’s more than just a “disease of the week” drama. It’s a beautiful and touching film about an extraordinary individual and the impact he had on others during his short life. It’s a story of motherly love. It’s about the strength of the human spirit. It’s anything and everything but maudlin. Physical appearance aside, Rocky Dennis is like any “normal” teenager. He never lets his “disability” hold him back from living life. He goes to school, hangs out with friends, argues with his mother and worries about girls. Rusty misguidedly tries to help her son by hiring a prostitute (Minter, Summer School). Her intentions are good, but we all know what they say about those.
Mask has its fair share of touching scenes like the one where we find out why Dozer never speaks. Like the other members of the gang, he cares about Rocky. Any one of them would do serious bodily harm to anybody that messes with Rocky. Although they might be a gang, they’re hardly the biker types audiences are used to seeing. When one hears the term “biker”, they likely envision something out of one of the countless B-movies produced by Roger Corman in the 60s and 70s. These ones in Mask are rough but decent people who would rather give blood than draw it. Rocky’s romance with Diana is sweet and innocent. Her blindness allows her see his inner beauty more clearly than sighted folks like her overprotective parents. She can’t see their reaction to him, but he can. It’s heartbreaking.
At heart, the real drama in Mask stems from the close mother-son relationship. The love between a mother and her child is unconditional. Rusty isn’t perfect, not by a long shot. She does drugs and sleeps around. She has a tense relationship with her father (Dysart, Pale Rider) who doesn’t approve of most of the choices she’s made. No matter her issues, she loves her son and he loves her. It shows in the loving way she takes care of him and he her. When he gets one of his excruciating headaches, a side effect of his condition, she talks to them in order to make them go away. It’s unorthodox to be sure, but it works.
The performances in Mask are nothing short of amazing, Bogdanovich chose his actors perfectly. Cher should have won the Oscar for her performance. It’s nothing short of flawless. Rusty is a woman who uses her tough exterior as a shield to hide her vulnerability and fragile emotional state. Cher never tries to portray Rusty as a saintly, selfless mother. She’s neither. She allows us to see the full Rusty, flaws and all. What Cher does in Mask is very epitome of a powerhouse performance. I’d expect nothing less from an actress of her caliber.
Stoltz also delivers a terrific performance as Rocky. His empathy for the character allows him to humanize Rocky the same way John Hurt did for John Merrick in The Elephant Man. It’s especially amazing when you consider the fact Stoltz does it under heavy makeup. Its one Oscar win was Best Makeup and it’s well-deserved. The makeup never overpowers the performer thereby eliminating the chances of Mask turning into some kind of freak show. Movies like this run the risk of becoming the cinematic equivalent of a carnival sideshow with a human oddity for spectators to gawk at in disbelief and horror.
When the studio was promoting Mask, they made a point of not revealing Rocky’s face in any of the advertising. It could be seen as a marketing technique, something designed to pique curiosity and urge people to buy tickets so they can see what Rocky looks like. OR it could be argued the studio wanted to downplay his physical deformities so the audience would see it as a drama about an ordinary American teenager who happens to have an extraordinary condition. Either way, his initial appearance at the beginning is well-handled. Bogdanovich has the cameraman approach Rocky from behind as he’s getting dressed in the morning only proving brief glimpses of his appearance until he finally turns around and faces the camera. It’s a little unsettling at first, but you get used to it which enables the viewer to look past Rocky’s looks and see his humanity.
What’s the difference between the theatrical cut and Director’s Cut? The biggie is the presence of Bruce Springsteen’s music. It was a highly publicized controversy when Universal replaced Springsteen’s music with Bob Seger tunes. Bogdanovich didn’t approve, but there were legal complications regarding the use of Bruce’s songs “Badlands”, “Thunder Road” and “The Promised Land”. They were replaced with “Katmandu” and “Roll Me Away”. While Seger’s music is great and it’s the version I grew up with, Bruce’s music strengthens the overall emotional impact. In addition, two deleted sequences are re-inserted; they’re both really good. The first one is a scene where Rusty and Rocky sing “Little Egypt” in front of a campfire. It’s always good to hear Cher sing. She has an amazing voice, so powerful and rich. The other is a sequence showing a biker funeral and the ritual of burying the deceased with his motorcycle. I have no idea why the studio cut out these scenes; they make an already excellent movie even better.
I can’t find a single flaw in Mask. It transcends the disease of the week genre to become a one of a kind drama. It’s a wonderful, timeless film that will touch the hearts of viewers for generations to come. I heat to resort to such clichés, but it happens to be the truth in this case.
