That movie was one of two that me and my two best friends saw in the most memorable moviegoing week of my teen years. The other, a week apart, was True Stories, an offbeat documentary-style musical by David Byrne of Talking Heads. Both featured the then-barely-known John Goodman, both played in our area about a week, and both theaters were nearly empty on the weekend nights we saw them.
We thought Raising Arizona was hilarious, full of instantly classic quotable lines, and had an odd sensibility that was completely new to us at the time (I was aware of Blood Simple, but had not yet seen it). Roger Ebert gave it a big thumbs-down review, as did the local papers, and it was really a couple of years before I found anyone besides my two buddies who had even heard of the movie. That was one that definitely came into its own on home video via word of mouth.
True Stories has not been so lucky, it seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it movie that has been pretty much forgotten (not helped by crappy pan & scan video releases). I still love that movie, though. Its sense of humor is gentle and genuine and its outsiders' look at small town USA is sincere and affectionate (not at all condescending, as some reviewers claimed). The songs are great and work perfectly in context ( I wish there was a soundtrack album, instead of the talking Heads album of the songs; Goodman's "People Like Us" is wonderful). The movie was also quite ahead of its time on issues like the tech economy and the conspiracy theories and tabloid tv of the '90s.
--Justin
We thought Raising Arizona was hilarious, full of instantly classic quotable lines, and had an odd sensibility that was completely new to us at the time (I was aware of Blood Simple, but had not yet seen it). Roger Ebert gave it a big thumbs-down review, as did the local papers, and it was really a couple of years before I found anyone besides my two buddies who had even heard of the movie. That was one that definitely came into its own on home video via word of mouth.
True Stories has not been so lucky, it seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it movie that has been pretty much forgotten (not helped by crappy pan & scan video releases). I still love that movie, though. Its sense of humor is gentle and genuine and its outsiders' look at small town USA is sincere and affectionate (not at all condescending, as some reviewers claimed). The songs are great and work perfectly in context ( I wish there was a soundtrack album, instead of the talking Heads album of the songs; Goodman's "People Like Us" is wonderful). The movie was also quite ahead of its time on issues like the tech economy and the conspiracy theories and tabloid tv of the '90s.
--Justin
