{"id":9412,"date":"2024-11-30T12:05:41","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T17:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9412"},"modified":"2024-11-30T12:05:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T17:05:41","slug":"mask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/30\/mask\/","title":{"rendered":"Mask"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mask <\/strong>(1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 127 minutes (Director\u2019s Cut)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, some sexual content, drug abuse, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Bogdanovich\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Anna Hamilton Phelan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dennis Ricotta\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 8, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $48.2M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0I saw Mask<\/strong> at an advance sneak preview a week before its official release. It was co-featured with the most recent adaptation of George Orwell\u2019s dystopian novel 1984. I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mask<\/strong> marked a comeback for Peter Bogdanovich who followed a string of hits (The Last Picture Show, What\u2019s 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\u2019s an outstanding film.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Based on a true story, Mask<\/strong> 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\u2019s often referred to as “lionitis” because it gives the patient the appearance of a lion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Rocky 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\u2019s 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\u2019s see June Cleaver or Carol Brady top that!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mask<\/strong> follows Rocky through his final year of junior high. It\u2019s always tough for the new kid to fit in and it\u2019s 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\u2019s an avid baseball card collector who’s especially fond of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers. He\u2019s planning a motorcycle trip across Europe with his best friend Ben (Monoson, The Last American Virgin) after they graduate high school.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, 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 \u201cone that got away\u201d. 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\u2019s addiction.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To be more precise, Mask<\/strong> takes us through the final year of Rocky\u2019s life. We all know this is how his story ends; therefore, it isn\u2019t a spoiler. No complaints to the contrary if you don\u2019t mind. I\u2019ll 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\u2019ll be volunteering at a camp for blind kids over the summer. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Rarely have I watched a film with the emotional impact of Mask<\/strong>. I don\u2019t just mean it in terms of it being a tearjerker. It\u2019s more than just a \u201cdisease of the week\u201d 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\u2019s about the strength of the human spirit. It\u2019s anything and everything but maudlin. Physical appearance aside, Rocky Dennis is like any \u201cnormal\u201d teenager. He never lets his \u201cdisability\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mask<\/strong> 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<\/strong> are rough but decent people who would rather give blood than draw it. Rocky\u2019s 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\u2019t see their reaction to him, but he can. It\u2019s heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At heart, the real drama in Mask<\/strong> 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\u2019t approve of most of the choices she\u2019s 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\u2019s unorthodox to be sure, but it works.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The performances in Mask<\/strong> are nothing short of amazing, Bogdanovich chose his actors perfectly. Cher should have won the Oscar for her performance. It\u2019s 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\u2019s neither. She allows us to see the full Rusty, flaws and all. What Cher does in Mask<\/strong> is<\/strong> very epitome of a powerhouse performance. I\u2019d expect nothing less from an actress of her caliber.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Stoltz 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\u2019s especially amazing when you consider the fact Stoltz does it under heavy makeup. Its one Oscar win was Best Makeup and it\u2019s well-deserved. The makeup never overpowers the performer thereby eliminating the chances of Mask<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When the studio was promoting Mask<\/strong>, 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\u2019s looks and see his humanity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What\u2019s the difference between the theatrical cut and Director\u2019s Cut? The biggie is the presence of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s music. It was a highly publicized controversy when Universal replaced Springsteen’s music with Bob Seger tunes. Bogdanovich didn\u2019t approve, but there were legal complications regarding the use of Bruce\u2019s songs \u201cBadlands\u201d, \u201cThunder Road\u201d and \u201cThe Promised Land\u201d. They were replaced with \u201cKatmandu\u201d and \u201cRoll Me Away\u201d. While Seger\u2019s music is great and it\u2019s the version I grew up with, Bruce\u2019s 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 \u201cLittle Egypt\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can’t find a single flaw in Mask<\/strong>. It transcends the disease of the week genre to become a one of a kind drama. It\u2019s a wonderful, timeless film that will touch the hearts of viewers for generations to come. I heat to resort to such clich\u00e9s, but it happens to be the truth in this case.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mask (1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 127 minutes (Director\u2019s Cut)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, some sexual content, drug abuse, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Bogdanovich\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Anna Hamilton Phelan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dennis Ricotta\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 8, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Cher, Sam Elliott, Eric Stoltz, Estelle Getty, Richard Dysart, Laura Dern, Micole Mercurio, Harry Carey Jr., Dennis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Mask-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9412"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9613,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9412\/revisions\/9613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}