Themes: Living With Disability, Mothers and Sons, First Love
Main Cast: Cher, Sam Elliott, Eric Stoltz, Estelle Getty, Richard Dysart
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
This is the true story of Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz), a personable young man suffering from "lionitis," a fatal disease which causes hideous facial disfigurement. The son of freewheeling biker Rusty Dennis (Cher), Rocky is accepted without question by his mom's boyfriends and cycle buddies, but treated with pity, condescension, and disgust by much of the outside world. The local high school principal tries to get Rocky classified as brain-damaged so he won't have to enroll the boy in his school, but Rusty fights for her son's rights with the ferocity of a mother lioness. Rocky makes friends easily both at school and at summer camp. He also falls in love with Diana (Laura Dern), a blind girl who cannot see his deformed countenance and is entranced by the boy's kindness and compassion. Now that he's got his own life in order, Rocky sets about to wean his chronically depressed mother from her drug habit. Mask is the sort of story that might have ending up wallowing in its own pathos had the acting, direction and scriptwriting (by Anna Hamilton Phelan) been anything less than very good. The film proved a much-needed financial success for director Peter Bogdanovich, though unfortunately it didn't come soon enough to stave off his declaring personal bankruptcy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Far removed from his early-1970s critical heyday, director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon) briefly returned to favor with 1985's Mask. Based on the tragic true story of Rocky Dennis, the material rescues its inherently formulaic nature with heartfelt performances from leads Eric Stoltz and Cher -- who won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival -- and a surprisingly compelling script from Anna Hamilton Phelan (Gorillas in the Mist). Bogdanovich sued Universal Pictures after they made alterations to his final cut: most notably, the songs of Bruce Springsteen were replaced by those of Bob Seger to cut costs. Bogdanovich failed to revitalize his career with the film's critical and popular success; his next film was the shockingly bad screwball comedy Illegally Yours. Cher, however, continued to prove herself a worthy actress, culminating in her Best Actress Academy Award in 1987 for Moonstruck. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Laura Dern - Diana; Micole Mercurio - Babe; Harry Carey, Jr. - Red; Dennis Burkley - Dozer; Lawrence Monoson - Ben; Todd Allen - Canuck; Nick Cassavetes - T.J.; Lou Felder - Mr. Adams; Wayne Grace - Drug Dealer; Dr. Norman Kaplan - Himself; L. Craig King - Eric; Kelly Minter - Lorrie; Rummel Mor - Track Runner; Ben Piazza - Mr. Simms; Alexandra Powers - Lisa; Ivan Jorge Rado - Dr. Rudinsky; Andrew Robinson - Dr. Vinton; Chris Rydell - Senior High STudent; Jo-El Sonnier - Sunshine; L. Charles Taylor - Boy Friend; Barry Tubb - Deuey; Joe Unger - Boy Friend; Marsha Warfield - Home Room Teacher; Jill Whitlow - Annie Marie; Jeff Jensen - Biker; David Scott Milton - History Teacher; Anna Hamilton Phelan - Puppy Lady; Jack Wright - Biker; Mike Adams - Biker; Cathy Arden - Hospital Doctor; Jeannie Dimter Barton - Junior High Secretary; Creed Bratton - Carnival Ticket Taker; Les Dudek - Bone; Marilyn Hamilton - Mr. Kaplan's Aide; Howard Hirdler - Stickman; Paige Matthews - Stickman's Girl; Beth McKinley - Senior High Student; Eddie Paul - Biker; Patricia Pelham - Canuck's Girl; Gale Ricketts - Sunshine's Girl; Stan Ross - Drunken Biker; Allison Roth - Nancy Lawrence; Toni Sawyer - Mrs. Adams; Rebecca Sharkey - Angel; Anna Thea - Woman Counselor; Louis Waldon - Camp Cook; Scott Willardsen - Jr. High Student; Steve James - Hospital Intern
Credit
Howard Alston - Co-producer, Robert Chase - Costume Designer, Sandra Culotta - Costume Designer, April Ferry - Costume Designer, Tony Scarano - Costume Designer, Denise Schlom - Costume Designer, Peter Bogdanovich - Director, Barbara Ford - Editor, Eva Gardos - Editor, Tom Cole - Makeup, Zoltan Elek - Makeup, Michael Westmore - Makeup, John M. Elliott, Jr. - Makeup, Norman Newberry - Production Designer, Laszlo Kovacs - Cinematographer, Martin Starger - Producer, Richard J. de Cinces - Set Designer, Dan Lester - Special Effects, Eddie Paul - Stunts, Peter Bogdanovich - Screenwriter, Anna Hamilton Phelan - Screenwriter, Rocky Dennis - Short Story Author
The film is based on the life and early death of Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis, a boy who suffered from craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, an extremely rare disorder known commonly as lionitis due to the disfiguring cranial enlargements that it causes.
As son of a freewheeling biker mom, Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz) is accepted without question by his mother's boyfriends and extended motorcycle family but treated with fear, pity, awkwardness, and teasing by those unaware of his humanity, humor, and intelligence. Rocky's mother, Rusty Dennis (Cher) is determined to give Rocky as normal a life as possible, in spite of her own wild ways as a member of the biker gang. She fights for Rocky's inclusion in a mainstream junior high school, and she confronts a principal who would rather classify Rocky with mental retardation and relegated to a special education school to fulfill his special needs. Rusty asks the principal if they teach "Algebra, Science, English and History" at this school, they do, and these are "Rocky's needs".
Rocky goes on to thrive at school. He wins friends by assisting a locker neighbor remember his combination. Using humor when faced with an awkward silence during roll call. Rocky just repeats the prior new student's line "Gee, thanks a lot." The class turns to smile and laugh with Rocky. He shows his brilliance in History class by giving a terrific rendition of the Greek myth about the Trojan Horse and it being the starting point of the Trojan Wars. Gradually overcoming discrimination and tutoring his classmates for $3 per hour, the principal asks Rocky to accept a job as a counselor's aide at a summer camp for the junior blind. At his graduation from junior high Rocky takes home the academic achievement prizes in Mathematics, History and Science.
Rocky feels the need to leave his chronically depressed and addicted mother, and in a tough love way he helps Rusty help herself break her drug habit. At camp Rocky falls in love with Diana Adams (Laura Dern), a blind girl who cannot see his deformed countenance and is entranced by the boy's kindness and compassion. Rocky uses his intelligence to bring to life the sighted words like billowy, clouds, and red by using cotton balls as a touchable vision of billowy clouds, a boiling hot rock to explain red hot.
Near the end of the film, Rocky faces the pain of separation from his girlfriend, the collapse of his dream European motorbike trip through Europe with his best friend and while fighting a fierce headache, quietly withdraws to his room and dies in his sleep at age 16. Finding her cold son, Rusty re-pins Rocky's map of Europe and poetically says, "Now you can go anywhere you want, Baby."
The movie ends with Rocky's biker family, Rusty, Gar and Dozer visiting his grave, leaving flowers and some 1955 Brooklyn Dodger baseball cards by his headstone. A prized poem Rocky penned earlier in the movie closes the film.
"These things are good: ice cream and cake, a ride on a Harley, seeing monkeys in the trees, the rain on my tongue, and the sun shining on my face. These things are a drag: dust in my hair, holes in my shoes, no money in my pocket, and the sun shining on my face."
The film was a box office success grossing $42,400,000 in the US alone, with a further $20,478,600 in rentals with a North American Box Office gross of $62,878,600.[2]
