Continental Divide (1981)

Best movie of this year hands down!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

John Belushi never had much chemistry with any of the women in his movies (not even with the female regulars on "Saturday Night Live"), which makes this attempt to turn him into a romantic leading man a curious one at best, an ineffective one at worst. Belushi plays a hard-news reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, so popular around the city that cab drivers and working girls applaud him on the streets. After an expose on a crooked city councilman results in an attack on his life, Belushi's editor gives him on out-of-town assignment: traveling to the Rockies to write a piece on a female ornithologist doing research on bald eagles. This slick, mild amusement might have been perfectly acceptable as TV-movie, but is revealed to have no depth or character when blown up on the big screen. Director Michael Apted, screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan and Steven Spielberg's production company all apparently wanted this to be a Tracy and Hepburn update, a benign, PG-rated family picture to bring Belushi into the mainstream. It's a noble attempt, and the star does show flickers of personality (he gives the finger in his first close-up). But there's nothing much happening between Belushi and Blair Brown, and Kasdan doesn't seem to know much about mountain life, to say nothing of how newspapers work. ** from ****

I heard about the movie years ago, where it was John Belushi playing against type. I finally saw it in the library and picked it up for evening entertainment. Good thing I didn't pay for it.Belushi plays a very popular reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times who prints plenty of embarrassing stories about a Chicago alderman, with the result that he gets beaten up and put into a hospital. His boss comes to him and has him travel to the Rocky Mountains on assignment to try to interview a reclusive female eagle researcher. He is unhappy to go there, but has no choice, and after quite a bit of mountain climbing, he reaches her cabin.There are some mild laughs, and the idea could perhaps have been good, but everyone seems to be going through the motions, and the movie ends up feeling lifeless and dull. Not only Belushi but everybody else seems out of place here,

I loved this movie when it first came out, and after catching it again recently, I was reminded of why I liked it so much. John Belushi is so good and so funny, it reminds me again of how sad it was to lose this comedy gem. And it's always great to see Blair Brown, one of our best actresses ever. Seeing her in her prime again is delightful. I was also impressed at how well it holds up over time. It's a shame it was critically panned and did poorly at the BO when it came out, b/c in a decade full of strange movies, this is a standout, and now, IMHO, a classic. And the best part? Being reminded that the Bald Eagle population in the early 80s was only 2,000 in North America, and now it's in the six figures. The mountain lion scene is a little far-fetched, but, goodness, that is a gorgeous cat.

John Belushi's screen persona is fixed in most peoples minds thanks to his performances in the raucous, knock-about comedies 'The Blues Brothers' and 'Animal House'. But here he gets the rare chance to put in a performance of exceptional depth and nuance. Belushi plays hard-boiled investigative journalist Ernie Souchak who finds himself a little too close to some major City Hall corruption, and so, on the advice of his editor and friend, he heads to the mountains of Colorado, to chill and to write a piece on a reclusive conservationist, played to exquisite perfection by Blair Brown.The film begins as a serious piece on political corruption but soon turns into a charming, bittersweet 'fish-out-of-water' romance. The scenes set amongst the Colorado mountains feature some of the most breathtaking cinematography I've ever seen. The movie belongs to John Belushi though. He puts in a splendid mature performance, dominating the action like a major presence. It is through this movie, rather than his more famous works, that I feel we now sense the feeling of loss that his tragic early death gave the world of cinema. He carries all the weight and clout of a genuinely gifted actor, and his comic timing, even in the smallest scenes, is a joy to behold. Blair Brown, too, is another enigma. Why is she not much more famous than she is? Her performance is both tough and sexy, and she and Belushi make a great screen partnership. Throw into the mix one of the rare screen appearances from the great Tony Ganios, and this really is a movie worthy of rediscovery.Watch for it.