Céu Azul

Shot in the Fall/Spring of 1989-90, "Blue Sky" wasn't actually released until 1994. The story involves a military family in the early 60s who move to an Alabama base. The wife (Jessica Lange) is erratic & bipolar and behaves like a loony Marilyn Monroe while the husband (Tommy Lee Jones) is unshakably faithful. The two daughters lament their mother's disorder, but the family's strong nevertheless. When the father goes to Nevada to work with bomb testing the commander of the base (Powers Boothe) has his eyes on the sexpot wife.

I don't follow film awards, but Jessica won an Oscar for her performance as the hysterical wife and she deserved it. For this reason many hail the first two acts of the film, and Tommy Lee as well. Unfortunately, her character comes across as unlikable and even scary. You start to feel sad for the daughters!

Some people criticize Boothe as being too dastardly of a villain. Don't believe it. Do these critics really think there aren't any high-ranking military personnel with a Genghis Khan complex? Men who think they're above the rules and can get away with anything their arrogant butts' desire? Boothe's character comes across as a solid military leader who's tempted by a subordinate's sultry wife and then does everything he can to save himself. This type of behavior is older than David and Bathsheba.

Some complain about how unbelievable the last act is. Two things: (1.) This is a movie and movies always amp up the dramatics. The filmmakers essentially have to do this because, well, it's a movie and they only have 2 hours to tell the story. (2.) Besides, the film's making a point about Lange's character and it's important to the story. ***SPOILER ALERT*** It shows that, as erratic and unlikable as she is in the first two acts, she redeems herself by literally risking everything for her husband. It's a powerful and necessary point. ***END SPOILER***

This is also a good film about life on a military base, like "The Great Santini" with some similarities to "Desert Bloom", albeit not quite as good as either.

The film was shot in Selma, Alabama, Florida and El Paso, Texas. It runs 101 minutes.

GRADE: B

It is always a pleasure to watch giants in some film which is driven not by effects , explosions and rap-style language but by old-fashioned story and , simply , eye-popping acting , and two main actors , Mr T. Jones and , specially , Mme J. Lange deliver this in full . This smaller , cheaper film deals with the relationships between the military personnel and their spouses , where J. Lange portrays perfectly a lascivious southern belle with too grand illusions of an acting career, who with her sexual escapades becomes a sort of house-hold name in all the bases her husband is sent to , she being slightly neurotic , while tensions and constant arguments between the two are a norm , and their two beautiful daughters watch this in silence , being even more mature then their own mother . It is interesting to see Jones 's character always forgiving his wife , loving her completely , never hitting her , or calling her names .And when the viewer is almost certain that a typical and clichéd climax is inevitable , i.e. a fight between the couple with him stabbing his wife , the film takes a completely different turn , where Lange's character shows her southern true mettle and love for her husband, who becomes a victim of higher national interests . Briefly , a school of great , traditional acting ,light years away from today's self-proclaimed thespians with artificially rounded lips or feminine neurotic outbursts for no reasons , being on the same level as small children demanding a candy .

1994 was a year of weak female performances, but Jessica Lange's Oscar-winning turn in "Blue Sky" is a real sight to behold. She stars as the alcoholic wife of a well-to-do military nuclear engineer (Tommy Lee Jones). Jones knows of a cover-up by the military to keep nuclear testing in Nevada a secret in the early-1960s. This testing has no visual effect on anything in the environment (thus the name "Blue Sky"). Needless to say this is an intriguing film that is somewhat based on true testing which took place in sparsely populated areas of Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico in the late-1950s and early-1960s. However, this film almost never saw the light of day. It was produced in 1991, but sat in an Orion Pictures vault for over three years. The film was finally released to generate revenue for the soon to be disbanded Orion. No one was ever clear on why the film was not initially released in 1991. Many speculate that director Tony Richardson's AIDS-related death may have had something to do with the studio's reluctance to release the film. This is just speculation, there is no proof of that. Its inability to get released is a bit of a mystery though. I mean a film with Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones should have no trouble being released in my mind. Anyhow, this is Jessica Lange's greatest role. Tommy Lee Jones and Powers Boothe also give great supporting turns. 4 out of 5 stars.

This film had some really interesting scenes that made me watch the movie twice but that was enough. The story overall is a bit too messy.

Jessica Lange was a hoot as the manic-depressive flirtatious wife of Army Major "Hank Marshall." Boy, poor Hank had his hands full with "Carly" as his wife. Lange plays the role a little over-the-top but that's what makes her interesting here. It turns out to be a military soap opera film, if there is such a thing.

The soap angle came in not just between the Major trying to control his out-of- control wife, but the couple's poor daughters who had to live with this under their roof. Amy Klempp and Amy Locane played the sympathetic daughters.

There's more to the story, such as incidental things like nuclear bomb testing but, believe-it-or-not, that takes a back seat to Jones and Lange's marital woes. Frankly. when I write this, over 10 years after seeing the film, I wonder why I bothered watching this twice. I was a big fan of Jones, and maybe that was it, plus Lange looked good back then playing the blonde bombshell. This is one of the last films in which she looked this good as her "Tootsie" days were starting to wan.

I have admired Jessica Lange's acting ability for years. She is able to convey a bimbo-like image with such intelligence and strength, an achievement that few actresses could pull off well. It's easy to see from BLUE SKY why Lange was chosen to play Blanche Dubois in the TV version of "A Streetcar Named Desire." She plays in this Oscar-winning role an emotionally unbalanced wife and mother named Carly, the type of woman that makes small-town wives fend for the safety of their marriages. She is very sensual, sometimes obnoxious, and definitely a show-stopper. Tommy Lee Jones is a nuclear scientist employed in the military during the early sixties, fearful of another meltdown. He also has to secure his wife's sexual appetites, which could easily get out of control, especially around a libido-driven sargent played by Powers Boothe. The nuclear storyline, almost a backdrop,gets in the way of the meat of the plot, that of the sensuous Lange and the two daughters. I'm not saying the actors in this film don't have power, they most certainly do, but they seem to be caught in a run-of-the-mill soap opera coloured by nuclear testing. Jessica Lange does have an award-worthy part to play, but it belongs with more powerful material, reminiscent of something like "Streetcar."