Fearless (1993)

A man's personality is dramatically changed after surviving a major airline crash.

Director:

Peter Weir

Writers:

Rafael Yglesias (novel), Rafael Yglesias (screenplay)

Stars:

Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeff Bridges	...	Max Klein
Isabella Rossellini	...	Laura Klein
Rosie Perez	...	Carla Rodrigo
Tom Hulce	...	Brillstein
John Turturro	...	Dr. Bill Perlman
Benicio Del Toro	...	Manny Rodrigo
Deirdre O'Connell	...	Nan Gordon
John de Lancie	...	Jeff Gordon (as John De Lancie)
Spencer Vrooman	...	Jonah Klein
Daniel Cerny	...	Byron Hummel
Eve Roberts	...	Gail Klein
Robin Pearson Rose	...	Sarah
Debra Monk	...	Alison
Cynthia Mace	...	Cindy Dickens
Randle Mell	...	Peter Hummel

Storyline

After a terrible air disaster, survivor Max Klein emerges a changed person. Unable to connect to his former life or to wife Laura, he feels godlike and invulnerable. When psychologist Bill Perlman is unable to help Max, he has Max meet another survivor, Carla Rodrigo, who is racked with grief and guilt since her baby died in the crash which she and Max survived.

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Plot Keywords:

guilt | grief | disaster | one word title | christ figure | 

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Taglines:

Some people are afraid of nothing.

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and airplane crash realism

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 November 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

Joyride

Filming Locations:

Arvin, California, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$6,995,302

Company Credits

Production Co:

Spring Creek Productions,Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie's soundtrack includes part of the first movement of Polish composer Henryk Mikolaj Górecki's Symphony No. 3 [Op. (opus number) 36], also known as "The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs", which was composed in Katowice, Poland during October and December 1976.

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Goofs

When Max Klein is spinning on the corner of the roof, his wireless microphone pack can been seen on his lower back.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Cop: [seeing more survivors] Hey, there's more over here! Bring another team! Another team here by the tail! We're going to need a lot more help.

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Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: Fear of Flying (1994)

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Soundtracks

Sin Ella
Written by Gipsy Kings
Performed by Gipsy Kings
Courtesy of ELEKTRA ENTERTAINMENT and SONY MUSIC

User Reviews

A Boundless Interpretation of an All-Encompassingly Utilitarian Philosophy

Fearless is a fascinating movie about the thin line between fear and rationality. Fear is so much more difficult to overpower, or even sometimes be conscious of, than reason that when we do overpower fear, it is not necessarily replaced by reason, but by exhilarating mania. Jeff Bridges, in one of his best performances, covers a lot of ground in his character, a survivor of a plane crash. Many die, including his business partner. The catastrophe metamorphoses his whole life thereafter. He enters an enhanced perceptive condition, believing he is dead, beginning to rethink life, death, God and the afterlife.

Bridges becomes addicted to walking a tightrope over death because it makes him feel as alive and enlightened as he possibly can. But this also dwindles his connection to his family and his life. He begins to have difficulty recognizing the limits of mortality, in some way perceiving himself as more than mere flesh and blood. Rosie Perez, however, in a performance equaling Bridges' in personal reconciliation with her role, plays another survivor, whose baby son she failed to protect from death by the crash. In her own aftermath, she is the unmistakable foil to Bridges' expansive superman complex as a mother who loses all will to live.

The two find themselves bonding, sharing a connection that transcends the love we tend to understand, or that Isabella Rossellini, as Bridges' wife, and Benicio Del Toro, as Perez's husband, tend to understand. And as Bridges begins to reach the dangerous peak of his high on existence, Perez is forced to make amends with the world, taking control of shaping herself. The film is a boundless interpretation of an all-encompassingly utilitarian philosophy, a kind of precept that amalgamates the black and white duality of unflappable idealism and hopeless despair.

There are peripheral nebbishy professionals played in bit parts by a gregarious Tom Hulce and John Turturro who has as a virtually futile psychologist-for-hire a sort of ironic missionary zeal. We hear Gorecki's beautiful major string orchestra sound. But the film would not have the same kind of clarity, or perhaps even the same themes, without the articulately detailed cinematic expression of Rafael Yglesias' material by the director, Peter Weir.