Word: kasdan
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CONTINENTAL DIVIDE Directed by Michael Apted Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan...
...Lawrence Kasdan does, with a vengeance. Like John Sayles (Alligator, Return of the Secaucus 7), Kasdan proposes a return to basics in screenplays: clean narrative lines, understandable characters, tantalizing plot precipices. His scripts live comfortably within the conventions of their genres: sci-fi intrigue in The Empire Strikes Back, Saturday-matinee thrills in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the steamy crime story in Body Heat. All these films were made with George Lucas or Steven Spielberg; now Spielberg serves as an executive producer of the script, written in 1977, that brought Kasdan to his attention. Continental Divide...
...They must reverse roles: he cooks goulash while she overpowers a pair of hunters. They must adapt their skills to the new environment: Souchak defends himself against a mountain lion by calling on his street smarts. They must fall in love, part, reunite: they do. And then Kasdan must resolve the romance and still allow the characters to go their own way: does he ever...
...Kasdan's dialogue sometimes scans to sitcom rhythms. Transitions between sequences are too often punch lines to jokes played on the characters and the audience. But there are good sitcoms and bad, and Continental Divide is superior. John Belushi has dispensed with his randy Neanderthal persona to play that most hallowed of Hollywood leading-man roles: the extraordinary ordinary guy. Blair Brown is an earthy aristocrat and a resourceful actress: her face puffs and blotches beautifully when Nell's emotions demand it. If they are not quite Tracy and Hepburn, they will do until the real thing comes...
Film work seems less central to his concerns and his demands. Asked about his grueling 18 months making Altered States, he replies: "Have you ever been beaten up on the street? Well, working on a film set is easier." But he lavishes praise on Larry Kasdan, who, like Marshall Mason, offers actors that precious directorial commodity: trust. After Altered States, Eyewitness and Body Heat, Hurt may be said to have mastered the craft. But he won't say it. "I respect what people have told me," he says. "If I make it to 40, 1 might be a good...