Free Willy - Ruf der Freiheit

After 12-year-old orphaned delinquent Jesse (Jason James Richter) is arrested for vandalizing the Northwest Adventure Park in Portland, Oregon, Jesse is placed in the care of prospective foster parents Glen (Michael Madsen) and Annie Greenwood (Jayne Atkinson) who despite their best-efforts Jesse doesn't take too. While cleaning up the graffiti on the tank of Orca whale Willy (Keiko), Jesse forms a bond with the whale which has had behavioral problems due to being captured at an older age. Over the summer Jesse manages to train Willy and befriends Willy's caregiver Randolph (August Schellenberg) and vet Rae (Lori Petty) but after the park's unscrupulous owner Dial (Michael Ironside) determines Willy to worth more for the insurance, Jesse undertakes efforts to free Willy.

Free Willy is a 1993 family drama directed by Simon Wincer and written by Keith A. Walker and Corey Blechman. Walker conceived the idea for the film while working with executive producer Richard Donner on The Goonies with the film eventually setting up for development at Regency Enterprises who had a deal with Warner Bros. Given a massive promotional push by Warner Bros, the film opened at a rather inauspicious fifth place during the Summer behind holdovers such as The Firm, Jurassic Park, and In the Line of Fire but thanks to positive word of mouth from audiences the movie managed to stay within the top five for many weeks and eventually amassed $75 million domestically against its $13 million budget and $150 million worldwide making the film a sleeper hit and leading to two theatrical sequels, a TV cartoon series, and a DTV sequel. Despite being a massive success in its day Free Willy hasn't really had much cultural staying power with the exception of its ending which is often subject to parody (and was spoiled by its theatrical release poster) because the movie itself is rather unexceptional.

When you get down to brass tacks with Free Willy, the movie is yet another entry in the "Boy and his (blank)" sub-genre of family films where you team up a child actor with a dog, an alien, a bird, or some other creature and put them through standard paces usually in some kind of coming-of-age manner or adventure story. As far as how Free Willy's handling of it goes, it's largely thanks to the acting that the movie works as well as it does. Jason James Richter gives a committed performance as Jesse, Jayne Atkinson and Michael Madsen are likable as Jesse's foster parents, Lori Petty and August Schellenberg are good as Willy's caretakers and Jesse's eventual friends and the always reliable Michael Ironside manages to make the very stock villain of Dial kind of engaging despite there not being much to him. Willy the whale is brought to life nicely by real life whale Keiko (who was later returned to the wild) and a set of animatronic whales and there is a certain charm to the scenes between Jesse and Willy. Pretty much everything you can fault in Free Willy comes down to the script which is basic to a fault and makes Jesse way too unlikable to excuse some of things he puts people through. While it's understandable to a degree that Jesse would be distrustful of people since he was abandoned by his mother, Jesse never softens his abrasive edges towards his foster parents or even Rae and Randolph all that much and pretty much does everything he can to be awful to the Greenwood's. I'm not saying I want it to be completely positive, but when the only time the character says "sorry" in this movie is sarcastically and it's in regard to the graffiti he put on Willy's tank in the opening it shows that maybe the character was in need of another re-write before being committed to screen. There's never any scene where Jesse expresses guilt, remorse, or shame and the writers seem to think him wallowing in self-pity is a substitute for him making any kind of amends to the people he's casually cold and cruel towards and it just isn't.

Free Willy is harmless when taken for what it is, but it's a movie that aims more for the heart than it does for the brain. There's a reason that what most people take away from this film is the iconic "jump" scene because everything surrounding that is competent but also unexceptional.

First of all, I want to say some of my thoughts about IMDb ratings. If you look at IMDb top 250 you can hardly find any family movie . In fact, there are only three family movie (I mean live action movies not animated flicks) in this chart. They are Princess Bride on the 99 position (haven't seen yet), A Christmas Story on 142 (a movie nobody heard of besides English speaking countries) and the E.T. on the 244 (forever classic - no point denying that). And I bet you would be unable to find another one even in top 500. On the other hand you can find in this list, for example, more than eighty thrillers or more than thirty 30 war movies. Does that result means that family movies can't be good. Obviously it is not. For me the point is that many of people as well as lots of critics don't appreciate movies sweet movies without profanity, drugs, sex and violence. Cheesy movie for kids only that's not a fair grade. Well it's only my opinion but for me it's very sad when such a beautiful movie become so undeservedly underrated. Now, more directly to our movie. I watched Free Willy no less than four or five times and found it one of the best family and animal movie ever made. The bonds of friendship between man and animal are shown incredibility well here. From this point Free Willy remembered me another beautiful animal movie The Black Stallion. The unlikely friendship between twelve years old Jesse and giant whale as the main element of the story is very sweet and touching. Overall plot is well constructed (and there's no point to complain its unreality) with decent development of the main characters. Young and definitely talented Jason Jammes Richter created terrific performance of a young lonely problem boy Jesse. Also very good in the movie were August Schellenberg (as Randolph) and Michael Madsen (as Glen). As I always mentioned cinematography is pretty good, including first-rate animal action (Keiko is so cute there). The beautiful movie soundtrack written by Basil Poleuydouris a bit resembled for me terrific Carmine Coppola's score for The Black Stallion. And finally, that's maybe the most important Free Willy is a very humanistic movie, a movie that what was made with love and care about nature. Thanks to Simon Wincer for this great masterpiece. We need more movies like this, not a laughable rubbish that Hollywood studios now provide for family entertainment. I rated Free Willy 10 out of 10 as an excellent and beautiful family friendly movie. Check out also its two sequels. They are also pretty good.

Thanks for reading and sorry for my bad English.

Willy is a wild orca that was trapped and separated from his parents. He is sent to an aquarium. Jesse (Jason James Richter) is a street kid who gets caught vandalizing the tank. He still believes his mom will come back. His social worker Dwight gets him off as long as he cleans up his mess. He's placed with Glen (Michael Madsen) and Annie Greenwood. Jesse is guarded and Glen is reluctant also. At the aquarium, he befriends Willy who saves his life one night. Willy won't perform for trainer Rae Lindley (Lori Petty) but he's willing to do it for Jesse. The owner Dial (Michael Ironside) is under pressure from the non-performing whale.

It's a reasonable family picture. It has a whale and the little kids may find it fascinating. The story is compelling enough that the older kids will also like it. It's very much following a try and true formula. The young lead is acceptable even when he doesn't have the whale. He has some good drama to play off against. It's important to note that Keiko the whale was eventually freed. If that's all the movie achieves, that's plenty.

Oh, this one is underrated here. The story of Jason James Richter's character trying to escape from a life of crime and missing prospects is way beyond the average. The growing affection for Willy is not even stereotyped or clichéd. It's a genuine bond that focuses on two outcast characters who slowly but surely come to experience true friendship and the value of trust. Jason's performance really appealed to me when I saw this movie as a kid. It is a sincere depiction of friendship, of a way out, of fighting for your values against all odds and of never giving up. Right, I'm grown up now, but this is one of the movies of my childhood I'd like to watch again, and I'm sure I'd enjoy it almost as much as back then. Jason James had very few acting appearances, but the Free Willy series assured him his place in movie history. His entire performance in here is sincere and straight, he doesn't laugh nor smile if it wasn't just natural in the specific sequences. His facial expressions and body language fit into the total frame as well. The story has some profoundly human themes to it. I can't help it, I think this one is both entertaining and deep, dealing with emotions and prospects of life, with integrity and courage in the face of danger.

5.2 is shameful. I loved this movie. It has all of the elements of a great film; compelling characters, plot, and an end lesson. I think that most family movies these days lack a lot of moral posturing that made films like this one so memorable. I know that I wanted to "Save the Whales" after I saw this movie. Heck, I wanted to be a whale. I don't care how many stars it got, this movie is a childhood treasure for me and I think of it every time I hear the Michael Jackson song, "Will You Be There?" I wish that my younger siblings remembered this movie or the amount of joy it brought us slightly older kids in my family. The sequel certainly left something to be desired, but not the original. Yep, it will hold a special whale-shaped place in my heart.