Wisdom (1987)

Well, I guess everyone has to start somewhere.

I’m a big fan of the music of Danny Elfman (overlooking his recent alleged transgressions), going back to when I first heard his score for Tim Burton’s debut film, 1985’s appropriately quirky Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. When I was just breaking into the double digits, age-wise, I was given a copy of Music for a Darkened Theatre (Vol. 1), which is a compilation of select Danny Elfman pieces. Among those pieces was score for a little-known movie called Wisdom. The synth-heavy music has a certain charm and momentum and as a result, I was curious about the flick it was attached to.

A little research revealed that Wisdom was actually the writing / directing debut for Hollywood nepo-baby and Brat Packer Emilio Estevez and having come to know that he’d since directed a handful of lower-to-mid budgeted features and a slew of various TV episodes, I was curious to see the film that sent him off in that professional direction.

I finally decided to bite the bullet, after having recently revisited that Music for a Darkened Theatre CD, and try to FINALLY locate this movie that I’ve been low-key curious about for literally decades. Strangely, this is not the most available of titles out there and in the end, I gave in to the siren song of online shopping and located a DVD version, released almost as an after-thought on the Warner Bros’ Archive Collection.

Wisdom tells the story of a disillusioned 23 year old felon (busted for stealing a car while partying with friends after graduation) named ‘John Wisdom’ (Emilio Estevez) whose foolish, non-violent crime has killed off many chances to professionally get his foot in the door, to start working toward the materialist trappings of the American Dream, as viewed through the prism of the Me Me Me 1980’s.

After one firing too many, he decides to change direction and, since he’s already a felon and therefore a social pariah, he opts to embrace the criminal veneer that society has stuck him with, seeking to embark on a life of crime. After sorting through his options and finding that the idea of anti-social criminality is not sitting well with him (he ponders robbery, arson, kidnapping and murder), he’s left feeling lost and even more dejected.

Purely by chance, he stumbles upon a news segment detailing the financial troubles of many small farms and businesses, involving foreclosures and the ruination of many people’s livelihoods. ‘Wisdom’ has discovered his calling and, along with his girlfriend ‘Karen’ (Demi Moore), embarks on a Robin Hood-like crusade to put a dent in the overbearing armor of the Big Banks by locating and destroying as many of the original loan documents are they can find. In doing so, they become folk heroes to the common man…but also targets of the hard-nosed FBI, who are determined to stop them. And thus begins the manhunt and chase.

Knowing that this title most likely wouldn’t interest the wife, I ninja’d my way into the living room at 6am on a Saturday with a tall mug of mocha and my notepad before hitting PLAY on 1987’s Wisdom.

Early morning scribbles ensued…

–There’s Danny Elfman! As noted, my familiarity with this movie began with Elfman’s darkly whimsical score, and it’s what leads us in.

-Title card Breakfast Club inspired? In 1984, Estevez was part of the now classic teen-angst comedy The Breakfast Club, which opens with a David Bowie quote, which shatters into shards of glass flying at the camera. I have to wonder if that choice by Breakfast director John Hughes led Estevez to use a similar effect for his own title card.

–An Alien reunion? Skerritt and Cartwright! It caught me off-guard to see two leads from one of my favorite films, Tom Skerritt (‘Dallas’, captain of the ill-fated Nostromo) and Veronica Cartwright (‘Lambert’, the Nostromo’s often hysterical navigator) appear onscreen together again here, as ‘Wisdom’s well-meaning upper middle-class parents.

-V/O’s a bit hammy. We hear ‘Wisdom’s inner thoughts through a dialogue that felt lacking in nuance or personality, sounding overly on-the-nose at times.

-You can sense Emilio’s inexperience in the dialogue and performances. Right from the jump, something in the performances, even from the veteran actors (though Skerritt and Cartwright do make the most of what they’re given), lacks a naturalistic flair that would’ve helped fill in personalities and motivations in a more organic way. It often feels like what it is – lines off a page.

-Some odd tones in the scenes. I think this goes back to the onscreen evidence of Estevez’s lack of experience directing a feature film and not being certain of his overall message or the accompanying tone.

-Ouch! Demi is NOT good here. Plus, ‘Karen’ is insufferable, as a character. Demi Moore, for a good spell, was one of the most powerful women in Hollywood (she must miss the 90’s), but having seen this early performance, it’s a bit of a wonder why and how. Granted, again we can go back to Estevez’s lack of know-how behind the camera as a partial explanation, but still…the performer does bare responsibility too. It’s also fitting that she’s named ‘Karen’, as she’s often nagging or complaining, when not being all nauseatingly syrupy with Emilio.

-What’s with the super short jackets? Early in the movie, we see ‘Wisdom’ head to a series of job interviews in a suit jacket that looked too broad across the shoulders and too short at the waist. Then, we see him later in another jacket that also looked ridiculously high at the bottom. It was actually distracting and I don’t accept ‘It was the 80’s’ as an excuse. Do better, Costume Department!

–Oh no! Charlie! Hilarious cameo. At one point, a frustrated ‘Wisdom’ decides to lie on a job application for a burger joint job, noting No to the felony question. Looking dorky as hell, Estevez’s equally famous brother Charlie Sheen (Platoon) pops up in a teeny cameo as the fast- food manager who busts him in the lie and loudly and profanely shit-cans him on the spot. It’s a blink and you’ll miss it moment, that did have me grinning for a second or two. It also reminded me that I should someday go back and revisit one of Estevez’s more polished directing efforts, 1990’s hilarious garbage man comedy Men at Work, where the two Estevez boys teamed up again.

-Coin Operated TV? OK. Never seen that before, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

-Some rather interesting societal observations from a rather affluent young actor. There’s a sarcastic undertone to this scribble, as I found it cynically amusing to see this story of ‘the Downtrodden taking the fight to The Man for the Common Folk’, as told by someone who’s clearly grown up with privilege and wealth, as his equally famous father, Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now) had been acting professionally going well back into the early ‘70s. However, having written that, I also have to concede to the fact that Martin Sheen is well known for his vocal liberal-activist stance on many notable topics (a trait I can readily get behind), so perhaps the apple didn’t fall all that far from the tree after all.

-An Uzi? $300-$400? Over the counter? Once ‘Wisdom’ has decided on his course of action, he sets about arming himself, walking into a gun shop and asking what he could get for “$3 to $400”. The scandalous-looking salesman promptly offers him a fucking 9mm Uzi (“Semi-auto…but easily converted.”) with a noticeably long barrel, straight over the counter. Oh, America…you so silly! Plus mags and ammo. *shakes head in amazement*

-Barrel change? Continuity. Next time we see ‘Wisdom’, he’s playing commando in some vacant lot, running around and spraying 9mm lead around. Strangely, the long-ass barrel has somehow changed to the standard 10” barrel. No scene of him cutting it down, no evidence of modification. Just…presto change-o!…abruptly short barrel, through the magic of editing.

-Demi’s the weak link. Performance feels like performance. That. Right there.

-A fatigue jacket equates terrorist? Does this mean that I, with my still-awesome surplus Canadian Forces fatigue jacket could also be mistaken for a…*glances around furtively*…terrorist? Veronica Cartwright says as such, with a wholly disapproving tone, as ‘Wisdom’ has the audacity to wear what will becoming his signature look for the first time.

-Trigger happy…for no reason. ‘John Wisdom’ robs his first bank. Well, not robs, technically…but definitely assaults, in his quest to destroy the records of debt for the Common Man. In doing so, he takes to blasting 9mm rounds at surveillance cameras and ceilings, while also nuking filing cabinets with homemade incendiaries. But all the wild shooting and explosions, for a guy who wants to help people, seem like a risky gamble, when it comes to innocent bystanders lurking on the peripherals.

Not to mention GREATLY increasing the chances of the cops being called, in rather short order, via anyone outside who hears bursts of automatic weapons fire from inside a fucking bank. So…not a smart character trait, that gets repeated several times.

-Dragging first robbery out. Gunfire. Explosives. No cops. As alluded to previously, his first caper is dragged out, punctuated by bouts of gunshots, explosions and fire…and there isn’t a cop in sight. The whole time. After a comedic getaway car encounter, they just drive off.

-Hide the gun, idiot! Flailing in public. Emilio rushes from the bank, Uzi out in plain sight as he begins to panic, as unsuspecting Demi has fucked off for take-out, seemingly leaving him high and dry. No effort to hide the obvious fucking SUB-MACHINE GUN he’s brandishing outside of a bank, that may or may not be on fire by that point, from which there was clearly audible gunfire just moments before.

-No dialogue sounds natural. Again, not much expansion needed on this one.

-Continuity! Vanishing Mercury Capri. As the once proud owner of a 1979 Mercury Capri (5.0 litre, so fun!), they always stand out when I see them in movies and a white one leaped out in a wide shot showing their car flipping a big U-turn in the street, which would’ve brought them right up behind it…until we cut to a reverse shot and there isn’t a Capri to be seen! What the hell is going on here?!

-Where are his supplies coming from? Early in Act Two, we see ‘Wisdom’ putting together his kit for this plan of his, with one set of his improvised charges. Later, when he and ‘Karen’ are undeniably on the run, he somehow has a fresh crop of ingredients to make an all-new arsenal. Somehow.

-Movie footage as news footage. I hate it when movies do this shit, the whole ‘recycling footage from earlier’ thing. It just seems so damn lazy and obvious. Just have some news-style cameras filming on set at the same time, catching different angles in videotape quality that will then act as your news footage later on.

-You’re fucked now, Demi. Dead cop. *SPOILER* So, as it always seems to be with flicks of this ilk, despite the most noble of intentions, anti-social criminal behaviour always seems take a turn for the worse. In this case, a careless Demi Moore essentially corners herself with a cop who wanders into the corner store they’ve stopped at, a cop who eventually realizes who she is. Both pull guns, and in a flurry of dramatic slow motion, the cop goes down with an oddly accurate bullet to the heart, rendering him highly deceased. The tragic spiral begins!

-Car chase and gunfight. Yep, definitely fucked. Now the FBI and local 5-O are closing in, resulting in the aforementioned car chase and gunfight.

-Good stunt. Car flip. A car flips over another car at high speed and almost disintegrates on impact, clearly taking out a camera in the process.

-Obvious stunt. Car flip #2. This one was kind of funny, as the wide angle we get of one particular cop car racing at us revealed a suspicious-looking apparatus taking up the backseat, behind the driver. This same car then gets shot at and is abruptly flipped over by an obvious burst of compressed gas and an air ram punching into the road beneath the car. It all belonged in some daily show at Universal Studios.

-Hey! White Bronco. Car chase. Juice anyone? Yes…that IS an OJ Simpson reference. And…?

-Demi’s jacket. NO!! *SPOILER* The tragic spiral of ‘Wisdom’ and ‘Karen’ continues, as a cop with all the aiming prowess of a stormtrooper manages to wing her through the shoulder with an M-16 after capping off a full mag, from a helicopter not far away, from above and behind. When Demi takes the hit, a nice bloody squib goes off…from her jean jacket only! As it bursts, the jacket briefly flaps aside, revealing the unmarked shirt beneath. So that poor jacket bled to death?! Is that what we’re to believe. No, what we’re meant to believe is that she’s been wounded to the point where her journey is over, either via a prolonged offscreen death or police custody. It’s always funny when something is left onscreen that pulls the curtain back on the Movie Magic a bit.

-How are they NOT dead?! Objectively speaking, given the violent-though-not nature of their crimes, plus law enforcements omnipresent knowledge that there are automatic weapons and explosives involved, some of which have been actively used against the cops (though largely without injury), it seriously stretches credibility that they would still be alive, regardless of the selfless reasons for what they’re doing. Violent criminals are dealt with violently.

-Garbage sandwich. WTF?! This made no sense. As it’s winding down and the cops are moving in to the deserted football stadium where ‘Wisdom’ has fled to, he pauses to catch his breath. As he ponders his next move, hidden among the bleachers, he digs into a nearby garbage can and fishes out a crumpled paper bag, from which he pulls out most of a sandwich. Which he then proceeds to eat. Savage.

-Well, that was stupid and inevitable. *SPOILER* Take a wild guess how this ends. If you guessed that – unknown to the law, he’d dropped his ammo and emptied the Uzi, showed himself defiantly to the circling cops, empty gun in hand, before refusing to comply and getting himself tragically and permanently ventilated in slow motion, you’d win a prize! Not sure what said prize may be…but you’d win it!

-Wait, what?! A goddamn dream? Seriously?! I THINK that’s what this ending is trying to do, and if so…more points lost. The flick opened with Estevez waking up from what looked like a bath nap, before starting his day. Here, we fade from his bloodied, recently departed face to him there in the tub, waking up and going about his morning routine with a dream-like déjà vu’ ambiance. IF that’s the case, that’s pretty lame, especially considering all the segments we see that do NOT feature the character of ‘John Wisdom’, so how could he have been dreaming those?! Cheap and manipulative, Emilio!

So, after all these years of idle curiosity, how was Wisdom, you ask?

If I’m being completely honest, it feels like the well-financed efforts of a first-year film student, which may not actually be that far from the truth, considering this is Estevez’s debut flick, from behind the camera.

Which is not to say that the movie doesn’t have its Positives.

Based on many of the shot compositions and set-ups, I can see how Emilio continued to direct over the years, spacing the jobs out between acting gigs. He does have an ‘eye’ and does pull off some interesting and inventive shots. And of course, there’s Danny Elfman’s propulsive score, which is expectedly great. The core idea behind the story is nothing new, but viewing it through the lens of the materialistic 80’s, given the state of North American society at the time, is genuinely interesting.

The issue is the package the idea is presented in.

The main problem comes when the movie is taken as a whole, especially from a dialogue and performance stand-point. As noted earlier, some of it, especially from Demi Moore (who would, admittedly, go on to a bafflingly prosperous career) is high school-level, which tells me that she is only as good as the script, and the person directing her. It shows in her sub-par performance that Estevez perhaps hadn’t quite nailed down the tone of many scenes and / or was unsure of his ability to coax a convincing performance out over the often stilted, unnatural sounding dialogue he has his characters spouting.

All in all, Wisdom is an interesting cinematic curiosity, and it’s on that level that I can both recommend and not recommend it, with equal certainty.

On one hand, if you’re interested in the early directing career of a personality from one of Hollywood’s most entrenched families, and also that of one of the biggest 20-something performers of the 1980’s, then, by all means, check it out. It is worth it, on that level. However, if you don’t have the patience for stilted performances, hammy dialogue and a somewhat confused tone, then giving this one a wide berth won’t destroy your life either.