Fandango

A road film set in Texas in 1971. Five students are graduating. They shared the same fraternity house and this is their last night together. The mood is not good. The draft lottery has been drawn; one man's number has come up, one has a deferment, and the subject sits on the table. Kenneth is to marry the next day. That night he breaks the engagement. Gardner has an idea. They get into a car and set off towards the desert. From there the film is a story of one night's escape. A petrol station, a cemetery, a buried bottle of champagne, an airstrip and a wedding. The journey has a purpose. They buried something in the desert years ago and are going to get it. There is a parachute jump in the middle. The whole section takes place at an airfield and it is the film's longest scene. What the narrative is interested in is not youth but a last night: nobody says it, but all five know they will not come together again, and the film never puts that into dialogue. Vietnam is kept in the background. The narrative never shows the war and passes over it in two or three lines; the weight is there. The tone is mixed. The narrative moves in comedy and goes quiet in the last section. The film has an origin story. The director had made a short at university; Steven Spielberg saw it, asked him to turn it into a feature, and backed the production. The parachute section is taken from that short almost shot for shot. Kevin Costner had auditioned for that student film and was not cast; he plays the same part in the feature, and it was his first leading role. Kevin Costner, Judd Nelson, Sam Robards and Chuck Bush are in the cast. Kevin Reynolds wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1980s films about the young and the road. Who it is not for: anyone looking for plot; the film is almost entirely atmosphere and some sections drift on aimlessly.