La force du silence

When this movie came out in the late '80s, it spoke out about nuclear proliferation. But the central themes of passion and commitment resonate beyond the time and the cause. Even if you don't agree with or understand Chuck's refusal to play Little League until all the nuclear silos are cleared, you have to believe in his determination to be the one person who makes a difference.

You don't have to be a sports fan or a political activist to be affected by this film, which combines laughter, tears, dedication and not a few plot twists. Newcomers to the fandom of William Petersen will appreciate his performance as a very conflicted father, trying to do right by his family and his country.

Provided you are capable of a "willful suspension of disbelief" regarding the implausible plot premise, this is a delightful movie. Truly one of the best kid's movies of all-time (right up there with "The Sandlot").

This movie combines some well-known stars (Gregory Peck, Jamie Lee Curtis, and William Peterson) with some surprising debuts (Joshua Zuehlke as Chuck and former NBA great, Alex English, as Amazing).

The story is heart-warming, with some genuine tear-jerkers, and the closing is uplifting (though a tad predictable). There are some surprises, a few quotable lines, and lots of inspiring moments.

I can't recommend this enough, if you want to believe that anyone can make a difference in this mixed-up world of ours.

Chuck as played by Joshua Zuehlke is a young Little League pitcher with nothing on his mind but the pressure of the season opener. But his small Montana town is the home of some nuclear missile silos and he gets a tour of one. He's a bright kid and when he questions what if they're used and the other side uses them as well, he gets an answer that's all too graphic.

Young Mr. Zuehlke gives up the Little League in protest and his small human interest story catches the attention of professional basketball player Amazing Grace Smith played by Alex English. Partly due to a fairly recent personal tragedy he's suffered he joins the young Little Leaguer out in Montana and then some players from other professional sports join as well.

The two athletes professional and amateur are the story, dwarfing such name players as Jamie Lee Curtis who is English's sports agent and Gregory Peck as the President of the United States who finds his hand in negotiating with the Russians compromised.

Amazing Grace And Chuck got dated and very quickly by the collapse of the Soviet Union. We started having to deal with a much different world than what President Peck was confronted with. There are no easy answers out there and the threats have multiplied with both ecological and biological terror a possibility as well.

Still Amazing Grace And Chuck was a sincere effort at presenting the pacifist point of view.

For the young in spirit and who never let their own inner child die when they grow up, "Amazing Grace and Chuck" might offer the chance of going back to a simpler period of life where understanding the world of adults and their interference on children's world was the only problem to ever exist. Sadly, I coudn't bring my inner child back with this film - but I tried. I simply couldn't connect with some of its ideas, highly noble and interesting as they were, neither could put behind some of the film's problems, both with its message, simplistic presentation and some darkness that shouldn't exist halfway through the story. As a dream scenario of a world of positive possibilities, it's a little hard to not reflect with seriousness about everything shown, the grown-up's world speaks higher in this children't tale.

It tells us about Chuck (Joshua Zuehlke), a pitcher from a little league of baseball who refuses to play games after visiting a nuclear missile silo and how they could vaporize everyone in an attack scenario. It was the Cold War days and Hollywood had a bunch of plausible reflections in the 1980's about what would happened if the doomsday was to come - all dark but better films. Chuck is right with his idealism, as it relates with the pointlessness of it all - why bother playing games if the world might come to an end? He doesn't say those things, but we have time to pause and think them all, accept what he's doing and embrace his utopic ideas that the world needs a change.

And when the news of Chuck's pacific protest hits the media, it attracts the attention of Amazing Grace (Alex English), a successful basketball player at the peak of his game who decides to join Chuck's movement, attracting plenty of famous followers but also some downer reactions from the boy's father (William Petersen) who's a jet fighter pilot; a gun lobbyst (Lee Richardson), and tinfoil Americans who think this new age group are siding with Communists. The game changer in this scenario is the American president (Gregory Peck), who's prepared to enter negotiations with the Soviets, but finds time to understand what Chuck is doing.

David Field's script seems something as if taken out of the blue, but it's not. It happened before in reality, in 1982, with 10-year-old girl Samantha Smith, who wrote a letter to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov questioning about the tense relations of Soviet Union and U. S., then he replied back and invited her to visit the country and she went there, becoming a little ambassador between both nations. But it's easy to understand why he didn't want to revisit that real story because it'd end on a sad downer note (she passed away in 1985, on a plane crash in America) and without a closure about the two powers situation. Yet, for all the dreamers in the world who thought this kind of film wouldn't resonate on anything, you're wrong. It's not often discussed (or remembered) but a month after its release, Reagan and Gorbachev reached an effective agreement related with the arms race and a cooperative plan was made.

Directly or not, it opened up the discussion and for that it's a quite noble and valid effort, showing that some apparently ridiculous ideas can work.

For that last matter and the impecable work from the cast, I salute this film. The young Joshua Zuehlke was never on screen again and it's a pity. A cute but sorry face that express a series of emotions, all the needed ones as he saddens about the world he lives in, doesn't understand why things are so complicated and that forces him to not enjoy what he likes doing and does best: play baseball. His interactions with the player offer a more colorful view on things, now that he has new friends; but it's the scene with his dad complaining about his actvisim that is the most moving moment. He doesn't say a word, and you can feel that the boy is painfully sad about everyone, and mostly sad with himself. Mr. Gregory Peck is highly honorable and effective as the American president and no one could have done a masterful job in this role; and Jamie Lee Curtis has some nice dramatic moments as Amazing's manager.

However, I couldn't bring myself totally to it. The transition between sequences is erratic, jumpy and a little confusing; and by that time a tragedy occurs it's impact revolts us instead of leaving us sad; and some dialogues doesn't work all too good - at times it's hard to figure who are the characters exactly, or even the whole barn community/movement development. I'm not even sure if I could buy the whole idea from the duo; it's easy to understand kids perspectives as being far more valid than the adults thinking, despite not being practical and the whole scope of things they aren't considering. If accepting that even the grown-up's sugarcoat many things in the story (very needed because it's a movie for children), you might enjoy it.

As a lesson about non conformity, the right and validity of being different than the rest, and such values to be taught to young audiences growing up, this is a very commendable film, though it doesn't hit all the right notes and doesn't convince for too long - plus it's way too predictable. 5/10.

Interesting concept for a story that is never fully realized by the end of the film. The relationship between the pro basketball player and his young fan has a father-son feel to it that would be used again with more depth ten years later in Donnie Brasco(1997). Mike Newell gives an interesting message about the fight and sacrifices one takes for his/her cause. Wonderfull use of famous sports athletes and anouncers as themselves. Alex English does alright in the role of the fictional famous Pro basketball player, Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace & Chuck(1987) is a good family film but average as an experience in film viewing.