FREE WILLY 3: THE RESCUE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
"Something just occurred to me," says the oceanic research scientist hot in pursuit of the illegal whalers. "When we find them, what are we going to do?" Just like the formula script of FREE WILLY 3: THE RESCUE, she does not think ahead. John Mattson, the writer of FREE WILLY 2: THE ADVENTURE HOME, again connects the dots to give us basically the same movie plus one.
A few minor things have changed. Jesse, played placidly again by Jason James Richter, has aged. To emphasize his maturing, Jessie first appears driving along, flirting with a carload of girls, and listening to rock n' roll. Having gotten that over with, he goes back to being a 17-year-old who plays a part better suited to a younger actor. The script attempts to compensate by giving him a job as a research assistant and by providing him with a younger sidekick.
The setup for this retelling of the FREE WILLY story has the oceanic researcher, Drew, played without emotion by Annie Corley, noting that the Orca population is down by 10 per cent and that it is their mission to find out why. Besides Jesse and the ship's captain and mate, Randolph is on board. Randolph, played by August Schellenberg, is again the most animated of the characters.
Among the best and worst parts of the plot are the villains. The head of the whalers is a third generation whaler named John Wesley. Played by Patrick Kilpatrick, John is the only complex character in the story. In easily the most refreshing part of the picture, the film explores briefly the other side of an environmental issue. Hollywood long ago decided that when it comes to the environment, there is only one defensible position. This script, on the other hand, explains John's life as a whaler with some sympathy to his admittedly illegal profession. John tells his son Max, played wide-eyed by ten-year-old Vincent Berry, that his grandfather proudly harvested the whale oil that was used to light the lamps of America. (Max ends up bonding with Jesse and the whales and turning against his father's work albeit not really against his father per se.)
The problem with this approach is that it becomes hard to hate a bad guy who seems trapped in his profession and who is such a good father. Without an adequate villain, the show lacks much credible tension.
TV director Sam Pillsbury's film feels like a direct-to-video production, which is how the inevitable FREE WILLY 4 should be marketed. As a two dollar rental that only the kids watch, the movie becomes a more palatable proposition. Within the confines of a theater, Pillsbury's lethargic pacing and the script's paucity of ideas become all too apparent.
The dialog is full of the platitudes one might find in a substandard third grade reader. Typical is John's lecture to his son. "Whales aren't people," he argues. "They don't feel. They're just fish."
The only reason to see the show are the frolicking whale sequences, framed nicely by the rugged mountains of the Pacific Northwest coast. As the big black and white beauties go splashing in the deep blue waters, the sun glistens on the ocean's surface. The most remarkable scenes are those shot underwater, featuring close-ups of the people and the whales looking eye-to-eye. The whale is as naturally at home there as the people are shocked to be paddling in front of a whale's mouth. Still, a half hour short film of just these scenes would have been much preferable to a feature length movie padded with the recycled material from the last two movies in the series.
If your kids want to see this film, try to talk up the advantages of waiting for it to come out on video. Maybe by then they will have forgotten, and you can suggest some much better show at the video rental store instead.
FREE WILLY 3: THE RESCUE runs 1:26. It is rated PG for whale hunting and one barroom fight. The scene where WILLY gets shot with a spear may be too much for kids under 6, but for older ones the show would be fine. My son Jeffrey, age 8, thought the film was great but complained that all the FREE WILLY pictures have the same story. Why can't they do something different, he argued. My sentiments exactly. I give thumbs down to this lame rehash and award it * 1/2 for at least having the courage to try to tell two sides of an environmental issue.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: August 5, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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