By the time he made “High Road to China” in 1983, Tom Selleck was a TV star. The romantic adventure film set in the 1920s appears to be a test to see if he could do the Indiana Jones thing like Harrison Ford (Selleck was allegedly offered “Raiders of the Lost Ark” before Ford). “High Road” isn’t any less coherent than “Raiders,” but the chemistry between Selleck and another TV person, Bess Armstrong, is awful (and there’s too much yelling). Interestingly, Selleck’s relationship with his trusty mechanic, played by Jack Weston, is more honest as a demonstration of masculine love.
Archives for posts with tag: Harrison Ford
Back before social media and reality television, there were still parts of America that most of us had little or no understanding of, like the Amish communities in Pennsylvania. With that as the setting, a Philadelphia cop is a stranger in his own country in “Witness” (1985). After “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones” and “Blade Runner,” this was Harrison Ford’s first big success starring in a non-fantasy film. It’s a sturdy reworking of the old good-cops-versus-bad-cops story, made more interesting by the Amish angle featuring romantic friction between Ford and Kelly McGillis. (Keep an eye out for a Viggo Mortensen sighting.)
If you know an a-hole lawyer, shoot them in the head and they’ll become a good person. That’s my takeaway from “Regarding Henry” (1991). Harrison Ford is the a-hole. He suffers brain damage from a shooting and, although he loses some motor skills, he finds a conscience. Hijinks do not ensue. (In fact, I think the stuff that does ensue is the exact opposite of hijinks. I don’t know if there’s a word for it. Perhaps I suffered brain damage from watching this movie.) The climax is, well, anticlimactic. The only smoking gun was the one Henry got shot with.
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