Themes: Femmes Fatales, Treasure Hunts, Escape From Prison
Main Cast: Rose McGowan, Salvator Xuereb, Dan Gunther
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 84 minutes
Plot
Three makes for a dangerous crowd in this darkly comic crime story. Convicted murderer Lewis (Salvator Xuereb) breaks out of prison with Clark (Dan Gunther), who is doing time for computer fraud. The escapees are heading to New Mexico in search of a secret map to a gold mine that was hidden by a prisoner who recently met with a fatal accident. Clark, however, doesn't like Lewis, and Lewis only has Clark around because he's functionally illiterate and needs help reading maps. Meanwhile, George (Rose McGowan), a young woman who never speaks, has hit the highway after lifting the $10,000 that she and her boyfriend Fred (Art LaFleur) were given for a shipment of drugs that they never actually delivered. After Lewis impulsively shoots one person too many, Clark strikes out on his own, and while hitchhiking, he gets picked up by George, who has stolen a car and has a poisonous snake for protection. George learns about Clark's secret gold mine, and eager to get on his good side, she seduces him. While George spells "trouble" so clearly that she should have the word tattooed on her forehead, Clark falls for her like the proverbial ton of bricks; Lewis also finds "romance" of his own with a sleazy woman he meets in a trailer park before meeting up with Clark at the location of the hidden map. Deciding that they work better as a team, Lewis and Clark head out to Mexico in search of the gold, with George tagging along, but what they don't know is that Fred has been following her, convinced that George still has his money. This was Rose McGowan and Salvator Xuereb's second film together, after appearing in Gregg Araki's post-modern road movie The Doom Generation. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Tom Traub - Associate Producer, Dori Zuckerman - Casting, Cathy Henderson - Casting, Ed Cathell III - Co-producer, Kari Perkins - Costume Designer, Ed Cathell III - First Assistant Director, Rod McCall - Director, Ed Marx - Editor, John Davis - Executive Producer, Ben Vaughn - Composer (Music Score), Bob Knickman - Musical Direction/Supervision, John Huke - Production Designer, Michael Mayers - Cinematographer, Dan Gunther - Producer, Todd Harris - Producer, Benjamin Patrick - Sound/Sound Designer, Rod McCall - Screenwriter
Lewis and Clark and George opens with Salvator Xuereb (playing Lewis) and Dan Gunther (Clark) at a water tank site wearing prison jump suits. The scene is desertscrub and the two state prison escapees have just located a buried metal box with a loaded revolver, treasure map, and Cubancigars. A road trip begins as the two hike off through the desert to find the treasure. Lewis is the stereotyped violent criminal: a prison inmate with literacy and social skills problems. He can't read: a common problem among real-life U.S. prison inmates. (Illiteracy is portrayed partly as a comic gag in the film: at least three characters cannot read.) A dissonance comes from Clark's bigger vocabulary, better literacy, and his being more trusting of others.
With a prominent photo on the jacket and above-the-title-billing, Rose McGowan is the George mentioned in the title. Like her appearances in the WB Charmed series, McGowan is well lip glossed, well lit, and made up. The George character is a tough role because the character does not talk. Instead, she communicates with gestures, facial expressions, eye movements, and by wagging the cigars she smokes throughout the film. While morally adventurous, George is a strong female role. She is not easily exploited. She exploits the sexual ambition of one or more male characters to get what she wants. The character has an unusual interest in shooting Polaroidphotographs of people she meets while traveling. The character's teeth are unusually white for one who smokes stogies.
Some people would call this a guns and boobs movie. The film is rated R and includes nudity, simulated sex, foul language, alcohol abuse in the presence of a minor, and violence. Over a dozen characters are injured or killed by traumatic gunshot injuries in the film. One character's main means of communication seems to be by fatally shooting other characters. Avarice and violence is central to the entire plot line, including the curvy last minutes. Law enforcement people are often portrayed as incompetent and vindictive. Some viewers saw the film as teaching that greed has consequences.
The copyright date is 1996 and the film runs about 90 minutes.
Technical
The film captures the color and shadow of the American desert southwest. There are almost no dolly and crane shots. Much of the film takes place in large American cars driving along desert highways. The sound recordists and foley artists did a good job weaving appropriate sounds such as the idle of a V8 engine or the transmit function tone of a two-way radio system. The ticking sound from the rental trailer in the film helped the viewer follow this one detail of the film. The scoring and ambient sound levels have an appropriate (nice and wide) dynamic range. The film makers were meticulous with most details such as car door slam sounds and their timing. Even George's Polaroid camera sounded right and was timed accurately.
Two of the speeded-up sequences, including the one where the blue Cadillac arrives at the café, challenged the laws of physics. A few minor sounds were flops. Chang's telephone shown on screen was one with a Western Electric C-4A ringer but the ringing sound used was from the ringer of an Automatic Electric phone. The siren sounds in two scenes were warped by the film staff to end with a downward pitch which didn't sound real.
Cast
After Lewis, Clark, and George, the rest of the cast includes:
