jeremy-of-many
I stumbled upon the book The Mighty as a child. I later found out there was a movie done. I am now 24. As I watched this I obviously reflected on it differently as it has been between 10-15 years since I first saw it.The acting is excellent because you have all imaginable emotions being done. Happiness, sadness, confusion, frustration, anger, rage, desperation, despair, etc.I have friends but no one that I hang out with. No one that I really know inside and out to the point where I could protect them from themselves without feeling nervous about which boundaries I was comfortable with crossing.I could not watch this straight though. I had to watch it in two shots because I could not help from crying. It touches me on that personal of a level.I hope others stumble on this movie and find it similarly if not equally enjoyable.Cheers, Jeremy
tieman64
In the mid 1990s, a streak of coming-of-age flicks were released, each trying to emulate the tone and style of Rob Reiner's "Stand by me" (1986). And so "Stand by Me" led to the TV series "The Wonder Years" (1988), which led to Woody Allen's "Radio Days", "Brighton Beach Memoirs", "Radio Flyer" (1992), "Man in the Moon" (1991), "Jack the Bear" (1993), "This Boys Life" (1993), "King of the Hill", "Now and Then" (1995), "Unsung Heroes" (1995), "The Mighty" (1998), "Simon Birch" (1998) etc etc.These films all employed a rich and romantic visual style which recalled the paintings of Norman Rockwell. They featured older and wiser narrators who reminisced about their childhood days, revolved around small groups of young boys, largely took place in the 60s and early 70s, and oozed a sense of nostalgia.Significantly, all these films also yearned for escape. These kids (or rather their future adult selves) are all searching for a romanticised version of Americana. A forgotten, or perhaps nonexistent, age of white picket fences, carefree wandering, pop sodas and family dinners. Behind all this comfortable nostalgia, though, is a sense of menace. Abuse, suicide, murder, the lingering effects of the Vietnam war and drunken fathers, all linger in the background.Covertly, these films are also implicitly about how early circumstances influence a person's later identity. They're all told from the point of view of an adult, looking back at his past life.This trend started in the 80, by artists who were born post WW2 and became young men in the mid 60s. By the late 90s the "unseen enemy" of these films stopped being about war, poverty, absent fathers, abuse and alcoholism, and started to be about disease and genetic disorders. The idealised Norman Rockwell version of Americana was still there, but now Generation X seemed to obsess over diseases and genetics. For Generation X, misery seemed to be all about ailments and genetic predisposition, like the kids with Morquio's syndrome in "The Mighty" and "Simon Birch" or AIDS in "The Cure". "Stand by Me"- 8/10, "The Mighty"- 7.9/10, "Simon Birch"- 7/10, "The Cure"- 5/10, "Radio Flyer"- 4/10, "Jack the Bear"- 7.5/10, "This boys life"- 8/10, "Now and then"- 3/10, "Man in the moon"- 7.5/10I think these films are interesting if you treat them as a single batch. Stuff like "Radio Flyer" and "Now and Then" have that whole kitschy Spielberg vibe. They're pretty worthless. The Tom Hanks cheesefest "Radio Flyer" and the Rosie O Donnell travesty "Now and Then" are pretty terrible. "The Mighty's" somewhere in the middle.
vitaleralphlouis
We rented THE MIGHTY after doing a JAMES GANDOLFINI search. Big T is in this picture, as is Sharon Stone. Both play excellent supporting roles, but the focus is not on them, but on two kids and the drama of how an overgrown hulk and a smart squirt on crutches team us to overcome the bad guys and be pals for lifetime is exceptional and real. If you like true life stories about real kids --- not Hollywood style smart mouths, it's hard to imagine a better recent film.One of the kids is played by Mccauley Calkin's kid brother and it just brings to mind how "Mack's" real life never-married parents brought 7 kids into the world, apparently raised with no values and bled dry. Mack Calkin had no talent to speak of when he was "luckily" tossed into the "Home Alone" series. With that and Columbia's charmless "My Girl" Mack (or his unmarried child-breeding parents) grabbed up $17 million and Mack was burned out at age 14. Then he gets involved with Michael Jackson; but before that happened the parents are hawking the younger kids trading off Mack's star power. Gag me, please.A $17 million income by age 14 might be nice, but is no guarantee of a full life. Of all the rotten parents in Hollywood, one might be hard pressed to name worse than those of Drew Barrymore, Maccauly Calkin or Winona Ryder. Drew bottomed-out by age 12 and raised herself up on her own mettle; Winona had LSD guru Timothy Leary as a godparent and is still clueless about her shoplifting downfall, then there's the Calkin kids. God help them.
edwagreen
Two outcasts find friendship and a way out of their difficult lives in 1998's "The Mighty."A young lad with a physical problem befriends a learning disabled young man whose mother was killed by an insane father. They live through the book of King Arthur and the knights of the round table.This book enables them to win out over a gang of school bullies and rescue the learning disabled youth when his father suddenly reappears and kidnap him.When our sickly youth succumbs at the end, his friend is able to go on and write a book.This is a warm story that carries us through adversity.Nice to see that Sharon Stone sacrifices her usual sexy roles to portray the mother of the ill youth.
