The treehouse

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Movie
German title The treehouse
Original title The war
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1994
length 126 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Jon Avnet
script Kathy McWorter
production Jon Avnet,
Jordan Kerner
music Thomas Newman
camera Geoffrey Simpson
cut Debra Neil-Fisher
occupation

The Tree House (Original title : The War) is an American drama from 1994 with Elijah Wood and Kevin Costner in the lead roles.

action

The year 1970 in Mississippi. Stephen Simmons returns to his hometown as a Vietnam War veteran after being released from a mental hospital he was self-admitted to. After several unsuccessful jobs, he got a job as a janitor in the city school, but was dismissed after only one week due to his psychiatric stay. Since the family needs money, he takes a job as a harvest helper. There he befriends the black Henry Moe, with his help they find a job together in a marble mine .

In the meantime, Stephen's children, Stu and Lidia, seek distraction from the dreary everyday life by building a tree house. They argue about whether Stu and his friends or Lidia and her friends are allowed to use it. As a compromise, they decide to share the tree house, everyone should work for this. The girls get the equipment from the nearby scrapyard owned by the Lipnickis. His sons bully and beat the Simmons children and friends. They don't know anything about the tree house and the stolen objects. However, since Billy Lipnicki, the youngest of the family, saw them, Lida and her friends pay Billy for his silence. However, the secret is revealed and shortly afterwards a real war breaks out over the tree house, in which the Lipnickis do not shy away from violence, but the Simmons seek another solution, because their father had given them his philosophy of non-violence.

Meanwhile there is a collapse in the mine in which Stephen saves Henry's life, as he had already lost enough friends in the Vietnam War. However, he is seriously injured and falls into a coma. Only machines keep him alive, while Henry was luckier.

The Simmons and Lipnicki children agree on a test of courage in order to manage the ownership of the tree house. The person who first swims through an abandoned water tower while water is being drained will be given the tree house. Stu wins the test of courage, but the Lipnickis don't stick to it and continue to terrorize Stu and his tree house. In the battle, the tree house is almost completely destroyed. Meanwhile Stephen dies and a world collapses for Stu. Shortly afterwards, he saves Billy Lipnicki's life. Then the other Lipnickis leave the Simmons alone and Billy even becomes a very good friend.

The Simmons children and their friends want to rebuild the tree house, but after a few days their interest in it wanes and they give up. To her delight, her father had bought a new house before he died.

Film music

In addition to the film score by Thomas Newman , many well-known songs from the 60s / 70s were used for the film:

Reviews

James Berardinelli wrote on movie-reviews.colossus.net that the tree house was a "strict" anti-war film with an anti-racist message. The Chicago Sun-Times critic , Roger Ebert , praised the cast, especially LaToya Chisholm, Elijah Wood and Lexi Randall, on November 4, 1994, but criticized the large number of general statements in the film.

Awards

Elijah Wood was nominated for the YoungStar Award in 1995 . Lexi Randall and the film were nominated for the Young Artist Award in 1995 . The film won the Political Film Society Award for Peace in 1994 .

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Soundtracks at imdb.com, accessed on March 2, 2015.
  2. ↑ James Berardinelli: Film Review. Retrieved June 6, 2016 .
  3. ^ Roger Ebert: Film review. Retrieved November 1, 2016 .