MOVIE NEWS – Harrison Ford received his first and only Oscar nomination for his impressive performance as Detective John Book in the 1985 crime thriller Witness. Following the success of The Little Eyewitness, Ford was eager to work with the film’s director, Peter Weir, again on a project that would give him another chance to step away from his usual roles. The result was the 1986 drama Mosquito Coast, in which Ford played Allie Fox, a disillusioned and idealistic inventor who leaves the United States with his wife and children and settles in the jungles of Central America, where Allie plans to build a utopian civilization, only to eventually turn it into a dystopia.

Mosquito Beach is a gripping and disturbing character study of a would-be savior who, overconfident in his own genius, is unable to process the devastating consequences of his irresponsible actions. Ford surprised audiences in 1986 with the unsympathetic character, who were accustomed to seeing him as the flawed but victorious Han Solo and Indiana Jones in the two biggest film franchises. This duality permeates Mosquito Coast, where Allie considers herself a hero while everyone else sees her as a villain.

The TV adaptation of Mosquito Coast takes a much more pragmatic approach to the source material, portraying Allie Fox, played by Justin Theroux, as a man who leaves the industrial world to live a simple life, but this is constantly disrupted by external factors such as the police and Mexican drug cartel hitmen.

In contrast, the film adaptation focuses primarily on Harrison Ford’s Allie Fox’s misguided attempts to impose her will on nature in the Belizean rainforest, where Allie wants to create a kingdom of which she is the absolute ruler. In the film, Allie purchases a small Belizean village, Jeronimo, where Allie builds a revolutionary ice maker that can transform the lives of the villagers, whom Allie approaches condescendingly as a benevolent helper and savior.

However, Allie’s adventure in Belize is not about helping people, but about proving her rightness and superiority. Allie’s lack of self-awareness becomes apparent when three armed rebels arrive in Jeronimo to use the village as a base without permission. Allie believes she can simply outsmart the gunmen, so she traps them in the ice maker, where the frozen gunmen try to escape.

To Allie’s horror, the gunfire triggers an explosion that destroys the machine and her family’s home, while poisoning the river, forcing Allie and her family to flee the village. When her wife suggests they return to the United States, Allie, who has become increasingly authoritarian, lies to her family and tells them that the United States has been destroyed by nuclear war.

Mosquito Coast is one of Harrison Ford’s biggest box office flops

Mosquito Beach grossed less than $15 million domestically, the lowest-grossing film of any Harrison Ford film of the 1980s. The box office failure of Mosquito Coast had a negative impact on Ford’s career, as it made him hesitant to take creative risks in the decades that followed.

One of the film’s most vocal critics was Roger Ebert, who found Mosquito Beach an unpleasant experience. In his two-star review, Ebert lamented the hellish ordeal Allie Fox puts his wife and children through in the film. Ebert wrote:

“In Mosquito Coast, Harrison Ford plays Fox, and one of the ironies of the film is that he does a very good job. Ford creates a character who is narrow-minded, uncaring about his family or anyone else, completely lacking in humor, and egotistical to the point of madness. It’s a brilliant performance—so effective that we can barely bear to spend two hours in the company of this complete idiot.”

Allie Fox remains one of Ford’s favorite roles

Just as Allie Fox stubbornly and tragically refuses to give up on the film in Mosquito Coast, Harrison Ford rejected the film’s initial rejection in 1986 and has defended it for decades. In a 1986 United Press International interview, Ford passionately defended the film against critics. Ford said:

“The film is something that no one has seen before, so it needs to be explained to the public. It’s received mixed reviews, and I feel like it’s been treated unfairly in some quarters. I’ve never seen a film that’s been so badly treated by the critics, and I think they’re wrong. It’s the kind of film that really gets to the audience in three days. It’s disturbing and thought-provoking. It’s captivating.”

On an appearance on Inside the Actors Studio in 2000, Ford continued to express his love for the film and his portrayal of Allie Fox when host James Lipton asked him why he considered Allie Fox one of his favorite roles. Ford said:

“I love that guy [Allie Fox]. He’s a real pain in the ass. Paul Theroux’s book has such wonderful language, and I fell in love with the words and the character. He’s tragic. Yes, he’s cruel, but that’s not all. He went that far in the book. I wasn’t afraid to go that far in the movie. There’s a truth to Allie Fox’s story that I wanted to be a part of.”

Source: MovieWeb