Bottle Rocket

The owner of our local video store was nice enough to let me borrow his copy of the short when I rented Bottle Rocket. It's very clever but honestly nothing to write home about. Witty dialog with a lot of pop culture references and a certain charm, but it just doesn't have that endearing quality that Anderson and Wilson's longer films have. It actually seems more like something Quentin Tarantino would do than Anderson and Wilson. If you're a fan of Bottle Rocket and you get a chance to see this it's probably worth it. If nothing else it's interesting to see how it started. On the other hand if you never see it you shouldn't feel like you're missing too much.

This 20 minute short served as the trailer for and basis of "Bottle Rocket" the feature, which in turn launched Wes Anderson's long career as one of our most critically admired directors.

I remember how talked about the short was in film circles, and how it inspired Polly Platt (long time James Brooks partner) to get behind Anderson and champion his getting a shot at doing a feature version. There were many envious young film-makers and film students out there!

While the short is rough, it already has the odd, intelligent wit and strong comic acting along with the surprisingly complex characters that marks all Anderson's work. Visually it's nothing special, lacking the specific and idiosyncratic film language Anderson would make his own in films to come, but it tells it's enjoyable shaggy dog story just fine.

Luke and Owen Wilson are both very good, and amazingly young.

The short is available as an extra on the Criterion release of 'Bottle Rocket' and is well worth seeing - both as a piece of modern film history, and as an entertaining film in it's own right.

'Bottle Rocket' is the first project written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, starring Owen and his brother Luke. This short, shown at Sundance, made sure they got to make the feature film 'Bottle Rocket' (1996). Of course they came with 'Rushmore', 'The Royal Tenenbaums' and 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' next.

This short, shot in black and white, is sort of the same as the first fifteen minutes of the feature film version. It shows three friends named Dignan (Owen Wilson), Anthony (Luke) and Bob (Robert Musgrave) preparing for a heist, not much more. Before the real deal they practice once, buy guns, and then it's show time.

The dialogue and natural acting makes this an above average short film. The writing is pretty clever and most moments will make you smile. Most of the time it is quite exciting to see one of those "first films" from established directors; 'Bottle Rocket' is no exception.

It was rather interesting, as a huge fan of the feature, to finally get a look at the original 13 minute short, which the director himself says he cannot watch without cringing. I didn't cringe at all, in fact I was elated to see the bare bones of a simple plot, simply worded and simply acted. It was great to see what two years, a great production crew, a great cast and 6 million dollars can do to a movie. Unfortunately it's hard for me to separate the original from the feature, but one can definitely see the potentially unique voices in this piece.

A simple movie that went far beyond what could have been expected. I have been fascinated with Wes Anderson ever since. The Wilson brothers shocked me in that they were so easy going through the whole film. Never before have I been so intrigued about a movie that involved so little detail, which in itself proves there was great detail and a great effort in keeping the detail. The laughs are there, but it's no Happy Gilmore. That's a big reason why I like it. I would recommend this film to anyone who is quirky and who likes to see a young, raw Owen Wilson. Wes Anderson has gone on to make other wonderful pieces of filmery, but you gotta love his first effort purely for its simplicity.