Main Cast: Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Lili Taylor, Vincent Gallo
Release Year: 1993
Country: FR
Run Time: 141 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Director Emir Kusturica and screenwriter David Atkins crafted this absurdist comedy in which Johnny Depp plays Axel Blackmer, who lives in New York State and is obsessed with fish. He tags fish and monitors their habits for a living, but his greatest curiosity is when and how they dream. Axel's uncle, Leo Sweetie (Jerry Lewis) would prefer Axel take over the family business, a Cadillac dealership in Tucson, Arizona; against his better judgment, Axel drives from New York to Arizona to check out the lot and attend Leo's wedding to Millie (Paulina Porizkova), a woman who is hoping that marriage will keep her from crying all the time. While watching the Cadillacs, Leo meets Elaine Stalker (Faye Dunaway), the sexy widow of a wealthy mine owner, and the two strike up a romance, while Elaine's daughter Grace (Lili Taylor) wanders through her mother's home playing "Besame Mucho" on the accordion to her pet turtles. Needless to say, Warner Bros, the film's United States distributor, didn't figure this was a sure bet for box-office success, and they trimmed Arizona Dream of 22 minutes before putting it into limited release and eventually dumping it onto home video without opening it in most major cities. Kusturica's original 142-minute cut was released in Europe (where it did respectable if not ground-shaking business) and to a few art houses in America; the shortened 120-minute version is available on home video. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Just the type of movie you'd expect with a cast as bizarre as Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway, Jerry Lewis, and Vincent Gallo, this oddity from the always interesting Emir Kusturica is sometimes maddeningly uneven (not to mention completely random), but represents the kind of off-the-wall filmmaking that general audiences so rarely see. The film features Dunaway in top form, and helps secure Depp's reputation as one of Hollywood's most challenging actors, willing to give his all even in roles that seem half-baked, as this one sometimes does. The back-story on Arizona Dream is almost as interesting as the film itself: reportedly, Kusturica walked off the set following a dispute with the producers and agreed to return only if the film was made on his terms. Additionally, there are two cuts of the film: the 119-minute U.S. and British version, and a 142-minute European version that was shown around the country in 1995 after the film garnered a surprising cult following, thereby broadening its exposure. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
Axel (Johnny Depp) has a dream about an Eskimo who catches a rare halibut and brings it back to his family in an igloo. Axel's cousin Paul (Vincent Gallo) coaxes Axel from his job tagging fish in New York City to Arizona to attend his Uncle Leo's (Jerry Lewis) trophy wedding to a much younger woman (Paulina Porizkova). His uncle tries to persuade him to stay permanently and take over the family business of selling Cadillacs. Axel resists at first, but he decides to give it a try. There he encounters two strange women: Elaine (Faye Dunaway), a woman who always had a dream of building a flying machine, and Grace (Lili Taylor), Elaine's stepdaughter who is jealous of Elaine and dreams to kill herself and be reincarnated as a turtle. Axel starts lusting after Elaine and decides to help make her dreams come true. As he and Elaine build the machine day by day, Grace starts destroying the contraption. Axel then rebuilds. Leo and Paul arrive at Elaine and Grace's house to encourage Axel to come back, but Elaine threatens them with a shotgun. Axel and Elaine complete the machine and test it, but it crashes in a tree. Axel then decides to put both Elaine and Grace out of their misery. He starts with Grace but can't do it. Grace then has the idea to play Russian Roulette with him. Axel is scared at first, but when it his turn comes for the second time, he pulls the trigger multiple times. The gun doesn't fire. Axel, Elaine, and Grace come to Paul's talent show. He decides to play Cary Grant's role from North by Northwest with the famous crop duster scene. Paul receives the score of 1. Uncle Leo's fiancee then approaches them to say there's something wrong with Leo. Axel realizes that Uncle Leo is dying and calls an ambulance. Uncle Leo passes away. Few months later, the day before Elaine's birthday Axel and Paul finally comes back to Elaine and Grace's house. Elaine is mad at Axel for not contacting her, but she forgives him. The next day on Elaine's birthday, Elaine is given an airplane as a present. The four celebrate Elaine's birthday by beating a piñata, but a storm soon begins. As the others dry off inside, Grace remains outside to free her turtles, telling them to "Go play," Axel goes upstairs with Grace to wrap the presents and gives Axel a globe, telling him that she wants him to have the world. Alex tells Grace that Elaine has changed and that he is not in love with her any more. He makes a promise with Grace to go to Alaska. Axel, Elaine, Grace, and Paul talk about how they want to die. Grace says she's going to sleep and walks upstairs, dressing herself in a white shift and a hat with a veil. As she walks outside, Axel and Elaine see her through the window and run outside in an attempt to stop her. Grace shoots herself, and a lightning bolt destroys Elaine's airplane. Sometime after Grace's death Alex breaks into Uncle Leo's abandoned Cadillac store at night and goes to sleep on top of a Cadillac with a cat that has just had her litter. The film ends with Axel and Uncle Leo as Eskimos in Axel's dream. They catch the halibut and discuss it. It flies from their hands into the sunrise.
Although filmed in 1991 and released throughout Europe in 1993, Arizona Dream was not released in the U.S. until September 9, 1994. Its total U.S. gross, in three theaters, was $112,547 in limited release.[1]
Censorship
Although shown theatrically in the U.S. at its full length, the TV prints and VHS versions run 119 minutes.
DVD and HD DVD Releases
This film has yet to be released on any format other than VHS in the U.S., although Studio Canal has released the film in Europe on both DVD[2] and HD DVD.
In an angry February 2006 voice mail message to the producer of a documentary of her life, which was widely circulated on the Internet, Faye Dunaway complained that she "was brilliant in" Arizona Dream (which in the message she refers to as "the Kusturica film") and that the film was "not well sold in this country" despite that it was "the hit of all Europe and Cannes." She was unhappy that the documentary made no mention of her work in this film or in Don Juan DeMarco, which also co-starred Johnny Depp.[3]
