Subject: The Fire Next Time
I will not even attempt to explain what this movie was about because it had a serious identity crisis. It would have been much more fun to have just watched all the movies that appeared to have been strung together to form this one (The Hurricane; The Waltons; the town meeting scene from Jaws; etc.).
Prochnow was Larry Richter, the star of the Pleasantville segment. He shows up in the first half hour just to establish who he is (Drew's former business partner, who had the sense to sell out before the entire regional economy fell apart) and what he's after (Drew's estranged wife Susie). Drew now hates him because he's a "quitter," which means Prochnow is rich and Drew's been wiped out.
Much, much, much later Drew and his family arrive in Pleasantville where Drew has been promised a job by Prochnow. It's a restricted area where everything appears to be from the 1910's and they all wear white clothes. Prochnow has to get a permit from the city council in order to start a new branch of the business for Drew to manage. They turn him down. Meanwhile you get to see 1) Drew grousing about Pleasantville like he grouses about everything else in the movie; 2) Susie being miffed to find out that Prochnow is sharing his house with a gorgeous woman and her kids; 3) Drew and Susie having an argument over whom she loves. After the permit is denied, Prochnow says Susie and HER kids are welcome to stay with him after Drew hits the road, at which point Drew very gratifyingly says what you are thinking: "Are you starting a harem?"
But then they all leave and you get more movies like Ellis Island and Witness, and there are a couple of brief scenes with Prochnow after that but nothing interesting, and then there's another movie and then it's finally over and you fall down dead from watching it.
One interesting bit of trivia...or maybe not...it seemed interesting after a good dose of this movie, though: Louise Fletcher had a cameo appearance.
Subject: The Fire Next Time
I darn near died when he first showed up in the Louisiana backwater as "Uncle Larry" and started telling a story about how he was selling the property his "maw" left him...but the sentence ended, "before she went back to Germany." So no, he hadn't gone Cajun.
Oh, rats. I love it when a guy who has no business doing accents tries one. Like Olivier in ANY movie where he tries an accent (Boys From Brazil, Marathon Man, and most especially, The Jazz Singer).
Oh my God...
"Y'all wan' some blutwurst jambalaya wit dat mess o' red beans and cabbage?"
I am quite sure he wasn't attempting to do any such thing... The character was just visiting after having spent 5 years in upstate New York anyway... But he did refer to his mother as "my maw" very distinctly. It just made me think the other characters should have been flogged for talking like that around him until it rubbed off. God, it was good hearing Jürgen after listening to everyone else's #@$! redneck speech in this flick. They were all using DIFFERENT redneck accents, too.
Come to think of it, he, Bonnie Bedelia, the old grandpa and the 6-year-old kid were the only people in the entire movie who didn't deserve to be horsewhipped just on general principle. And Bonnie was borderline for being in love with Craig T. Nelson.
This is another movie that needs a new ending.
- Bonnie ditches Nelson and goes off to live with Grandpa and the 6-year-old
- The other son & daughter get lost in the forest and are eaten by the mean
old witch who lives in the gingerbread house (this scene should
include electronically enhanced crunching noises)
- Nelson gets eaten by the bear that killed Perrineau
- Prochnow marries Louise Fletcher and the two of them get major roles in
PSYCHO V: COME AND GET IT.
[In fact, I thought the Pleasantville segment was a hoot and I really liked what Jürgen did in this movie (besides which, he looked so darn good); but if I'm going to watch a 3-hour movie as messy as this just to see him, I want to see him in a bigger role than he had here. LOTS bigger. -ed.]