Chattahoochee

John Chard

Well, I don't reckon I'm a hero. Sure don't feel like one. I just did what I could. One thing at a time. Step by step. Chattahoochee is directed by Mick Jackson and written by James Cresson (as James Hicks). It stars Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Francis McDormand, Pamela Reed, Ned Beatty and M. Emmet Walsh. Music is by John E. Keane and cinematography by Andrew Dunn. In 1955 Florida, Korean veteran Emmett Foley (Oldman) has a breakdown and is incarcerated in a "maximum security" mental health prison. Here he witnesses patients being abused and used. One landed in the cuckoo's nest. Intense incarceration based tale, Chattahoochee suffers due to a cliché riddled screenplay that can't hit the upper echelons of pics dealing with the "mismanagement" of mental health patients. Foley's attempts to expose the nightmarish conditions at the facility he is imprisoned in, keeps the viewer interested, as does his burgeoning friendship with Benson (Hopper) and the crashing of his relationship with the girl he loves outside (McDormand). Ultimately, it's well performed by the principals, but staid in writing and direction to the point you end up hankering for the "greats" of the genre made previously. 6/10