Maverick (film)

Maverick
Directed by	Richard Donner[1]
Produced by	Bruce Davey Richard Donner
Written by	William Goldman
Based on	Maverick by Roy Huggins
Starring	Mel Gibson Jodie Foster James Garner
Music by	Randy Newman
Cinematography	Vilmos Zsigmond
Editing by	Stuart Baird Mike Kelly
Studio	Icon Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	May 20, 1994
Running time	127 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$183,031,272 (worldwide)[2]

Maverick is a 1994 Western comedy film based on the 1950s television series of the same name, created by Roy Huggins. The film was directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by William Goldman and features Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner, as well as several cameo appearances. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Plot

The story, set in the American Old West, is a first-person account by a wisecracking gambler Bret Maverick (Mel Gibson), of his misadventures on the way to a major five-card draw poker tournament. Besides wanting to win the poker championship for the money, he also wants to prove, once and for all, that he is "the best". However, complications keep getting in the way.

Maverick rides into the fictional town of Crystal River intending to collect money owed to him, as he is $3,000 short of the poker tournament entry fee of $25,000. His efforts to make up this $3,000 provide some plot motivation, as well as diversions caused by, and in the company of, three people he encounters at Crystal River: an antagonist named Angel (Alfred Molina), a young con-artist calling herself Mrs Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster), and legendary lawman Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner, who played Bret Maverick in the original TV series). The first two are also rival poker players.

Maverick, Bransford and Cooper share a stagecoach (the driver of which dies at the reins at full gallop), agree to help a wagon train of migrant evangelist settlers who have been waylaid by ruffians (for a fee which Maverick in the end is too big-hearted to accept) and are headed-off by a troop of Indians led by Joseph (Graham Greene). Unknown to his companions, Joseph and Maverick are good friends, and Maverick allows himself to be "captured." Joseph is another one of his unreliable debtors, and in and around his tribal grounds they collaborate on a scheme to swindle a Russian Grand Duke.

During this time, Angel has received a mysterious telegram ordering him to not allow Maverick to reach the poker game, and has also learned that Maverick had conned him in Crystal River. Angel catches up with Maverick after he has left Joseph's tribe, beats him up and attempts to hang him. Despite being tied to both a tree and to his horse, Maverick escapes and reaches the poker game, which is taking place on a paddle steamer. Bransford and Angel have also reached the game, and Cooper has been engaged to oversee its security. Learning that Bransford is still short several thousand dollars of the entry fee, Maverick finds the Grand Duke on board and cons him out of the needed amount so she can get in the game.

After the others are eliminated, the four finalists are Maverick, Bransford, Angel, and Commodore Duvall (James Coburn), the boat's owner and the tournament organizer. Maverick almost fails to reach the final table by the 5:00 AM deadline, having had his stateroom door chained shut (by an unknown person) after a short tryst with Bransford. The game proceeds, with Bransford the first eliminated, and shortly thereafter a "fixed" hand is dealt to the three remaining players. The Commodore is given four 8s and Angel is given a low straight flush, whilst Maverick has the 10, jack, queen and king of spades. The Commodore and Angel each bet "all in". Maverick observes the dealer bottom-dealing to the others, protests the conduct of the hand, and eventually accepts one card dealt by Angel and calls without checking the card. It turns out to be the ace of spades, giving Maverick an unbeatable royal flush and the championship. An enraged Angel draws his gun, but he and his stooges in the audience are gunned down by Cooper and Maverick.

Three plot twists follow Maverick's win. First, Cooper steals the $500,000 prize money instead of presenting it to Maverick. Second, it is revealed that the Commodore and Cooper were secretly in cahoots on the theft and that Angel had actually been working for the Commodore. Third, the Commodore betrays Cooper, but before he can shoot him, Maverick ambushes the two around a campfire and steals back the money, leaving them a single gun to settle their affairs. The gun turns out to be unloaded, and Cooper beats up the Commodore, then sets out to take revenge on Maverick.

Later, Maverick is relaxing in a bath-house when Cooper finds him, and drops the facade to reveal (to the audience) that he is in fact Maverick's father. The real conspiracy was in fact between the two of them. However, Bransford enters the bath-house and robs Cooper and Maverick (whose relationship she had surmised from their similar mannerisms). After she escapes, Bret reveals she only got away with half of the money, as Maverick had hidden the rest in his boots. Maverick and his father smile as he comments that it will be a lot of fun getting the rest of the money back from her.

Cast

• Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick^[3]
• Jodie Foster as Annabelle Bransford
• James Garner as Marshal Zane Cooper / Bret Maverick, Sr.
• Graham Greene as Joseph
• Alfred Molina as Angel
• James Coburn as Commodore Duvall
• Dub Taylor as Room Clerk
• Geoffrey Lewis as Matthew Wicker / Eugene, Banker
• Paul L. Smith as The Archduke
• Dan Hedaya as Twitchy, Riverboat Poker Player
• Dennis Fimple as Stuttering
• Denver Pyle as Old Gambler on Riverboat
• Clint Black as Sweet-Faced Gambler
• Max Perlich as Johnny Hardin
• Art LaFleur as Poker Player (as Art La Fleur)
• Danny Glover as Bank Robber
• Leo Gordon ... Poker Player (billed as Leo V. Gordon)
• Paul Brinegar ... Stage Driver
• Corey Feldman ... Bank Robber
• Waylon Jennings ... Man with Concealed Guns
• Kathy Mattea ... Woman with Concealed Guns
• Vince Gill ... Spectator
• William Smith ... Riverboat Poker Player
• Doug McClure ... Riverboat Poker Player
• Henry Darrow ... Riverboat Poker Player
• Robert Fuller ... Riverboat Poker Player
• James Drury ... Riverboat Poker Player (uncredited)
• John Fogerty ... Street Spectator (uncredited)
• Will Hutchins ... Spectator (uncredited)
• Margot Kidder ... Margret Mary (uncredited)
• Reba McEntire ... Spectator (uncredited)

Deleted scene

In Five Screenplays with Essays, Goldman describes an earlier version of the script, in which Maverick explains he has a magic ability to call the card he needs out of the deck. Although he is not able to do so successfully, the old hermit (Linda Hunt) he attempts to demonstrate it for tells him that he really does have the magic in him.^[4]

Cameo appearances

There are appearances through the film as many familiar faces from Westerns of the past and Country Western music, particularly in the final riverboat poker tournament scenes. These include (in no particular order):

• Danny Glover (Gibson's co-star in the Lethal Weapon franchise of films also directed by Richard Donner) appears as the lead bank robber.

He and Maverick (Gibson) share a scene where they look as if they recognize each other, but then shake it off. As Glover makes his escape with the money, he mutters "I'm gettin' too old for this shit", his character's catchphrase in all four Lethal Weapon films. In addition, a strain of the main theme from Lethal Weapon plays in the score when Glover is revealed.

• Steve Kahan as a dealer during the poker match.

Kahan, the cousin of director Richard Donner, is best known for playing "Captain Ed Murphy" in the Lethal Weapon movies (also directed by Donner). Of note, Kahan also appeared in Superman as a police detective and Predator 2, which starred both Danny Glover (who was in Maverick and Lethal Weapon) and Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon).

• Dub Taylor as a room clerk.

Taylor appeared as Doc Shultz with Garner (as Latigo Smith) in Support Your Local Gunfighter

• Leo Gordon as a gambler at Maverick's first game.

Gordon actually appeared in five episodes of the original series as Big Mike McComb as well as three appearances in Garner's other series The Rockford Files

• Robert Fuller

The last gambler at Jodie Foster's first game from the television series Laramie and Wagon Train.

• Geoffrey Lewis as Matthew Wicker, a.k.a. Eugene

The banker who apppeared in Clint Eastwood Westerns.

• Hal Ketchum and Corey Feldman as two of four bank robbers.

• Paul Brinegar of Rawhide as the stagecoach driver.

• Country singer Carlene Carter as a waitress on the Commodore's ship.

• Country singers Waylon Jennings and Kathy Mattea as a couple found with a gun.

• Read Morgan as a card dealer.

Appeared in many episodes of American television Westerns.

• Denver Pyle, who is thrown off the boat for cheating at poker.

From the television series The Dukes of Hazzard and The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.

• Country singer Clint Black is also thrown off the boat for cheating at poker.

• Country singer Vince Gill and then-wife Janis Gill as spectators during the game.

• Country singer Johnny Cash as a gambler whose total screen time is less than five seconds.

• Doug McClure as one of the riverboat gamblers, from the television series The Virginian.

• Henry Darrow as one of the riverboat gamblers, from the television series The High Chaparral.

• Margot Kidder, who played one of the villagers robbed of their mission money.

Ms. Kidder starred as Lois Lane in Superman, also directed by Donner.In addition, Kidder also starred with James Garner in his 1971 television series Nichols in which she played Ruth, a barmaid opposite Garner as Sheriff Nichols. and also in the controversial^{[citation needed]} Hollywood-crime drama The Glitter Dome (1985) with James Garner.

This was the final film of William Marshall, Doug McClure, Leo Gordon, Denver Pyle and Dub Taylor, one of few films with so many actors in their final film roles.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

James Berardinelli, from reelviews.net, gave the film three and a half stars out of four. He stated, "The strength of Maverick is the ease with which it switches from comedy to action, and back again....it's refreshing to find something that satisfies expectations."^[5] Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of a possible four, stating "The first lighthearted, laugh-oriented family Western in a long time, and one of the nice things about it is, it doesn't feel the need to justify its existence. It acts like it's the most natural thing in the world to be a Western."^[6] The film has received generally favorable reviews.^[7]

The movie currently holds a freshness rating of 70% on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus that it "isn't terribly deep, but it's witty and undeniably charming, and the cast is obviously having fun" with a rating of 100% on the 'Top Critics' section.^[8]

Box Office

The movie was a box office success.^[9][10]

Soundtrack

Main article: Maverick (soundtrack)

References

1. ^ "SUMMER SNEAKS '94 : Was, Is and Always a Maverick : His signatures are Rockford and Maverick--can anybody in Hollywood do cool and canny better than James Garner?". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1994-05-15/entertainment/ca-57884_1_james-garner. Retrieved 2010-11-23. 
2. ^ Maverick (1994)
3. ^ "'Maverick' Scene Hinges On Approval". Orlando Sentinel. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1993-08-20/entertainment/9308190120_1_james-dearden-harrison-ford-movie-maverick. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
4. ^ Goldman, William (2000). William Goldman: Five Screenplays with Essays. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 474–479. ISBN 9781557833624. http://books.google.com/books?id=zEfycPl7hjQC. 
5. ^ "James Berardinelli review of Maverick". http://www.reelviews.net/movies/m/maverick.html. Retrieved 12 February 2010. 
6. ^ "Maverick film review by Roger Ebert". Chicago Sun-Times. May 20, 1994. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940520/REVIEWS/405200302. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
7. ^ "At The `Maverick' Helm". Chicago Tribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-06-23/features/9406230281_1_radio-flyer-danny-glover-light-entertainment. Retrieved 2010-10-03. 
8. ^ http://members.rottentomatoes.com/m/maverick/?name_order=asc
9. ^ "Maverick Wins Big Pot at Box Office : Movies: An estimated $17.2-million take for the weekend is the biggest opening this year.". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1994-05-23/entertainment/ca-61254_1_box-office. Retrieved 2010-11-23. 
10. ^ "Memorial Day Weekend Box Office : A Mighty Big Take at the Cash Register". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1994-06-01/entertainment/ca-64672_1_memorial-day-weekend. Retrieved 2010-11-23. 

External links

• Maverick at the Internet Movie Database
• Maverick at AllRovi
• Maverick at Box Office Mojo
• James Garner Interview on the Charlie Rose Show
• James Garner interview at Archive of American Television
• Maverick at Rotten Tomatoes