The Mosquito Coast (1986) - IMDb
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An eccentric and dogmatic inventor sells his house and takes his family to Central America to build a utopia in the middle of the jungle. Conflicts with his family, a local preacher and ... See full summary  »
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Title: The Mosquito Coast (1986)
6.6/10
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Nominated for         2         Golden Globes. Another       1 win & 1 nomination. See more awards  »
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Storyline
An eccentric and dogmatic inventor sells his house and takes his family to Central America to build a utopia in the middle of the jungle. Conflicts with his family, a local preacher and with nature are only small obstacles to his obsession. Based upon a Paul Theroux novel. Written by Keith Loh <loh@sfu.ca>
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Taglines:
How far should a man go to find his dream? Allie Fox went to the Mosquito Coast. He went too far. See more  »
Genres:
26 November 1986 (USA) See more  »
Also Known As:
Did You Know?
Trivia
Actors Martha Plimpton and River Phoenix started a personal relationship on this movie which continued for a number of years. See more »
Goofs
The "Ice from Fire" technique for using heat, ammonia and hydrogen was actually invented in 1824 by Michael Farrady. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Charlie : My father was an inventor, a genius with anything mechanical. Nine patents, six pending. He dropped out of Harvard, "to get an education", he said. I grew up with the belief that the world belonged to him, and that everything he said was true.
Allie Fox : Look around ya, how did America get this way? Land of promise, land of opportunity. Give us the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Have a Coke. Watch TV.
Charlie : Have a nice day.
Allie Fox : Go on welfare. Get free money. Turn to crime - crime pays in this ...
[...]
Life on La Mosquitia  Chronicles of the Fox Family
17 October 2005 | by golem3
(Trinidad not Tobago) – See all my reviews
Mosquito Coast is one of the best books I have ever read, and the movie does super well to do justice to that novel. It is also one of Harrison Ford's best character roles; the eccentricity and opinionated genius of Allie is done to perfection by him. Peter Weir's brilliant direction is to be expected considering his other masterpieces  Fearless, also based on an excellent book of the same name, is one of the best movies yet. His films (Truman Show, Green Card, and Witness come to mind) tend to chronicle troubles and eccentric characters to go out on a limb, literally.
The narration is carefully done, only enough voice-overs to explain the philosophical implications and underpinnings of the characters' thoughts and actions. There are, of course, some mysterious elements to how things happen, which can only be remedied by reading Theroux's book of the same name.
Taking a very Robinson Crusoe-esquire piece of fiction and putting it to film is not an easy process. In fact, this is the kind of novel that can be very easily messed up by the movies with strong action and adventure type Hollywood direction. Luckily, Weir has done an excellent job portraying the characters  not so much the plot  of those who will come to inhabit The Mosquito Coast. In short, not only is Mosquito Coast a film to watch, it should be required.
RATING: 10/10 "We eat when we're not hungry, drink when we're not thirsty. We buy what we don't need and throw away everything that's useful. Why sell a man what he wants? Sell him what he doesn't need. Pretend he's got eight legs and two stomachs and money to burn. It's wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong."
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