Wed 21 Dec 2016
A Made for Cable TV Movie Review: THE PARK IS MINE (1985).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[5] Comments
THE PARK IS MINE. Made for TV: HBO, 1985. Tommy Lee Jones, Helen Shaver, Yaphet Kotto, Lawrence Dane, Peter Dvorsky, Gale Garnett. Based on the novel by Stephen Peters. Original music by Tangerine Dream. Director: Steven Hilliard Stern.
Perhaps of some note as being the first movie made for HBO, this is a movie also made for its time, but one that has had such a cult following over the years that it has recently had a recent release on DVD (December 13th). Not many made-for-TV movies make the grade, not with official releases, they don’t.
Most of what makes the movie worth watching today is the performance of Tommy Lee Jones, no surprise there. He plays a Vietnam War veteran who is still having difficulty adjusting to civilian life. He cannot keep a job, he is separated from his wife, who won’t let him see his young boy, and most of all, he is totally burned up by the fact that no one cares for what sacrifices any of his fellow soldiers made during the war.
So what does he do? Thanks to another vet who has just committed suicide but before that secretly mined Central Park and fortified it with all kinds of heavy ammunition, he takes over the park, literally. A one man operation that keeps the police and, most particularly, the city administration, at bay. A three day period before Veterans’ Day that the park is his, that’s all he wants. No hostages, no ransom, just three days of respect.
Causes like this, especially with plenty of gunfire and bombs going off, make for movies that attract attention. Luckily no one is killed — only minor injuries — until the deputy mayor left in charge escalates matters too far, as well as over the top, when he sends in a couple of ex-mercenaries, one a former Viet Cong, with orders to kill.
This is an act that ends in disaster, and it changes what could have been a minor league protest into one of over the top comic book proportions. Helen Shaver, who is very easy on the eyes, provides more than capable support as a TV news photographer whose quest for a story lands her right in the middle of it.
There is an obvious moral to stories like this, and if done well, they can sweep the viewer along with them. This one isn’t likely to escape its cult-only status, however. The story, while it hints at more, just isn’t up to it.
Audio Bonus: Here’s the complete soundtrack recording, very effectively done by the group Tangerine Dream:
December 21st, 2016 at 10:52 pm
They lost me at the ex Viet Cong. Stupid like that deserves a special medal of reaching above and beyond.
December 22nd, 2016 at 11:46 am
Self immolation celebrated the American way. Not much to like.
December 22nd, 2016 at 9:51 pm
Noting that many of the listed cast mambers here are Canadians, may we infer that Our Good Neighbors To The North provided the facilities and locations for this production (as they had on so many other TV and theatrical films in the ’80s and beyond)?
December 22nd, 2016 at 10:14 pm
Mike
Yes, you’re right. Most of the filming took place in Toronto, not the real Central Park. Jon and I watched this on DVD together, and he suggested that I mention the fact in my review, but I didn’t see a neat segue to slip it in. He also suggested that I say something to emphasize the nicely done musical score by Tangerine Dream, and that I did.
January 26th, 2022 at 1:03 pm
A parade of New Yorkers cheering on the armed capture of Central Park… Yeah, good luck pulling THAT off post-2001…. The producers were also Canadian… (Yeah, I’m not surprised either.) This got released in cinemas internationally through 20th Century Fox.