Tim Makes Angela Watch: The Frisco Kid (1979)

 

The Frisco Kid (1979) Starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford. Directed by Robert Aldrich. Written by Michael Elias and Frank Shaw

TIM SAYS:

A very funny movie that seeds its humor with great characterizations and real emotion. In 1850, a Polish rabbi is sent to oversee the Jewish community in San Francisco. Landing by ship in Philadelphia, he has quite the oddysey treking across the nation, much of it in the company of a bank robber who becomes his loyal friend. The unlikely friendship the two form is the backbone of the movie, with the clever script and strong performances making us believe that they could indeed become friends.

What impresses me the most is that Avram (played by Gene Wilder) is the source of most of the movie's humor, but the laughs are generated in such a way that we never think of him as merely a clown. That he is a thoroughly decent and kindhearted man and a man of extreme faith is always obvious to us throughout the film. We laugh with the film without ever laughing at anyone.

ANGELA SAYS:

At first this movie seemed to have an odd combination of stars and setting. I don't think of either Harrison Ford or Gene Wilder as western hero types, but they both worked in this film. Ford played a thief with a heart of gold (in the prostitute with the heart of gold vein that is common in many westerns). At first Wilder seemed to be playing the obligatory gullible tinhorn that gets fooled by every schemer and conman within fifty miles. But it soon becomes apparent that Rabbi Avram isn't really that foolish; he just prefers to look for the good in people first.

At the beginning of the movie we see the Rabbinical council deciding who to send to San Francisco and Avram isn't at the bottom of their list; he isn't even on the list. But the head of the council overrules them and sends Avram anyway. One wonders if he just wanted to get this problem child out of his hair (Avram graduated 87th out of 88 students) or if he saw something in Avram. Because the one adjective to describe Rabbi Avram is persistence. He IS going to get to San Francisco; despite thieves who steal his money, no sense of direction whatsoever, and a “partner” who robs a bank along the way. Avram WILL get there. No matter the problems; he just keeps putting one foot in front of the other.

Tommy (Ford's character) feels sorry for Avram; afraid he would wind up back east or wandering in circles forever so he takes the Rabbi under his wing and guides him across the American prairie. We quickly come to see that Tommy isn't the hardened robber he tries to be because he refuses to leave Avram along the way, despite some provocation. Ford and Wilder are great as the unlikely friends, buddy movie duo and play well off of each other.

Each has a crisis of faith toward the end of the movie. Tommy learns that friendship is worth the problems it can create and the outlaw path isn't really what he wants. Avram learns that life can give you situations where there is no good solution, and it takes more than training to be a man of God.

The character development and friendship was believable and the religious people (Jewish and Amish primarily) were given the respect they deserve for their beliefs and not shown as kooks, simpletons or superstitious; something lacking in many modern movies. Although I would have preferred a movie with much cleaner language (initially some was justified to depict the gap between the two characters; in my opinion, it went too far and became unnecessary); I loved it.