THE SURVIVORS
US, 1983, 102 minutes, Colour.
Robin Williams, Walter Matthau, Jerry Reed, John Goodman.
Directed by Michael Ritchie.
The Survivors is a black comedy about contemporary American society. It combines the talents of Walter Matthau at his deadpan best and Robin Williams combining both his restrained style as well as his frantic style.
Both characters suffer losses of job and property, are frustrated by welfare. They are then attacked by a criminal and humiliated. The angers lead to different perspectives - the Robin Williams character buying a gun and going off to join a gung-ho group of would-be mercenaries and reformers of society in the mountains.
The film shows the bleaker side of America in the '80s, the exasperation of individuals, the inadequacy of the police and justice. It also shows and spoofs the inadequacy of the Extreme Right with their gung-ho attitudes. The film is a mixture of humorous lines, spoof situations and a bleak outlook on human nature.
The film was directed by Michael Ritchie, director of a range of movies including the satirical Smile and his work with Walter Matthau in The Bad News Bears and The Couch Trip.
1. Entertaining comedy? Black comedy? Satire on the United States of the '80s?
2. The New York settings, the atmosphere of the city - the bleak city for the paranoid? The contrast with the open mountains, the snow? Special effects and stunts - especially for the military sequences? Songs and musical score?
3. The title and its ironies?
4. The introduction to Donald: his going to his job, losing it, the parrot, the secretary with the gun? His desperation? Moaning? The hold-up and his reaction, being shot, in the hospital, being ridiculed, going on television to refute it? His friendship with Sonny - and Sonny's exasperation? The devotion of his wife? Looking at the guns and deciding to go to violence for self-protection? Going to the mountains, believing Wes? The gung-ho training and manoeuvres? The rugged macho life? His reaction to Sonny's arrival? Showing him around? Mocking Jack on the phone? The build-up to Jack's arrival? Sonny tying him up? His escape, the siege, the battle hand-to-hand with Jack? Wes and the military coming in? Donald coming to his senses, the elaborate escape routine? His disillusionment, stripping off his clothes in the snow? Starting again? Robin Williams' comic styles?
5. Sonny and Walter Matthau and his deadpan look and comments? The garage going up in flames? The irony of Donald having caused it? Unemployment and the Indian lady and her hostility? In the bar, the hold-up, the story about his underwear? His relationship with his daughter? Exasperation with Donald, going to see him in hospital, looking at him on television? Becoming involved? Jack, their finding him, getting the gun, citizen's arrest, taking him to the police station, Donald with the gun, the police overpowering him? Their going off thinking that everything was well? Jack and his being out on bail, contact with Sonny? The threats? Their going up to the military training ground? Sonny's reaction to Wes, to the whole thing, cynical remarks? With Candice, protecting her? Reasoning with Donald and Donald tricking him? The preparation for the siege? The white handkerchief and his speech, reading Macarthur’s words about soldiers? The final escape, helping Donald face the future?
6. Jack, the robbery, the disguise? His attack on Donald and Sonny? His inflating his reputation with the death of Jimmy Hoffa? His wife and his explanation to her that he was a hired killer? Her sad reaction? His threats to Sonny? The citizen's arrest and his reaction? His pursuit of Donald, going to the military compound? The attack, the militarism, his change of heart? Persuading Donald to change his mind? Organising their escape? The petty crook and his return to society?
7. The women and their support: Donald's wife and her devotion, Jack's wife and her bewilderment, feeling betrayed? Sonny and his daughter, her going with him, sharing the experience - and her deadpan comments, for example the only thing improving in ten years being video games?
8. Wes and his military leadership, gung-ho attitudes, the men and their manoeuvres? Tough? His assistant with the attache case? Strategies, Macarthur’s words, wanting blood? Listening to the fight and the shooting on the radio? The car door and realising they had been tricked? The attache case opening and Wes exposed as a fraud?
9. The mentality of the men who went on the training sessions? The reform of society? Human vermin? The reaction of the extreme right in the early '80s and this film mocking them?
10. A film of its time? Perennial values? Bleak aspects of society? The spoofing of extremes?
