River Phoenix

The Thing Called Love (Director's Cut)
$12.98
The story is as old as the hills. Two men love one woman, like John Wayne and James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, pilgrim. Only here in The Thing Called Love it's River Phoenix and Dermot Mulroney fighting over Samantha Mathis, and for comic relief, throw in some Sandra Bullock. Oh, yeah, all four have come to Nashville to make it in Country Music, where they meet at auditions for the Blue Bird Cafe. Not exactly the Ryman Auditorium, but a lot of Country Music stars got their start there.

Director Peter Bogdanovich is best known for The Last Picture Show, which was one of his early films. Years later he was quoted as saying, "Remember me? I used to be Peter Bogdanovich." The Last Picture Show could have been called The Last Truly Great Picture Show from Peter Bogdanovich. In 1998 the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress named The Last Picture Show to the National Film Registry, an honor awarded only to the most culturally significant films. He has had some spectacular failures and other modest success since then, but has done better as a film historian and writer than he has done as a director. One theory is that he doomed himself when he ditched his wife, set designer Polly Platt, for 19-year old model Cybill Shepherd, whom he met at The Last Picture Show. This theory credits Polly with being the controlling artistic consciousness of his best films, Paper Moon (1973) being the last one she worked on. He later starred Cybill in two of his biggest flops: Daisy Miller and At Long Last Love. A latter affair with 1980 Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten ended in her being tragically killed by her jealous manager/husband, a story told in the Bob Fosse film Star 80.

In spite of all this baggage, someone thought he would be great for The Thing Called Love. When he asked River Phoenix to do it, to his surprise, he wanted to do it. Maybe he was attracted to the musical aspect. It was not really a starring role, more of an ensemble piece with the main focus on the Miranda Presley character. Once River Phoenix was on board the project fell in place, and along with the other cast members, a lot of Country Music stars agreed to take part, in various cameos playing themselves.

River Phoenix played a very talented but edgy songwriter. He was on the verge of success, but whenever he got too close he'd find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. River, and the rest of the cast, either wrote or contributed to most all the songs used. One of the songs River wrote, Lone Star State of Mine, was very good, maybe a little too poetic and esoteric to actually be a hit song, but he showed promise. He grew up busking all over the US, and played in bands, and it showed. He was right at home on stage with a guitar. River Phoenix was kind of twitching and strange like his brother Joaquin on Letterman, but was he ever in character. When Bogdanovich met him, he thought he was this edgy guy, because he would really get into character and stay there like Andy Kaufman as Tony Clifton, but then after the film wrapped he found that he wasn't that guy at all. He was Huckleberry Finn, a real amiable and likeable guy. Makes you wonder what would have happened if he hadn't ODed. He could have been astronomical.

Samantha Mathis was the lead, though she had to fight the course of a mighty river to stay there. Samantha played Miranda Presley, no relation. Presley was her middle name, given to her by a father who was a huge Elvis fan. Though Miranda was from New York City, Country music was in her blood. Samantha was so good in this movie. She sang country really well, and was always very authentic and believable. She did the singing, the song writing, and lest we forget, the acting. Of course the acting was the crux of the matter, but the singing and song writing also impressed me. Especially the singing.


On the other hand, not so great at singing was Kyle Davidson (Dermot Mulroney). He was a Connecticut Yankee, and he didn't really fit in Nashville, but he tried harder. Mulroney is an accomplished cellist, and The Thing Called Loved allowed him to show off his cello chops. Though his character was not such a great singer, his character was a better writer, and when he has Miranda cut a demo of one of his songs, it sounds great. They concoct a crazy scheme to get Trisha Yearwood to hear it. It's so crazy it just might work. And work it does, when he hears it on the radio for the first time:

[Kyle runs into back of a guy's car and a crowd gathers]
Driver: Didn't you see the stop sign?
Kyle Davidson: That's my song!
Driver: Well, that's my car!
Kyle Davidson: That's my song playing on the radio!
Driver: You wrote that song?
Kyle Davidson: Yeah!
Bystander: You're a better songwriter than you are a driver.
Kyle Davidson: That's my song!
Bystander: That song's all right.
Kyle Davidson: Kinda makes ya wanna pat your foot, doesn't it?
Bystander: You shoulda patted the brake one time.
Kyle Davidson: That's my song!
Bystander: You got two hits in one day!

Sandra Bullock has long been an undervalued commodity, who is finally getting a little respect. I hear she rules in her latest, The Blind Side, and was also quite an effective comedienne in The Proposal with Ryan Reynolds. She was sublime in this movie as the kind of person Blanche Dubois was talking about when she said she'd always depended on the kindness of strangers. She was always helping other people achieve their dreams, but neglecting her own. Of the four hopefuls, she would be voted least likely to succeed in Nashville, but she did succeed in creating a very warm though quirky character called Linda Lue Linden.


The Thing Called Love cost 14 Million dollars, but it only made 1 million. It was the least financially successful film of 1993--a huge box office flop, but was it a bad movie?

NO!!!!!!!!!!

Bottom line is it was actually a very good movie about Nashville, songwriters, and it was River Phoenix's last role. I would have given it 5 stars, just to offset the bad box office and lack of acclaim, but let's be reasonable and give it 4 stars. But a very solid four stars. The title was kind of lackluster, and the marketing fell short, but if you would just watch the film, give it a chance, you'll love The Thing Called Love.

The Proposal (Single Disc Widescreen) (2009) Sandra Bullock was Margaret Tate
The Wedding Date (Widescreen Edition) (2005) Dermot Mulroney was Nick Mercer
Two Weeks Notice (2002) Sandra Bullock was Lucy Kelson
Living in Oblivion (1995) Dermot Mulroney was Wolf
How to Make an American Quilt (1995) Samantha Mathis was Young Sophia Darling Richards and Dermot Mulroney was Sam
Dogfight (1991) River Phoenix was Eddie Birdlace
My Own Private Idaho (1991) River Phoenix was Mike Waters
Running on Empty (1988) River Phoenix was Danny Pope / Michael Manfield
Paper Moon (1973) Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
The Last Picture Show (Definitive Director's Cut Special Edition) (1971) Directed by Peter Bogdanovich

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Linda Lue Linden: You Know Kyle Davidson, there's something you never knew about me.
Kyle Davidson: What's that?
Linda Lue Linden: [she kisses him] You could have had me for a song
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Running on Empty
$9.98
The DVD arrived quickly and as stated, the DVD was in excellent condition. I am proud to have this movie in my DVD collection. Thank you.

Silent Tongue
$9.98
In a tribute, a Rolling Stone reviewer suggested this was the quintessential River Phoenix movie. I disagree, he gives a much better performance in 'My Own Private Idaho' but this story is better written. It's not really a western, though it is set in that time and place we nostalgically yearn for, with stark wide open spaces in hues of tan and brown. There's lots of dust and horses and broken people trying to mend their fragile lives. There's even a snake oil salesman and his son, complete with sideshow and assorted freaks. Richard Harris plays a father who loves his son (Phoenix) so much that he will purchase a wife for his sad and lonely child, but when she dies in childbirth, why not purchase her twin sister from the shifty, snake oil hawker who fathered them? Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Phoenix broods over the body of his lost love wrapping her in hides and suspending her body in a dead tree. He will not let her go and her spirit doesn't want to stay. Her soul visits him in visions that become so real to him that he almost shoots himself. He can't or won't do it, to join her would be love, to hold on to her is pure selfishness. Her twin sister knows that the dead are powerful and she agrees to help Harris break the hold his son has on her sister, but then she's outta there. Conceived in rape, she knows that she is a double second class citizen. One, she's a woman, and two she's half white and half native. She has nothing but her wits and a dark opportunity to free herself from her father and his mad schemes. She'll take four horses for her trouble and the hope for a new life. (Even the female actresses, who deliver wonderful performances, are overshadowed by their male co-stars in the marketing of this film.)
Although told like a ghost story, this is really a love story about a father's love for his son. Harris will do anything for his child, even fight the apparition of his former daughter-in-law that appears in the form of a wolf. Steeped in native mythology and mysticism this story speaks of ties we create between those we love and those we use. In contrast, the snake oil vendor sees his daughters as commodities. The only love that exited for these lost, little girls was their mother, Silent Tongue, who couldn't even cry out when she was raped by their father. Another victim of his entrepreneurial father, is the twin's half brother, who insists on setting out after his half sister is abducted by Harris, and dragging his father along to do the 'right thing' and rescue her. The entire cast give strong and beautiful performances. It's a crime this is not available in wide screen because the melancholy landscape, is itself, a character in this tale. The film is rife with metaphor and if you want to think and be entertained this is the journey you'll want to take between real love and what poses for the love between us. Even though it is offered in a full screen format it is a good value for the prices that it is offered at. For those who prefer to have nonviolent fare, there are a few scenes including the rape that are inappropriate or upsetting. Overall I didn't know what to expect, but I was surprised and pleased by this complex study of relationships that transcend time and place.

Dogfight
$14.97
when they started on the second date they walked by a movie theatre and the billboard read The Trouble With Mimi. I never could find any reference to this. Does anyone know about this