ALASKA
A film review by Alexander F. Relyea
Copyright 1996 Alexander F. Relyea
Fraser Heston's new film ALASKA has scenery befitting an IMAX film with cinematography to match. Unfortunately, the horrid script and the sometimes laughable acting make you wish for more scenes without people. ALASKA is apparently an attempt to cross FLIPPER with CLIFFHANGER, featuring Vincent Kartheiser (THE INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD) as the Stallone character. This works about as well as one might expect, and the result is too much bad acting, too many plot holes, and not nearly enough shots of the beautiful Alaskan scenery.
ALASKA features Dirk Benedict as Jake Barnes, a former jumbo jet pilot from Chicago who came to Quincy, Alaska with his two children following the death of his wife. Instead of flying for an airline, Jake now flies a supply run for the small towns of Alaska. His daughter Jessie (Thora Birch) is thrilled with the move because it helps her become one with nature, and she is quite adept at handling a kayak. His son Sean (Kartheiser) is absolutely miserable. There's nothing for him to do, and he's expected to clean up when he spills motor oil. He drowns his sorrows in video games and his passion for the Chicago Cubs (there is a pitiful attempt to create some cub symbolism throughout the movie which most audiences will mercifully miss). Charlton Heston also appears from time to time as a poacher called Perry. His role only ties in peripherally to the other characters, and although he's supposed to be evil incarnate, he comes across as scary as Paul Hogan in FLIPPER.
The film begins with brief introductions of all the major characters, and most of the minor ones. Soon after Sean tells Jake "I wish you had died instead of Mom!", Jake is compelled to fly emergency medical supplies to some small town. In the ensuing storm, Jessie loses radio contact with her father, and he subsequently crashes. The search and rescue helicopter finds a gum wrapper and an old shoe but can't find Jake's *bright yellow piper cub.* They also manage to miss the flare that Jake fires. After learning that the search is being aborted, Sean decides to search for his father himself. Jessie insists on coming along, and the search is afoot.
The kids quickly find a poacher's camp, and there they find an imprisoned polar bear cub. Naturally Jessie, our budding environmentalist, convinces Sean to help free the bear. For some reason the bear, cleverly named Cubby, decides to follow the kids, and is in turn pursued by Perry who wants him back. Meanwhile, there are a number of foolish plot contrivances including the search and rescue pilot realizing that Sean and Jessie have gone to look for their father by finding a bunch of backwoods equipment *on their kitchen table.* Cubby effectively adopts Sean, and the relationship is consummated in a weird dream sequence which I did not recognize as such until the credits.
I won't bore you with the details of the trials and tribulations that the three face on their way to rescue Jake (without a travois or any form of radio), but Heston isn't as generous. The poorly written script treats Sean most harshly, but Kartheiser's overdone performance earns him no sympathy. Perry's function appears to be one of spouting platitudes, and his opening soliloquy is bound to cause titters. The soundtrack is a nightmare, written as if the bombastic score will enhance a flat story and fill the holes in the plot. ALASKA is only worth watching if you ignore the eminently forgettable characters, and consider the film as sponsored by the Alaska Department of Tourism, and it is on that basis that I give it *1/2 of ****.
-- Alex Relyea SMU Box 2575 relyea@seas.smu.edu Dallas, TX 75275-2575 frelyea@power.cis.smu.edu Chair of SMU Student Branch of IEEE 2 John 12
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