Jacknife **** (1989, Robert De Niro, Kathy Baker, Ed Harris) – Classic Movie Review 3371

Director David Hugh Jones’s emotionally intense 1989 movie version of a modest three-hander play is lifted high by a trio of brilliant first-class performances, showing how the quality of the acting can totally transform and elevate a film.

A long-haired, bearded Robert De Niro stars as Vietnam veteran Joseph ‘Megs’ Megessey, who visits his trucker former Vietnam comrade Dave (Ed Harris) and compels him to confront his war trauma, while Dave’s sister Martha (Kathy Baker) falls for Megs. This romance leads to a conflict between Dave and Martha, whom he lives with, while Megs forces Dave to come to terms with the tragic battle they both survived and their other buddy didn’t.

It is based on the play Strange Snow by Stephen Metcalfe, with the author, relatively unusually, writing his own screenplay. The stage origins show clearly – but it’s a powerfully emotional story with ear-bending dialogue. In his pre-comedy days, De Niro confirms his status as the great contemporary film actor and Harris and Baker theirs as great star character actors.

Though the focus is entirely on the three actors, there are other characters in the film, played by Charles S Dutton, Loudon Wainwright III, Elizabeth Franz, Tom Isbell, Sloane Shelton, Walter Massey, Michael Arkin, Kirk Taylor, Ivar Brogger, Josh Pais, Bruce Ramsay, Jessalyn Gillsig, George Gerdes, Lois Dellar and Jordan Lund.

It was planned to star Jeff Bridges.

David Hugh Jones (1934-2008) was also known for A Christmas Carol (1999) and 84 Charing Cross Road (1987). He was artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Aldwych Theatre and later the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3371

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