Skyward Christmas: Part Deux

We left off with me comparing Ben Marley to James Dean. I stand by my statement.

Onward.

Julie and Billie sit eating the damn chili (I bet THIS Billie’s chili isn’t as tough on the stomach as Bette Davis’s chili!) and Julie is suddenly introspective and worried. She asks Billie why Coop has never learned to fly. Oh for God’s sake, who cares. Billie is taciturn and tight-lipped about it (the only time she is those two things in the entire movie) and says, basically, None of your business. She ends the scene with, “It’s not my story to tell.”

Oh, so there’s a story there! I thought Howard Hesseman revealed his reasons quite well in Skyward, but Skyward Christmas is like a dog with a bone.

We now see there is a bee in Julie’s dumb bonnet. She must make Coop fly!

Next comes Gilstrap’s first mistake, in a movie where she makes MANY. She does something so stupid, so – well – MEAN – that I actually actively disliked her for the rest of the movie, and wished that Ben Marley would dump the broad and go have hot teenage sex in the back of his pickup truck with one of the cheerleaders in the school. Seriously, Marley, you don’t need to deal with a girl who makes THIS kind of bad choice!

Gilstrap is getting ready to go up for a flight. Coop is puttering around, checking the flight before it takes off. Gilstrap says, “The rudder’s stuck … could you check the blah blah blah …” Coop climbs into the plane to give a look, and in that moment, Gilstrap guns the engine and starts speeding down the runway. Yeah, Gilstrap. That is a great way to get someone overcome their fears. What a dangerous stupid thing to do. If he has a panic attack while you’re up in the air, then what will you do? No excuse, Gilstrap. No excuse. Coop does begin to freak out, clawing at the glass roof – but Gilstrap keeps speeding down the runway. Coop is openly panicking – Gilstrap finally sees the error of her ways and is screaming at Coop that she will stop the plane – but it’s too late. Coop is in a frenzy and leaps out of the plane, falling to the runway, in a crumpled heap.

Gilstrap, who – obviously – cannot leap out of the plane and rush to his side, freaks out, screaming his name at the top of her lungs.

Good. You should be horrified. That was a terrible thing to do to someone.

Idiot.

I never really recovered from that moment. I was annoyed from then on.

The next scene we see Billie and Gilstrap racing behind the ambulance, taking Coop to the hospital. Gilstrap is beside herself, apologizing repeatedly, and Billie is unmoved. Just imagine this scene in the hands of Bette Davis, and you can really see what we’re missing here. It becomes maudlin and cliche (which it already is, due to the silly script) – as opposed to a glimpse of something real and raw going on (which you got in Skyward). This scene feels like it goes on FOREVER because they both are just (with the help of the director) milking every moment until there is no more life in the thing whatsoever. Billie finally says to her, “I’m not the one who has to do the forgiving. That’s Coop’s choice.”

Damn Coop and his choices.

The next scene is a quiet scene at the Gilstrap family home. Julie is obviously in trouble for the shit she just pulled. Good. Coop, obviously, is alive, but he’s still in the hospital. Oh, and there were some other scenes in there involving the grandpa, but they were so awful that I blocked them out. Suffice it to say, grandpa is stranded in St. Louis and being a big baby about it – and Julie has hatched a plan to fly back there and pick him up for Christmas, as a surprise to her parents. Her sister is in on the plan. Grandpa is all proud and stuff, in the lobby of his rooming-house, telling everyone how his granddaughter is going to fly to pick him up. Yay for you, Grandpa.

Anyway, Julie’s slick TV-actor dad (no longer the mumbly tormented Clu Gulagher) says that he’s going to ground her. No more flying. Julie is heartbroken. What about Grandpa? But her parents stay firm. Good. Anyone who is that irresponsible as a pilot doesn’t deserve a license.

Then comes the long drawn out scene in the hospital where Julie asks Coop for forgiveness. This is when this new Coop’s true Forrest Gump stunted man-boy personality comes to the fore. He is holding a grudge. He sulks, basically. I think RAGE would be more appropriate Coop. After all, you were the one in Skyward who called Julie on her shit, wheelchair or no … she deserves to be bitch-slapped from here to Kingdom Come! But instead Coop sits in bed, working on some airplane part (“the nurse’ll be mad cause I get grease on her clean sheets” …) and refuses to look at Julie, in her high-necked Big Love blouse, even though she is pleading and apologizing.

The whole thing is tiresome. I was already sick of both of them.

But then, halleluia, next scene involves Ben Marley. He drives her home from the hospital. Julie sits there with tears rolling down her face. He’s got his hat on, which I found completely distracting, and could barely listen to what he was saying. But it was a simple scene, him trying to find out if Coop is all right, him trying to comfort her – not with words, really – just putting his arm around her, stuff like that … all of which was, again, delightfully iconic and Hud-ish, due to his hat and his general demeanor. He’s a good boyfriend, basically. I still think he needs to kick her to the curb and hook up with some irresponsible hottie because he’s YOUNG, does he need this crap? Who needs Coop and his damn sulks?

But he’s trying to do the right thing here. He doesn’t try to cheer her up, not yet, he just tries to listen. Like I tried to listen, while watching the damn thing, distracted by the hat and the face.

“Wait – what did he just say?”
“I have no idea. LOOK AT HIM.”

Next scene is indicative of the problem in the script, as well as Gilstrap’s performance. I’m not really faulting her. She was not an experienced actress, and she was basically thrown to the wolves here, having to carry a series – and she wasn’t up for it. In the other film, as I mentioned, her co-stars had weight and reality, Bette Davis, Marion Ross – and that helped Gilstrap. But here she starts to sink, going towards blatant sentimentality, with no subtlety. And in this context, “sentimentality” starts to look like “self-pity” – and all of the characters (except Ben Marley’s) fall for it. Everyone is feeling sorry for themselves, holding grudges, and being difficult and passive-aggressive. That’s the energy we’re presented with here. Makes me want to leap into a waiting aircraft and fly away to ride a stupid bull, I’ll tell you that!

So the next scene, Scott is taking Julie out for ice cream and trying to cheer her up. He swoops over to the table with two sundaes (again, with the symphony of movement he puts into his character’s body language), saying something like, “Two Billings specials!” Julie is morose. What a shock. He sits across from her, and he’s all about his ice cream, and trying to feed her a scoop of it. She shakes her head no. You don’t deserve such a boyfriend, Gilstrap. Anyway, she is given lines like, “I just wish Grandpa could be with us for Christmas” and “The only time I am really me is when I fly” and “I’m just so sad about Coop” … and she plays them right on the nose, not underplaying, or undercutting, or anything a more experienced actress would do with such obviously maudlin material. She goes right along with the line. But Ben Marley doesn’t. That’s why he’s good. He listens, but he also manages to suggest that he is a bit distracted by his ice cream, he’s not just eyeballing her, and listening with dead seriousness – he’s still jiggly, and nervy, and also (perhaps?) a bit tired of the self-pity. He’s all about solutions.

At one point he says, in regards to stupid Grandpa who won’t get on a bus, and who now WON’T be picked up by Gilstrap since she’s grounded: “Look.” Putting his spoon down definitively. You know he’s serious when he stops paying attention to his ice cream. He says, “I’ll go pick him up. I’ll give him the ride of his life – he won’t never forget it.” Kind of laughing to lighten the mood, and showing that kind of macho arrogant flyboy attitude that he would use to great success in Apollo 13. But Julie, still morose, shakes her head and says, “He won’t go with anyone else but me!” Grandpa is a serious pain in the ass. Good lord. What a baby. So there’s Ben Marley, basically acting by himself here … making a scene happen … meaning: using humor, charm, and then seriously listening when that is called for … it’s a mixed bag, not just one note. She ends the scene with saying, “What am I gonna do, Scott?” Pleading with him.

He looks up at her and says, “I don’t know, Julie.”

It’s a nice moment, played simply and truthfully, with a big ol’ closeup of his cute face. He, at least, knows how to play a closeup.

You know, closeups are all about character, thought, and what’s going on in the eyes. Not plot. Let it go. The plot will take care of itself. Don’t act, for God’s sake, in your closeup! It’s got to be honest and connected to the moment. That’s what he does there.

Next we see Coop, who is back at work. He’s got a bandage on his face, I believe, and he putters about in the hangar with a grim sulky look on his face. I don’t blame him for being mad, it’s the SULKING I can’t abide. A good old-fashioned self-righteous anger would be way more appropriate.

But yay, more Ben Marley! Marley walks out to the hangar, in his white apron, carrying a tray of food for Coop. He’s trying to be jokey and friendly – actually, no, he IS jokey and friendly, it’s his easygoing personality – but there’s all this other stuff beneath it, the ongoing fight between Coop and Julie, etc. His friendliness is covering that up.

He says, not looking at Coop, “How you feeling?”

Coop rattles off all of his injuries and then says, “What do you think?”

Marley doesn’t take it personally. He’s working up to something. Something on his mind.

Uhm, swoon? Let’s see a couple more.

Dude is effing gorgeous, and that’s my final answer.

Anyway, he tries to patch things up between Julie and Coop. Julie is grounded, not allowed out at the airport – and Ben wants to make sure that Coop knows “she said Merry Christmas”. He is the messenger. Coop is still sulky, and holding onto a grudge, and … in a moment that ends up being a clunky ba-dum-ching in the script – says, “She’s not gonna pull any more surprises on me, is she?”

And then suddenly, as if on cue (as if??) we hear the engine of an airplane gunning … and Coop jumps to attention. “Is someone stealing my airplane?” They look out at the runway, and there is Julie, with her goggles on, taking off in the plane. Unannounced, unplanned, she is basically stealing the damn thing to go pick up her Grandpa. Not to mention the fact that she is also grounded. She is breaking 10 rules at one time. But there’s not time to worry about all of that. Coop and Scott run out of the tarmac, after the plane, calling at her to stop. It’s actually a nice shot of our adorable short-order cook charging off after the plane.

But Julie is beyond the pale now. She ignores the shrieks and takes off into the air. Turns out that her best friend Kendra helped her into the plane … “But I didn’t know she was grounded! She said she was going to get her grandpa!”

Billie has come running out of the restaurant, and she is hysterical. Billie? Hysterical?

Coop, with that same sulk on his face, says something about how he had put a bad generator into the plane, to test it. Billie freaks out. “YOU PUT A BAD GENERATOR INTO THAT PLANE?” He says, aw shucks, “Well how else am I gonna work on it?” Julie knows none of this, so she has now taken off into the air with a bad generator.

The worried group on the ground stares up into the sky. The music is ominous. Billie says, with an air of disgust, “Let’s hope she has the sense to put the radio on” (I doubt it, Billie) and goes back into the restaurant, leaving Scott worried and alone. And gorgeous.

We see Julie flying through the air. She’s got her map out, planning her route.

Back down on the ground, hysteria is building in the restaurant. Billie and Coop huddle by the radio, and Billie screams into it, trying to contact Julie. Scott and Kendra look on. I liked Marley’s vibe here, which again seemed natural and truthful, as opposed to actor-y. He’s nervous, restless, he squints at the sound of the crackle on the radio, like he’s trying to see her through the static, he keeps looking around, like – let’s get the hell out of here and go get her. But it’s not overdone, it’s subtle and just right. You know, it’s enjoyable to watch him. You stop worrying. With everyone else, you’re afraid that the sentiment and melodrama will sink them, and so you wince, watching them act. But with him, you can just relax. Yes, you can also enjoy his beauty, which I do – but I maintained enough of a clear head to see what he was actually doing in these scenes, and it’s good. Not too much.

Julie flies along happy as a clam. Billie screams into the radio like a shrieking Greek goddess. Julie is flying over swamps and lowlands, peeking down to make sure she’s on the right course. Dum-dee-dum, just flyin’ along in my stolen airplane …

I think along in here we also get scenes with Grandpa, packing his bags, and heading to the meeting place in the middle of a field. His friend comes to wait with him and his friend is scornful like, “I highly doubt she’ll make it …” and Grandpa is all puffed up with pride and says, “She’ll be here. My granddaughter is a pilot! She’s coming to pick me up!” You know, upping the emotional stakes for everyone involved. Will Julie arrive? Will Christmas happen? Will Ben ride his stupid bull? These are the cliffhangers involved.

Then we are also in the restaurant, with the worried group huddled over the radio, and Coop is all twisted up like a pretzel, because of the generator that might go bad any minute, and Kendra is sad-faced because it’s all her fault in the first place (no, it’s not, Kendra. It’s Gilstrap’s fault and hers alone), and Scott is a tightly-coiled jiggling-legged ball of energy. What he wants to do is run, leap into his truck, and go after her.

The chronology gets a little cloudy here but at some point, of course, the generator fails and smoke begins to pour out of the engine of the plane. This is when Julie finally responds to the urgent radio calls, but by this point she is too far away to come through clearly. Of course the words that DO make it through are alarming: “smoke”, etc. She sounds panicked. The panic on the ground grows. Billie is screaming at her to give the coordinates … but the static is too loud. Julie is struggling with the airplane now, coughing because of the smoke, and she screams, “I’m going to crash!” or some such comforting remark.

They then lose contact with Julie altogether. We see Julie aim for a big field and she lands, but by then the airplane is out of control and she can’t stop in time before she crashes into a tree. The plane is not on fire but there is a lot of smoke and Julie, using her upper body strength that she has been building, by using her manual wheelchair, hauls herself out of the plane and there’s a terrible shot of her falling to the ground. It looks like it’s really her, although it’s probably not. It’s a dead-weight kind of fall because of her legs and it’s awful to watch. She tries to crawl away from the airplane and then collapses onto the ground.

Terrible, yes, but I’m sorry, that’s what happens when you take off in someone else’s plane without checking first. I’m glad you’re okay, Julie, but honestly, you need to develop some common sense!

Once they lose contact with Julie, a still silence takes over the restaurant and everyone stands there, quiet and horrified. Billie then says, in a quiet voice (finally! she’s quiet!): “Scott, you’d better go call her parents.”

Scott bolts to the door. Finally he has something concrete to do!

Somewhere along in here, we get a shot of Grandpa, finally giving up waiting, and he’s all wallowing in self-pity, that he has been forgotten … AGAIN. I know we’re meant to feel urgent, and like we want to leap through the screen and tell Grandpa that no, Julie TRIED to get there … but instead I was just annoyed. Can’t he just assume that everyone in the world is doing the best they can? Does he have to put the most cynical spin onto everything? But no, he is determined to feel bad and lonely. He scowls at the ground. He is inconsolable.

Meanwhile, back at the airport, Julie’s glamorous new parents come rushing in, with sister in tow. Where is the adopted son? At home with a babysitter? It’s so odd that they would add that kid and give him nothing to do.

The parents are hysterical (more of the same), demanding that they “get Julie down” – uhm, how do you propose they go about that? Scott and Kendra stand nearby, almost like guilty accomplices, even though this is all Julie’s fault. The parents are out of their minds. “WHERE IS SHE? GET HER DOWN.”

I know I grabbed screenshots of minute changes of expression on his face, but whatever, it’s occupying my spare time, and I find it amusing and fun. I need all the help I can get. Again, he has a nice energy through all of this, underplaying the hysterical energy of everyone else.

We were talking about it later and Dan said something about, “So this was the pilot for a new series – but what would the series be? Every week she gets grounded and every week she goes on some dangerous mission?”

My contribution to the discussion was, “I wish the entire television series had been focused on the erotic possibilities in the relationship with Scott.”

Dan agreed. “That’s a television show I would have watched.”

Billie explains to Julie’s parents what has happened, and also that they don’t know where exactly she is, but they believe she is somewhere near the Oklahoma border. The plan then becomes: the Ward parents will stay at the restaurant and man the radio, and Coop (on his motorcycle) and Billie and Scott (in his truck) will go out and look for Julie.

The parents, lonely and afraid, watch everyone run out the door … and the Christmas wreath hangs on the door, as if in mockery of their family holiday.

Julie is injured and lying by the plane.

Then we see Coop flying down some country road on a motorcycle.

Then we see Billie and Scott, careening down some country road in his truck. They don’t speak. Billie is all worried and emotional, and Marley is now in the position of having to underplay things, and keep things simple and clean. He’s taken up with driving, he’s focused on the task at hand, but at one point, he says, with no flourish or embellishment, eyes still on the road, “You ever get scared, Billie?”

Billie says, “Not if I can help it.”

He says, still watching the road, “What about now?”

She thinks a minute and then says in a campy TV kind of way, “She’s a good pilot. I am sure she touched down okay.”

Scott doesn’t look at her. He’s driving, watching the road, deep in thought. Says, “Wish I was as sure as you.”

Sometimes you need to know when not to do too much, and he plays that little scene just right.

Then I think Coop somehow locates her. How on earth he would find her I will never know. But he sees the plane off the road in a field, and, like an idiot, tries to charge across the field on his motorcycle – and of course he crashes. There are lingering shots of his dismayed face as he inspects his bike and its broken chain, telegraphing to us that it will provide no escape from the field. Meanwhile Julie lies in a crumpled heap just over there. Forget your damn bike and go help her, Coop!

Also, I was just so confused. The way it is filmed makes it seem like Coop turned off the road and started across the field. The road is right there. She’s not in the middle of the Sahara. Even without a bike, couldn’t Coop stand out on the road and either flag someone down, or start the hell walking to the closest town so he could send for help? I didn’t understand the logistics or the geography of why they felt so TRAPPED. They’re not at the summit of Everest with no possibility of rescue! But whatever, I realize I am over-thinking it. I don’t mean to be a bitch. But I was confused, and kept saying to Dan and Keith, “But the road is right over there!”

I don’t mind schmaltz. I even adore a little bit of cheese. But persistent illogicality in service of a bossy plot drives me crazy.

At some point too we see Grandpa’s landlady come hand him a message “from your granddaughter”. He lights up and says, “Julie?” She says, “Your other granddaughter.” The message says that Julie had to crash the plane and is nowhere to be found, but people are looking for her. Grandpa is horrified. His response is full of self-hatred (of course – because ALL of his responses have to do with himSELF) – he says, bitterly, “And I couldn’t take the bus.” And then trudges up the stairs, furious at himself.

Billie and Scott have been pulling over at every gas station to call back to the restaurant to see if Julie or Coop has been heard from. Still no word.

Coop has raced across the field to pick up Julie, who is moaning and holding her stomach. He puts her on the wing of the plane, where she rests her head, and they are tearful and happy to be together and alive. They are friends again. She is apologetic, he is immediately looking to fix the plane … and that will take some doing. Somehow he hooks up his bike’s generator to the plane, or something like that … and through various mechanical works of wizardry gets the radio to work. By now it is nightfall. Coop makes a fire. And then calls back on the radio to the restaurant. Julie’s parents race to the microphone.

They have many questions, none of which Coop can answer. He tells them to call the Oklahoma state police, and the closest town, and blah blah … and then puts Julie on the microphone to talk to her parents. It is as though it is a last goodbye. As though Julie is trapped in the wilderness in a blizzard 300 miles from civilization. It is vaguely ridiculous. She’s not going to DIE, she’ll be out of there by morning. But anyway, Julie and her parents have a tearful conversation, saying “I love you” and “I’m sorry” and all that. Relief. Yet they are not out of the woods yet.

And what about Grandpa???

Next scene is Billie and Scott stopped at another payphone. Billie is at the phone, and Scott sits in the truck, swathed in shadow, cowboy hat brim down. Kinda hot. What a shock. Billie slowly and tremulously comes to the door of the truck, and she stands in the doorway, trembling with emotion. It’s way too much. Take it down just one notch, then maybe you would have had me. He glances up at her. She says, barely able to hold back the sobs, “Coop found her … she’s alive … SHE’S ALIVE.” Ben Marley is just one of those actors who knows how to keep things simple. It’s nice to see. He takes in what she’s saying, he doesn’t burst into tears, he doesn’t overact … he just looks suddenly, relieved and relaxed, and reaches over and grabs Billie to hug her. An organic moment of emotion, not pushed. Well done. Not easy when your scene partner is literally trembling with too much of basically everything.

Now we come to Coop’s big scene. Geoffrey Lewis plays it fine, it’s just way too imposed on the action – a manufactured Freudian reason for his fear of flying. It’s a big confession. He plays it to the hilt. He even wells up with tears at one point. But swallows it down, crushes down the emotion in the flickering firelight, as Julie stares on with compassion and love. The music is insistent. It’s a big fat monologue. “Here’s why I’m afraid to fly.” And out pours this horror story from his past.

I liked it better when I didn’t know that story.

Billie and Scott, now that they know she has been found, go back to the restaurant – and the entire group stands vigil around the microphone. It’s dawn now.

I enjoy his thighs, which I believe I mentioned in my original Skyward post.

I can’t remember why the Oklahoma police cannot get to the crash site (“but the road is right there!!” I kept saying) – but it becomes clear that Julie will have to fly them out of the field. Coop has fixed the propeller using his McGyver methodology. It works. Yes, she has internal bleeding, and yes, she is a minor, and yes, she can’t walk … but she must fly that plane! And even MORE important: Coop must be passenger. He must get over his fear. Now. But maybe because he finally told the story the ghost will be laid to rest. Do you think??

Let’s go back to the restaurant and take a look at Scott waiting.

Isn’t it to die for?

Oh, and just want to mention one thing that I already mentioned. Mrs. Ward and Billie are too similar, in terms of type. We kept getting confused, even though we know Mrs. Roeper was Billie. Separately, they are fine, but put them side by side, and confusion begins to grow. Especially since they basically were both playing the same worried scream-y mother-type.

See what I mean?

Who the heck is who?

Let’s get back to more pleasant matters.

There. That’s better.

Julie and Coop go through the pre-flight check, and finally … tense with nervousness and the memories that haunt him from the past … he climbs into the cockpit. Julie then starts up the propeller, and now it is time for takeoff. There isn’t much room. Will they make it? Julie and Coop are flying across the field, and Coop looks scared to death, as well as vaguely stiff-upper-lip sulky … like … I’m scared, yup, but I will be strong. Then, at last, the plane is airborne.

And now comes a moment that I cannot believe wasn’t cut. Who’s in charge here? I want to speak to them! As the plane lifts from the ground, there is a shot of Coop, and suddenly, he not only looks relieved, but enlightened and full of grace and ease, and he is staring at something in the distance … and he says, with a soft smile, “Hi, Dad.”

I’m not even kidding.

Honest to God, you don’t need it. All you would need is his look of relief and we would “get it”, I swear to God – we’ll get it – Just please don’t have him stare off at a fixed spot and say, “Hi, Dad” just as the plane lifts off the ground. Please don’t do that!!!

Poor Geoffrey Lewis. But he goes through it, says his lines, what’re you gonna do? There are worse ways to make a living.

BUT STILL.

“Hi, Dad”???

Then we see the plane swooping and soaring, and Coop and Julie are laughing, and you know he’s put to rest that old fear, and now he can be a pilot, and life will be beautiful and Billie will be proud.

But I ask you: what about Grandpa??

Our next (and final) scene is Christmas dinner at the Ward household. Scott is there. (Does he have a family? What is his deal?)

I think the set designer needs to CHILL with the Christmas decorations. I’m getting a headache just looking at that background.

The family is happy and thankful to be together. Julie is grounded for real, but you can tell the air is more cleared up between them, she knows she deserves it, blah blah blah, she learned her lesson. They say grace. A knock comes at the door.

Who could it be??

Billie enters, they all call out a greeting and then she says, “And I have a surprise guest!” She turns to look at the open door, and naturally Grandpa comes through.

The family flips out, crying, laughing, hugging …

and can you guess what Grandpa is holding in his grizzled old hand?

The homemade Christmas tree angel, of course, constructed of broken light bulbs. Julie’s mother clutches it (be careful! don’t cut yourself!), and breaks down into grateful tears of happiness.

Julie smiles happily, looking on.

And here is the final shot of Skyward Christmas, which perhaps could have had more emotional “oomph” for me if I hadn’t been so distracted by Scott’s fly.

My apologies.

A girl can’t look skyward ALL the time.