A hard-nosed Chicago journalist has an unlikely love affair with an eagle researcher.
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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Perfect cast and a good story
i must have seen a different film!!
Excellent but underrated film
John Belushi never had much chemistry with any of the women in his movies (not even with the female regulars on "Saturday Night Live"), which makes this attempt to turn him into a romantic leading man a curious one at best, an ineffective one at worst. Belushi plays a hard-news reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, so popular around the city that cab drivers and working girls applaud him on the streets. After an expose on a crooked city councilman results in an attack on his life, Belushi's editor gives him on out-of-town assignment: traveling to the Rockies to write a piece on a female ornithologist doing research on bald eagles. This slick, mild amusement might have been perfectly acceptable as TV-movie, but is revealed to have no depth or character when blown up on the big screen. Director Michael Apted, screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan and Steven Spielberg's production company all apparently wanted this to be a Tracy and Hepburn update, a benign, PG-rated family picture to bring Belushi into the mainstream. It's a noble attempt, and the star does show flickers of personality (he gives the finger in his first close-up). But there's nothing much happening between Belushi and Blair Brown, and Kasdan doesn't seem to know much about mountain life, to say nothing of how newspapers work. ** from ****
Continental Divide is by far John Belushi's greatest performance. Most people are quick to disagree, usually for one reason, and that is because they didn't find it believable. His audience was so accustomed to his characters, 'Bluto' from Animal House and 'Jake' from The Blues Brothers on the big screen and his usually wild and loud skits on SNL that they couldn't accept him as playing the lead in a romantic comedy. They couldn't and wouldn't accept this new role for him. For Belushi, it was his chance to break out of his stereotype and tackle a role that he felt would prove that he was more than just a skit on SNL. In my opinion, he did just that. Although this is not one of the greatest movies ever made, it certainly isn't as bad as some have claimed it to be. There are some dull moments, but for the most part Belushi comes off as a very likable and convincible guy. Belushi fans waited impatiently for him to get off a good one-liner or to blow mashed potatoes all over the place, but when that never happens they write it off as a bad movie and an even worse performance by John. I like to point this out: Let's pretend that this is Belushi's first movie, forget Bluto, Jake Blues or any character he ever did on SNL. With all of that in mind, watch the movie. John will surprise you by how well he plays his character. If this was in fact, the first movie Belushi ever did, it would of gotten way better reviews and press, and would have been more accepted by his audience, since they wouldn't have been expecting him to pull a Bluto stunt or break out into somersaults a la Jake Blues. The only thing that disturbs me in this movie is that his character makes several remarks about dying very soon. In 1981, it probably wasn't even given a second thought, but, unfortunately as we all know now, Belushi died very soon after this movie was released. Had John not died so soon and so young I think he would still be making movies today, unlike so many of his other SNL co-stars who seemed to have faded away into the woodwork. To make a long story short Forget about Bluto, Jake and SNL and just watch the movie, you should really enjoy it.
I think this is Belushi's best work. Although he stays in a kind of character you might find on Saturday Night Live (when it was still funny) he develops the character in a way that Nell and you fall in love with him. BE WARNED, however I first saw this film after Belushi's death and found his character's frequent references to death disturbing. Michael Apted does well in the director's chair. Be sure to see some of his other work i.e. Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorky Park, and The World Is Not Enough.
"Continental Divide" was a shock to me in 1981. After seeing Belushi in films like, "Animal House", "1941", and "Blues Brothers", I was expecting to see something more outragous than a quaint romantic comedy like this. Sadly, Belushi is miscast in this film, and there are no romantic sparks between him and Blair Brown.It is an average film, not bad. But seeing it once is enough.