The Park Is Mine (1985)

Good concept, poorly executed.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I found this movie extremely hard to watch since it lacked any semblance of a plot and it focused on the action. The music by Tangerine Dream is just over the top and further detracts from the movie experience. After 30 minutes, I fast forwarded to parts that looked promising, but was just disappointed by the continuation of the sad, sad, sad film making attempt. I finally fast forwarded to the end only to confirm that the film made absolutely no sense and is an example of movies that should never have been made in the first place.

The premise of this movie - a lone ex-soldier unraveling a plan to take over New York's Central Park singlehanded and managing to keep the police at bay over several days - does seem kind of hard to swallow. However, with the way the movie is executed, you'll almost believe it could happen. The movie does have a good amount of merit to it. While it's a mid-'80s Canadian movie, the production values are surprisingly good; this movie obviously had a budget. Tommy Lee Jones gives a fairly commanding performance at the Vietnam vet with a plan, and there are other good performances by Helen Shaver as the curious news reporter, and Yaphet Kotto as a chief police officer (though he's given little to do until near the ending.) Director Steven Hilliard Stern creates some good action sequences and keeps things moving at a rapid rate. Though maybe the movie is a little bit too swift; we hardly learn anything about Jones' character at the beginning, and before the twenty minute mark he's already taken over the park. Some people may be offended that Jones' Vietnam vet character is yet another cinematic Vietnam vet who is a "loser" (unemployed, estranged from his wife, etc.), despite surveys that show that most Vietnam vets in real life are adjusted and happy. But if you can look over this "loser" portrayal, chances are you'll find some enjoyment with this movie.

**SPOILERS** Like most Vietnam Vets Mike, Eric Peterson, was lost in the shuffle when he came back from the war with severe mental and emotional problems. Mike was totally ignored by both the Veterens Administration and his family members feeling that he was just too unstable and ill-tempered to have anything to do with. Seeing no way out of the hell he found himself in and no one to turn to Mike did the only thing that he felt that could do to take him out of his miseries; jump to his death from the top of the fleabag hotel he was staying in.Sending a letter to his fellow Vietnam Vet and good friend the also very troubled Mitch, Tommy Lee Jones, Mike wanted him to finish the job that he started out to do. Take over New Yorks Central Park for 72 hours, over the Veterans Day Weekend, and hold it all all cost. This bizarre action would throw light on not only the forgotten and ignored veterans in the city and country but all the other unfortunates who slipped through the cracks and were left out in the cold by an ungrateful and unfeeling nation. Mitch took up with where Mike left off arming himself to the teeth with and arsenal of weapons, that Mike hid all throughout the park, and ammunition that would equipped a fully armed and supplied infantry battalion. By the time the 72 hours were up Central Park New York City or for that matter the entire country would never be the same again and neither would Mitch. A bit overdone, one man holding off the entire NYPD of over 30,000 men & women, but still powerful film that has to do with a person who was driven to do the impossible, as well as insane, and in the end succeed against overwhelming odds. Where at the same time not really knowing, or even caring, if he lived or died throughout the ordeal that he not only put himself but the entire city of New York through.Tommy Lee Jones is perfect, and in fighting trim, as Mitch the man with the plan who takes on all comers in his determined attempt to hold off the entire New York Police Department, as well as a number of hired anti-guerrilla foreign mercenaries, to call attention to the sad and sorry plight of his fellow Vietmnam Vets like his late friend Mike. Not wanting to hurt anyone Mitch used for the most part magazines of blanks and non-lethal explosives to hold off the NYPD and unites of the New York State National Guard. It's when the man in charge of capturing him the politically conscious Deputy Mayor Dix, Peter Dvorsky, orders the police to shoot to kill and even brought into the park armed and kill crazy mercenaries Mitch had no choice but but was himself forced to shoot to kill and ask questions later.There's also photo journalist Valery Weaver, Helen Shavers, who ends up getting trapped inside the park, trying to get the big story, and becoming Mitchs hostage and later biggest supporter. Valary ends up filming Mitch's every action and statements to show the outside world just what he's really all about. Valerys involvement with the troubled Vietnam Vet almost has her killed by he two mercenaries who were sent into the besieged park by Deputy Dix to kill him. We also have Mitch's old lady Rachel, Gale Garnett, who refused to have anything to do with her husband and didn't even let Mitch see their infant son. Rachel feels now, after what Mitch pulled off, if she only paid some attention to him all this would have never happened. And last but certainly not least there's NYPD Captain Eubanks, Yaphet Kotto, who despite his boss' double-dealings and double-crossing of the fugitive Mitch refused to go alone with them. Risking suspension or even termination of his job. Capt. Eubanks in the end is the person who got Mitch, after the 72 hours were up, to turn himself in with a minimum of violence and destruction.The end of the movie has Central Park light up like a Christmas Tree with Mitch setting off all the explosives that he had still left to let those who tried to stop him, as well as most of the people in the city who were pulling for him, see that he got his message through even though it may well have cost him his freedom. Mitch showed in what he did that for the 72 hours had New York's Central Park totally and completely under his control and no one, not even the entire NYC police force, could take it from him.

I saw this on HBO in the mid '80s and I loved it. Tommy Lee Jones was so cool and I had no problem buying the premise. It was kind of like Assault on Precinct 13 or The Warriors in its cartoonish depiction of violence. I remember especially the part where he's in full military garb and grease paint on his face with an arsenal of weapons around his body and he tells a woman to leave the park because its filled with "thugs and perverts and weirdos." Check it out if you can, it won't change your life, but it's good.