I was full of trepidation revisiting this favorite from my youth. Some movies just don't stand the test of time from youth to adulthood, and I loved this movie in my youth. I was pleasantly pleased with Free Willy, the 1993 feature from director Simon Wincer. Starring a perfectly cast Michael Madsen, Lori Petty, and Jason James Richter, Free Willy follows a boy who has never known a home and a whale who was pulled away from his. Home means different things to different people, but for all of us, human or not, home is always a place where one belongs and can feel free.
Jesse (Jason James Richter) is a young troubled boy who has been abandoned by his mother and is getting shuffled through the system in foster care. When he and his friend Perry (Michael Bacall) a boy in a similar position as Jesse, are caught vandalizing the local marina, Jesse takes full responsibility allowing Perry to escape police custody. Jesse's social worker Dwight Mercer (Mykelti Williamson) keeps Jesse out of juvenile detention given he cleans the damage caused at the marina. Dwight also finds Jesse a home with a foster couple, Glen and Annie Greenwood (Michael Madsen & Jayne Atkinson). Reluctant to settle in another temporary home and displeased to be cleaning the area he vandalized, Jesse goes on with his punishment, as he views it. While cleaning, Jesse learns that there is an orca whale there that was captured by fisherman to be placed in the marina as a show animal. Willy, the orca, has not adapted well to his new surroundings, does not respond to his trainer, Rae Lindley (Lori Petty) well, and has no desire to perform for the public. Feeling a kinship to the animal that misses a real home and his family, Jesse and Willy become fast friends, with Jesse even sneaking out of the house to spend more time with Willy. When Jesse learns that Willy will be killed if he doesn't begin performing for the marina, he decides the only thing he can do is release Willy back into the wild where he can find his home and be free.
(Almost) Any film that has a lot of animal shots is going to look visually impressive. Free Willy was filled with shots of the orca all throughout the film which were breathtaking. I better understand now as an adult why I enjoyed Free Willy so much as a child; Free Willy is a family movie that is wrought with lessons, yet avoids the moralistic high horse. Of course, an adult, even a child, can recognize the correlation between Willy and Jesse both not fitting into the world in which they inhabit; yet instead of overtly making this connection, the audience gets to see the connection played out on screen as Jesse also discovers it. A fun family film shot in a visually pleasing way with a great understated morale, Free Willy is still a movie my adult self can enjoy that was a favorite of my child self.
Jesse (Jason James Richter) is a young troubled boy who has been abandoned by his mother and is getting shuffled through the system in foster care. When he and his friend Perry (Michael Bacall) a boy in a similar position as Jesse, are caught vandalizing the local marina, Jesse takes full responsibility allowing Perry to escape police custody. Jesse's social worker Dwight Mercer (Mykelti Williamson) keeps Jesse out of juvenile detention given he cleans the damage caused at the marina. Dwight also finds Jesse a home with a foster couple, Glen and Annie Greenwood (Michael Madsen & Jayne Atkinson). Reluctant to settle in another temporary home and displeased to be cleaning the area he vandalized, Jesse goes on with his punishment, as he views it. While cleaning, Jesse learns that there is an orca whale there that was captured by fisherman to be placed in the marina as a show animal. Willy, the orca, has not adapted well to his new surroundings, does not respond to his trainer, Rae Lindley (Lori Petty) well, and has no desire to perform for the public. Feeling a kinship to the animal that misses a real home and his family, Jesse and Willy become fast friends, with Jesse even sneaking out of the house to spend more time with Willy. When Jesse learns that Willy will be killed if he doesn't begin performing for the marina, he decides the only thing he can do is release Willy back into the wild where he can find his home and be free.
(Almost) Any film that has a lot of animal shots is going to look visually impressive. Free Willy was filled with shots of the orca all throughout the film which were breathtaking. I better understand now as an adult why I enjoyed Free Willy so much as a child; Free Willy is a family movie that is wrought with lessons, yet avoids the moralistic high horse. Of course, an adult, even a child, can recognize the correlation between Willy and Jesse both not fitting into the world in which they inhabit; yet instead of overtly making this connection, the audience gets to see the connection played out on screen as Jesse also discovers it. A fun family film shot in a visually pleasing way with a great understated morale, Free Willy is still a movie my adult self can enjoy that was a favorite of my child self.