Water (1985/I)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Dick Clement

Writers:

Dick Clement (screenplay) &
Ian La Frenais (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

18 April 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

They're All In It - Up To Their Necks!

Plot:

Farce about a British diplomat to a West Indian island nation who finds his idyllic existance thrown...

Plot Keywords:

Caribbean | Reference To Al Pacino | One Word Title | Reference To Gandhi | Independent Film

Cast

Michael Caine	...	Governor Baxter Thwaites
Valerie Perrine	...	Pamela Weintraub
Brenda Vaccaro	...	Dolores Thwaites
Leonard Rossiter	...	Sir Malcolm Leveridge
Billy Connolly	...	Delgado Fitzhugh
Dennis Dugan	...	Rob Waring
Fulton Mackay	...	Reverend Eric
Jimmie Walker	...	Jay Jay
Dick Shawn	...	Deke Halliday
Fred Gwynne	...	Franklin Spender
Trevor Laird	...	Pepito
Chris Tummings	...	Garfield Cooper
Stefan Kalipha	...	Cuban (as Stephan Kalipha)
Alan Igbon	...	Cuban
Kelvin Omard	...	Nado

Also Known As:

Water: The Movie (UK)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

West Germany:12 | Germany:6 (re-rating: 2006) | Australia:M | Iceland:L | UK:15 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

St Lucia

Company:

HandMade Films

Trivia:

Marked Leonard Rossiter's final appearance in a motion picture.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Ms. Baxter speaks to her husband by megaphone, her voice sounds equally amplified despite the distance between mouth and the microphone varying wildly.

Quotes:

Baxter Thwaites: From there you can return to Cuba.
Cuban 1: And face Fidel after this fiasco? No, we go to Miami. I have a cousin there.
Cuban 2: Si. We go underground and spread sedition!
Cuban 1: No, we deal coke. Like Al Pacino in Scarface.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs The Concert for Bangladesh (1972)

Soundtrack:

Freedom

The Caine mutiny.

A mildly amusing comedy from the double act of Clement/La Frenais, that has pretensions to some kind of political satire, but isn't nearly clever enough, despite allusions to the Falklands War, and plenty of topical material ripe for parody. It is, however, occasionally very funny, with a cast wringing every laugh from a script that doesn't deserve them, and all manner of stereotypes, including some hilarious observations of the Brits themselves. You can't really go wrong with a supporting cast like this, although Caine seems out of his depth, mugging his way through, ill at ease with his unnatural comic timing. It is certainly worth a look, if only because it's the only place you're likely to see Maureen Lipman's impersonation of Margaret Thatcher, and Billy Connolly singing, with George, Ringo, and Eric Clapton as the backing band.