"The American Revolution was NOT a goddamned vaudeville show!"
—Michael
A 1986 American comedy film written and directed by Alan Alda, who also stars as Michael Burgess, a college history professor who finds himself dealing with the clashing egos and views of people around him when one of his books is adapted into a major motion picture – all while he's having serious Commitment Issues with his girlfriend.
Also in the cast are Michael Caine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins, Lise Hilboldt, Lillian Gish, Saul Rubinek, Lois Chiles, Linda Thorson and Lynne Thigpen.
It was released on May 14, 1986.
Sweet Troperty:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When the local reenactors mutiny against the film crew during the shooting of the final battle, several background members of the film crew are visibly amused from the start. The assistant director, the other female crew members who weren't already chuckling, and even Bo himself also show some amusement once Michael and his friends get naked to mock Bo's Sex Sells attitude.
- Adaptation Decay: History professor Michael Burgess is struggling with a film adaptation of a book he wrote on the Revolutionary War. As the film's director, Bo Hodges, explains (while Burgess is complaining about yet another historically inaccurate change they have introduced), historical accuracy is not important to the movie-making process; Bo states 80% of moviegoers are between the ages of 12 and 22, and that demographic likes movies that: 1. Defy Authority, 2. Destroy Property, 3. Take People's Clothes Off.Michael: Yeah, the script is, uh... very interesting. There are only a couple of things I have a problem with.
Bo: Oh, yeah? What are they?
Michael: The story and the dialog. - American Accents: Bob Hoskins manages a good, rough American accent, which he would later use for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Super Mario Bros. (1993).
- Artistic License – Film Production: There's no way the #4 box office star in the world would ride in a crew bus.
- Artistic License – History: The entire point of the film is how Bo is turning Michael's book into a teen comedy. Michael becomes The Gadfly, such as pointing out Tarleton didn't wear a redcoat; he was "The Green Dragoon" for a reason.
- Ascended Fanboy: In-Universe, Stanley Gould is a huge fan of Michael Burgess.
- Bait-and-Switch: The film opens with an exterior of a building where Michael and Gretchen are breathlessly grunting and panting as if they're having intense sex. After a few moments, it's shown they're just fencing.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: The climax of the film is the recreation of The Battle of Cowpens
, though it doesn't go quite the way Bo wants. - Blown Across the Room: Deconstructed. The Smug Snake stuntmen tell the Civil War recreators that they die well, but they don't know how to go flying back when shot. They demonstrate as one of the stuntmen is secretly outfitted with the rig that snaps him backward through the air. When the recreator "shoots" him with his finger, the stuntman files dramatically back through the doorway. The recreator is astonished, so tries the same thing - only he isn't attached to the rig, so when he gets shot, he flails about as he falls backward - and keeps on trying to fly backward until the stuntmen laughingly tell him to stop.Reenactor: (completely gobsmacked) He just flew backward... through the air!
- Brick Joke:
- A Running Gag is Michael having to fence Elliot, who easily outclasses him in the sport. Late in the film, an angry Michael attacks Elliot with his rapier, while being a Screaming Warrior — Elliot steps aside as Michael plunges into thorny bushes and ponders, "What a peculiar lunge!"
- When the reenactors rebel against the filmmakers by charging the cannons as they historically would, Michael sticks up one finger (no, not that finger) at Bo as if say "1. Defy authority." When the shack where the FX team's equipment is blows up (because the electrician rewired the explosives), Michael then sticks two fingers up, as if to say "2. Destroy property". Cue the female crewmembers laughing in delight as all of the reenactors get naked. Michael holds up three fingers. "3. Take people's clothes off." Bo just resignedly smiles and nods.
- Celeb Crush:
- Elliot sleeps with women using the fact they're head over heels in amazement they're with the #4 leading man in the world.
- Subverted with Michael and Faith. Michael falls for her because she's able to nail her role as Mary Slocumb. He wants to date Mary, not the real Faith.
- Commitment Issues: Michael and Gretchen are having a romantic spat during the events: Michael wants Gretchen to live with him, but doesn't want to marry her, while Gretchen wants to marry. They end up with a compromise in the conclusion — a "trial marriage".
- Country Mouse: Michael is supposed to be a Naïve Newcomer and a bit of a bumpkin — but he's played by Alan Alda, so not only is he more urban than he's supposed to be, but he also shoots off Hawkeye Pierce-style Deadpan Snarking.
- Creator Backlash: In-Universe, both Michael and Stanley hate the script, the former because it butchers American history, the latter because he wants to be a serious writer, and not a gag writer for "smutty gameshows" ("John showed Mary his big, hot [blank]").Stanley: (on the adaptation) You're not upset are you?
Michael: (Tranquil Fury) I think I should warn you — I have a sword in my bag. - Deliberate Values Dissonance: To be expected with an American Revolutionary War period film. The real Mary Slocum retorted (and Faith re-enacts) to Tarleton saying that the rebels were fighting against their British master, "Only slaves acknowledge a master in this country."
- Dyeing for Your Art: In-Universe, Faith throws herself into the role of Mary Slocum while on set. She also fools around with Elliot because it makes their scenes more believable; according to her, the man is way too shallow and she needs to work with something.Bo: (after Faith has given him a long list of complaints) Remind me not to talk to Faith when she's in her street clothes.
- Exact Words: Michael points out that Bo has to consult with him about everything in the film. Bo agrees, listens to Michael's complaints, then tells him "Great consultation" and ignores Michael's complaints.
- Fix It in Post: Michael apologizes to Bo for wrecking the climactic battle. Bo just chuckles and tells Michael they had a ton of cameras filming the action and they can edit it any way they like.
- Gag Penis: How the stuntmen treat a reenactor talking about using his spontoon to actually pole vault across enemy lines.Stuntman: I know a guy in Arizona with a really large spontoon, but I don't think he could actually pole vault with it.
- Happily Married: Mary Slocum and her husband, as evidenced by the letters they exchanged. When she writes a heartfelt Try Not to Die letter, his response is "Would I die and not come home to your sweet, sweet kisses?"
- Historical In-Joke: When the production arrives, a young boy with a strangely British accent yells, "Here they come! They're coming!" which seems to be a parody of Paul Revere's ride.
- Historical Villain Downgrade: Michael Burgess, the author of the book about the Revolutionary War, is upset that they are making the sadistic Green Dragoon Banastre Tarleton a romantic lead. Ironically, The Patriot (2000) covered the same battle and made Tarleton an absolute monster.
- I Knew It!: In-Universe. When Faith sees the real Mary Slocum's diary, she gasps, "I knew her handwriting would be big like that!"
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder:
- Karma Houdini: Elliot James gets away with everything because he's famous. Steal a helicopter and endanger everyone's lives? "Oh, I didn't know it was you, Elliot! No harm, no foul!" Elliot is well-aware of this, too.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: The Sayeville marching band greets the production with "Hooray For Hollywood", but when the actors debark, they abandon formation, til only a few flutists are remaining.
- Loveable Sex Maniac: Elliot James uses his fame and charisma to bed every woman he sees. He acknowledges the problem, but is too weak-willed to combat it. Even when his wife is with him, he tries to kiss Leslie on a roller coaster.Elliott: You know what my problem is? The way they smell. The perfume of their skin. It's, it's so intoxicating. I told my wife I'd never even look at other women if only I could cut off my nose.
Michael: What'd she say?
Elliott: She said I was aiming too high. - No Communities Were Harmed: There is no Sayeville in South Carolina.
- No Hugging, No Kissing: When Stanley joyfully kisses Michael on the head, he is nonplussed, telling him not to do that anymore. At the end of the summer when production ends, Michael kisses Stanley on the head, causing the latter to muse, "He kisses now?"
- No Stunt Double: In-Universe, Elliot refuses to have any stunt doubles when doing risky pratfalls. Ironically, there's a Jump Cut showing where Michael Caine was replaced by his stunt double in the film.
- Oh, Crap!: When Michael swats Elliot's horse to make it flee the turbulent Battle of Cowpens reenactment (which Michael has sabotaged), the latter realizes he can't control the horse and cries, "Oh, shit!"
- Orbital Kiss: Tarleton and Mary share one at the ending of the Show Within a Show.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: Elliot leads the gang on a jaunty rendition of "Knees Up, Mother Brown".
- Rich Boredom: Stanley encourages Michael to fence with Elliot, because Elliot is always bored. He's too rich and too famous to have real friends and fun, and explains why he acts out.
- Rule of Three: Sal says young moviegoers want three things: defying authority, destruction of property, and people taking their clothes off. The American Revolution had the first two, so the film had to invent the third.
- Running Gag: Elliot and Michael fencing. Elliot outclasses him and basically humiliates him every time.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Michael's mother Cecilia thinks the devil is living in the fridge and the television gives off radiation that kills germs. When she goes to the hospital, she's convinced they're going to take out all her nerves.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Stanley's idea of being a serious author is to pepper his speech with big words.
- Shout-Out: Faith says she earned an Academy Award nomination playing a coal miner. Michael assumes it was for Coal Miner's Daughter. Faith tells him that was Sissy Spacek — she played a coal miner.
- Slapstick: How Bo intends to depict The Battle of Cowpens — the colonial army is supposed to haplessly run back and forth stuck between British cannon fire. This becomes Michael's and the reenactors' Rage Breaking Point.
- Slobs vs. Snobs: The film production, especially the Smug Snake stuntmen, versus the reenactors, whom the stuntmen view as country bumpkins.
- Stalker with a Crush: In a less funny delusion, Cecilia also is obsessed with a date she once had years ago with some guy Johnny Delvecchio. To Michael's horror, Johnny and his wife had to move, change their names and numbers for decades because his mother was stalking them.
- Strangled by the Red String: In-Universe, Bo makes sure Tarleton and Mary have a romance, because he's convinced the film will bomb if they're not shipped.Michael: Tarleton was a vicious ruthless beast! Why would she fall in love with this guy?!
Bo: He's number four at the box office.
Michael: What?
Bo: Elliott James is an international star. He comes on the screen in Paris, they wet their pants in Manila. If she doesn't fall in love with him, the audience will set fire to the ushers. - Sure, Let's Go with That: When the film is released, a reporter tells Michael that the film is "American history at its best!" Michael can only shrug and grin wryly, unable to answer.
- Title Drop: When talking about the American colonies, Michael invokes John Adams' "sweets of liberty" sentiment that was growing among the populace. The name of Michael's book and the film adaptation, indeed, is Sweet Liberty.
- 21-Gun Salute: How the town greets the production.Stanley: Wonderful welcome. Maniacs in tights — shooting.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: In-Universe, which angers Michael to no end.Michael: Where's my book? So far, there isn't one single thing familar!
Stanley: Are you kidding me? Every single one of these pages is something they kept in! (opens Michael's book) Hey look, that great line of Washington's. Of course, we had to give that to the girl. - War Reenactors: Burgess (Alda) is a historian who also heads a War of the American Revolution reenactment society. His book on a local episode of said war is then turned into a movie, in which he serves as an advisor and the reenactors as extras. He becomes incensed as the movie makers restage the battle so it is more cinematic, throw in a fictional love story between a local woman and the British commander, and treat the reenactors as glorified extras than experts on the Battle of Cowpens.
- World of Snark: Everybody snarks in the film. Michael and Stanley engage in it the most, but Bo, Gretchen, Faith, and Elliot get their share in.
