The Survivors

The Survivors (1983)

Director: Michael Ritchie

Cast: Robin Williams, Walter Matthau, Jerry Reed, James Wainwright, Kristen Vigard, Annie McEnroe

Writer: Michael Leeson

Synopsis:
After losing their jobs, Donald Quinelle (Wiliams) and Sonny Paluso (Matthau) find themselves at a diner during a robbery. Donald and Sonny manage to foil the robbery, revealing the robber, Jack's (Reed) face in the process and Donald ends up being shot. Jack, who is a hired killer, discovers Donald and Sonny's identities and plans to kill them to keep his murderous activities secret. Sonny convinces him that he won't tell a soul who he is and tries to convince Donald to do the same. Unfortunately, recent experiences have caused Donald to go off the deep end and he joins a group of wacko survivalists in the Vermont wilderness. Instead of keeping quiet, Donald provokes Jack in an attempt to instigate an one-on-one duel with the hired gun. Hilarity ensues.

First Impressions
I was about six years old when this movie hit theaters, so I didn't actually see it until several years later. I was around 13 or 14 and my brother, who was quite into movies at this time had seen it and was constantly quoting lines from the movie, most of which amused me a great deal. Eventually we got a hold of a copy from my aunt who worked at a video store and I thought it was the funniest damn thing I'd ever seen. This was vintage Robin Williams at his most manic and it was terrific. I managed to pick the movie up on DVD about 10 years ago and it's been about that long since I've seen it. As with all comedies, I'm wondering if the humor holds up today.

Story/Direction: 

"I'm sorry, I'm going to have to blow a large hole in your skeevy heart."

When re-watching this film I noticed a couple of things. First of all, the humor, while still amusing, didn't quite bring out a lot of full-on laughs for me. I don't think the humor was dated (more on that in a bit) but it was more that I knew what was coming. With Robin Williams films, especially the earlier ones, much of the humor was that you didn't know what he was going to say or do and the surprise factor really plays a lot into the laughs. In this instance, even though it had been years since I'd seen the film, I was still very familiar with many of the quotes and hijinks so I was expecting much of the silliness ahead of time. I still thought the jokes were good but they couldn't elicit more than a hearty chuckle out of me. That being said, though, I think someone viewing this for the first time would be laughing out loud at Williams' crazy antics and Matthau's dry sarcasm.

The other thing I noticed was how relevant the subject matter still was more than 30 years later. With older comedies, jokes often fall flat because they delve into issues that were happening at the time or make jokes about things that it's not cool to joke about anymore. The Survivors was different, though, because a lot of the jokes revolved around things that still come up in conversation today. The movie points and laughs at things like a struggling U.S. economy, the futility of American bureaucracy, the constant fear that society is about to crumble and, of course, the ever-present gun debate. Honestly, none of those issues would be out of place in a modern comedy. In fact, the movie did a great job in showing how much and how little has changed in the last 37 years.

As far as direction goes, Ritchie does a fine job. It's an 80s screwball comedy starring Robin Williams, so all he really had to do was point the camera at Robin at let him do most of the heavy lifting. I mean, there's nothing overly exceptional about the direction, not anything terrible either. It's remarkably unremarkable. That's all you can really ask for in a movie like this.

Acting
Once again, acting is not something I consider too deeply when reviewing a comedy. As I've mentioned before, comedic acting is quite different than dramatic acting and just because you're good at one, doesn't mean you'll be good at the other. That being said, Robin Williams (who excelled at both types of acting, by the way) is great in this movie. He starts out playing Donald as a fairly buttoned-down, accountant-type character, who eventually shifts into a manic, impulsive nutbar (which is definitely Williams' wheelhouse). Williams was so adept at dropping memorable and quotable lines, most of which I'd bet were improvised. Quotes like calling Jack a "wart on the ass of society" or telling Sonny that he'll "smoke a turd in hell" for calling another character an asshole are just pure Williams insanity. Watching Williams' performance in this film made me smile but, at the same time, made me sad because we won't get any more of his unique style of comedy.

The late Walter Matthau is also great in this movie. Where Donald wears his emotions on his sleeve, Sonny is much more reserved. Matthau plays the character with his trademark dry sarcasm and world-weary point of view, which plays of nicely against Williams' antics. Matthau also injects a good amount of pathos in the character of Sonny, a single father who is just trying to make ends meet after the loss of his business. I believe that for goofball comedies like this to work, they need a good straight made for the crazy guy to bounce off of and Matthau handles that role admirably.

Finally, let's talk about Jerry Reed, who I just realized is also no longer with us. Reed was probably best known for his music, rather than his acting but he still managed to pull together a few acting gigs in some big movies such as Smokey and the Bandit,  and The Waterboy. Reed has a great sense of comic timing and he had great chemistry with the other two leads. He plays the "antagonist" of the film in such a likable way that the viewer ends up ultimately caring about him, even though he claims to have killed Jimmy Hoffa.

Visual/Special Effects
There's not really much to see here as far as effects go. It's not that type of movie. However, I would note that, even though it was made in the early 80s, the film reminded me very much of one made in the 70s. It was shot with a very grey and muted color palette that was in such contrast to the bright and colorful style of the 80s that I almost forgot when the movie was made. Not to mention, that the grey visuals really played off well against the foolishness of the film.

Score/Music
The music in this movie, done by Paul Chihara, was well...it was...okay? I honestly can't remember any music in this film (I'm sure it had some sort of score) except for the opening song performed by Randy Newman. I do not care for the music of Randy Newman, as I find his voice grating and not good. So I'm inclined to say that the music here could've been better.

Action
There actually a fair bit of action in this movie. It's played mostly for laughs, mind you, but there is a higher than average amount of action for a pure comedy. That being said, none of the action is particularly well-choreographed, which was probably by design since it's funnier that way.

Final Verdict
While I didn't get as many laugh out loud moments from this movie as I'd hoped, it still remains a favorite of mine, with many quotable lines. For Williams or Matthau fans it's a must see, in my opinion.