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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
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For the film adaptations, see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958 film) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1984 film).
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
First edition cover (New Directions)
Written by
Tennessee Williams
Characters
Margaret
Brick
Big Daddy
Big Mama
Mae/"Sister Woman"
Gooper/"Brother Man"
Doctor Baugh
Reverend Tooker
Date premiered
March 24, 1955
Place premiered
Morosco Theatre
New York City, New York
Original language
English
Subject
Death, mendacity, relationships, loneliness, homosexuality, alcoholism
Genre
Drama, southern gothic
Setting
Brick and Margaret's room on the Pollitt plantation in Mississippi
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's more famous works and his personal favorite,[1] the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. Set in the "plantation home in the Mississippi Delta"[2] of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon, the play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy's family, primarily between his son Brick and Maggie the "Cat", Brick's wife.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof features motifs such as social mores, greed, superficiality, mendacity, decay, sexual desire, repression and death. Dialogue throughout is often rendered phonetically to represent accents of the Southern United States. The original production starred Barbara Bel Geddes, Burl Ives and Ben Gazzara. The play was adapted as a motion picture of the same name in 1958, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman as Maggie and Brick, with Burl Ives and Madeleine Sherwood recreating their stage roles. Williams made substantial excisions and alterations to the play for a revival in 1974. This has been the version used for most subsequent revivals, which have been numerous.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Themes
2.1 Falsehoods and untruths
2.2 Facing death
3 Stage productions
3.1 Original production
3.2 Revivals
4 Original Broadway cast
5 Original West End cast
6 Adaptations
7 Awards and nominations
7.1 Original Broadway production
7.2 1974 Broadway revival
7.3 1990 Broadway revival
7.4 2003 Broadway revival
7.5 2008 Broadway revival
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
Plot[edit]
Barbara Bel Geddes as Maggie in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the story of a Southern family in crisis, especially the husband Brick and wife Margaret (usually called Maggie or "Maggie the Cat"), and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of one evening's gathering at the family estate in Mississippi. The party is to celebrate the birthday of patriarch Big Daddy Pollitt, "the Delta's biggest cotton-planter",[2] and his return from the Ochsner Clinic with what he has been told is a clean bill of health. All family members (except Big Daddy and his wife Big Mama) are aware of Big Daddy's true diagnosis: He is dying of cancer. His family has lied to Big Daddy and Big Mama to spare the aging couple from pain on the patriarch's birthday but, throughout the course of the play, it becomes clear that the Pollitt family has long constructed a web of deceit for itself.
Maggie, determined and beautiful, has escaped a childhood of poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitts, but finds herself unfulfilled. The family is aware that Brick has not slept with Maggie for a long time, which has strained their marriage. Brick, an aging football hero, infuriates her by ignoring his brother Gooper's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Brick's indifference and his drinking have escalated with the suicide of his friend Skipper. Maggie fears that Brick's malaise will ensure that Gooper and his wife Mae inherit Big Daddy's estate.
Ben Gazzara as Brick in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
Through the evening, Brick, Big Daddy and Maggie—and the entire family—separately must face the issues which they have bottled up inside. Big Daddy attempts a reconciliation with the alcoholic Brick. Both Big Daddy and Maggie separately confront Brick about the true nature of his relationship with his pro football buddy Skipper, which appears to be the source of Brick's sorrow and the cause of his alcoholism.
Brick explains to Big Daddy that Maggie was jealous of the close friendship between Brick and Skipper because she believed it had a romantic undercurrent. He states that Skipper took Maggie to bed to prove her wrong. Brick believes that when Skipper couldn't complete the act, his self-questioning about his sexuality and his friendship with Brick made him "snap". Brick also reveals that, shortly before he committed suicide, Skipper confessed his feelings to Brick, but Brick rejected him.
Disgusted with the family's "mendacity", Brick tells Big Daddy that the report from the clinic about his condition was falsified for his sake. Big Daddy storms out of the room, leading the party gathered out on the gallery to drift inside. Maggie, Brick, Mae, Gooper, and Doc Baugh (the family's physician) decide to tell Big Mama the truth about his illness, and she is devastated by the news. Gooper and Mae start to discuss the division of the Pollitt estate. Big Mama defends her husband from Gooper and Mae's proposals.
Big Daddy reappears and makes known his plans to die peacefully. Attempting to secure Brick's inheritance, Maggie tells him she is pregnant. Gooper and Mae know this is a lie, but Big Mama and Big Daddy believe that Maggie "has life". When they are alone again, Maggie locks away the liquor and promises Brick that she will "make the lie true".
Themes[edit]
Falsehoods and untruths[edit]
Mendacity is a recurring theme throughout the play. Brick uses the word to express his disgust with the "lies and liars" he sees around him, and with complicated rules of social conduct in Southern society and culture. Big Daddy states that Brick's disgust with mendacity is really disgust with himself for rejecting Skipper before his suicide. With the exception of Brick, the entire family lies to Big Daddy and Big Mama about his terminal cancer. Furthermore, Big Daddy lies to his wife, and Gooper and Mae exhibit avaricious motives in their attempt to secure Big Daddy's estate.
In some cases, characters refuse to believe certain statements, leading them to believe they are lies. A recurring phrase is the line, "Wouldn't it be funny if that was true?", said by both Big Daddy and Brick after Big Mama and Maggie (respectively) claim their love. The characters' statements of feeling are no longer clear-cut truths or lies; instead they become subject more to certainty or uncertainty. This phrase is the last line of the play as originally written by Williams and again in the 1974 version.[3]
Facing death[edit]
The ways in which humans deal with death are also at the focus of this play, as are the futility and nihilism some encounter when confronted with imminent mortality. Similar ideas are found in Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night", which Williams excerpted and added as an epigraph to his 1974 version.[4] These lines are appropriate, as Thomas wrote the poem to his own dying father.[5]
Additionally, in one of his many drafts,[6] in a footnote on Big Daddy's action in the third act, Williams deems Cat on a Hot Tin Roof a "play which says only one affirmative thing about 'Man's Fate': that he has it still in his power not to squeal like a pig but to keep a tight mouth about it."[6]
Stage productions[edit]
There are many versions of the play script, one of which was influenced by director Elia Kazan, who directed the play on Broadway,[7] and another which was performed for the first time in London.[citation needed]
Original production[edit]
The original Broadway production, which opened at the Morosco Theater on March 24, 1955, was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Barbara Bel Geddes as Maggie, Ben Gazzara as Brick, Burl Ives as Big Daddy, Mildred Dunnock as Big Mama, Pat Hingle as Gooper, and Madeleine Sherwood as Mae.[8] Bel Geddes was the only cast member nominated for a Tony Award, and Kazan was nominated for Best Director of a Play.[9] Both Ives and Sherwood would reprise their roles in the 1958 film version. The cast also featured the southern blues duo Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry and had as Gazzara's understudy the young Cliff Robertson. When Gazzara left the play, Jack Lord replaced him.[10] Others from the original Broadway production included R.G. Armstrong as Doctor Baugh, Fred Stewart as Reverend Tooker, Janice Dunn as Trixie, Seth Edwards as Sonny, Maxwell Glanville as Lacey, Pauline Hahn as Dixie, Darryl Richard as Buster, Eva Vaughn Smith as Daisy, and Musa Williams as Sookey.[8]
In London, the play was directed by Peter Hall and opened at the Comedy Theatre on January 30, 1958. Kim Stanley starred as Maggie, with Paul Massie as Brick and Leo McKern as Big Daddy.[11]
Revivals[edit]
A 1974 revival by the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, featured Elizabeth Ashley, Keir Dullea, Fred Gwynne, Kate Reid, and Charles Siebert. Ashley was nominated for a Tony Award. For this production, Williams restored much of the text which he had removed from the original one at the insistence of Elia Kazan. He included a revised third act and made substantial revisions elsewhere.[12] According to Ashley, Williams allowed the actors to examine his original notes and various drafts of the script, and to make additions to the dialogue. When this production moved from Connecticut to Broadway, the part of Lacey was omitted and the number of Mae and Gooper's children reduced to three.[13] In that same decade, John Carradine and Mercedes McCambridge toured in a road company production as Big Daddy and Big Mama.
The 1988 London National Theatre production, directed by Howard Davies, starred Ian Charleson, Lindsay Duncan, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, and Eric Porter.
A revival in 1990 featured Kathleen Turner, who was nominated for a Tony for her performance as Maggie, though New York magazine called her "hopelessly lost ... in this limp production." Charles Durning, as Big Daddy, received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Daniel Hugh Kelly was Brick, and Polly Holliday was Big Mama. Holliday also was nominated for a Tony.
A 2003 revival received lukewarm reviews despite the presence of film stars Ashley Judd and Jason Patric. Only Ned Beatty as Big Daddy and Margo Martindale as Big Mama were singled out for impressive performances. Martindale received a Tony nomination.
A 2003 revival for Belvoir St Theatre was directed by Simon Stone and starred Jacqueline McKenzie as Maggie, Ewen Leslie as Brick, and Marshall Napier as Big Daddy. This production was a box office hit, with season extended to the Theatre Royal (Sydney).[14]
A 2004 production at the Kennedy Center featured Mary Stuart Masterson as Maggie, Jeremy Davidson as Brick, George Grizzard as Big Daddy, Dana Ivey as Big Mama, and Emily Skinner as Mae. Shortly afterward, Masterson and Davidson were married.
In 2008, an all-black production directed by Debbie Allen opened on Broadway. Terrence Howard made his Broadway debut as Brick, with James Earl Jones as Big Daddy, Phylicia Rashad as Big Mama, Anika Noni Rose as Maggie and Lisa Arrindell Anderson as Mae. In November 2009, the production moved to London's West End, where Adrian Lester played Brick and Sanaa Lathan played Maggie.[15] The West End Production received the 2010 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Play.
In 2010, a production of the play opened at Cambridge University's ADC Theatre, and in January 2011, a production to mark Williams' 100th birthday was presented at Vienna's English Theatre, Vienna, Austria. The play was performed at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada in 2011 and in 2012 at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
A 2013 Broadway revival featured Ciarán Hinds as Big Daddy, Debra Monk as Big Mama, Benjamin Walker as Brick, George Porteous as Sonny, and Scarlett Johansson as Maggie.[16]
A 2014 production played at Royal & Derngate, Royal Exchange Theatre and Northern Stage, with original music by White Lies. It featured Mariah Gale, Charles Aitken, Daragh O'Malley and Kim Criswell and was directed by James Dacre. In this production, O'Malley was singled out for his performance and won an MTA Award and Stage Nomination for his portrayal of Big Daddy.
The Berkshire Theatre Festival produced the play in June, 2016, under the direction of David Auburn, with Michael Raymond-James as Brick, Rebecca Brooksher as Maggie, Linda Gehringer as Big Mama, and Jim Beaver as Big Daddy.[17]
Original Broadway cast[edit]
Barbara Bel Geddes as Margaret[18]
Ben Gazzara as Brick
Jack Lord as Brick (replaced Ben Gazzara)
Burl Ives as Big Daddy
Mildred Dunnock as Big Mama
Pat Hingle as Gooper, sometimes called Brother Man[18]
Madeleine Sherwood as Mae, sometimes called Sister Woman[18]
R.G. Armstrong as Doctor Baugh, pronounced "Baw"[13]
Fred Stewart as Reverend Tooker
Janice Dunn as Trixie
Seth Edwards as Sonny
Maxwell Glanville as Lacey
Pauline Hahn as Dixie
Brownie McGhee as Brightie
Darryl Richard as Buster
Eva Vaughn Smith as Daisy
Sonny Terry as Small
Musa Williams as Sookey
Original West End cast[edit]
Kim Stanley as Margaret
Paul Massie as Brick
Leo McKern as Big Daddy
Bee Duffell as Big Mama
Alan Tilvern as Gooper
Daphne Anderson as Mae
Launce Maraschal as Doctor Baugh
Roger Winton as Reverend Tooker
Vanessa Petty as Trixie
Don Johnson as Lacey
Lorna Henderson as Dixie
Sylvia Sutch as Buster
Mark Heath as Small
Sonate as Sookey
Adaptations[edit]
Main article: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958 film)
The big-screen adaptation of the play was made in 1958 by MGM, and starred Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Judith Anderson, and Jack Carson, with Burl Ives and Madeleine Sherwood reprising their stage roles. The Hays Code limited Brick's portrayal of sexual desire for Skipper, and diminished the original play's critique of homophobia and sexism. Williams reportedly was unhappy with the screenplay, which removed almost all of the homosexual themes and revised the third act section to include a lengthy scene of reconciliation between Brick and Big Daddy. Paul Newman, the film's star, also had stated his disappointment with the adaptation. Despite this, the film was highly acclaimed and was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman both received Oscar nominations for their performances.
In 1976, a television version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was produced, starring the then husband-and-wife team of Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, and featuring Laurence Olivier as Big Daddy and Maureen Stapleton as Big Mama.
In 1984 a television version was produced by American Playhouse, starring Jessica Lange, Tommy Lee Jones, Rip Torn, Kim Stanley, David Dukes, and Penny Fuller. This adaptation, directed by Jack Hofsiss, revived the sexual innuendos which had been muted in the 1958 film. Both Stanley and Fuller were nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special, and Stanley won.
The recent Bollywood movie Kapoor and Sons also drew its inspiration from the play.
Awards and nominations[edit]
Original Broadway production[edit]
Year
Award ceremony
Category
Nominee
Result
1955 New York Drama Critics' Circle Best American Play Tennessee Williams Won
Pulitzer Prize Drama Won
1956 Tony Award Best Play Nominated
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play Barbara Bel Geddes Nominated
Best Director Elia Kazan Nominated
Best Scenic Design Jo Mielziner Nominated
1974 Broadway revival[edit]
Year
Award ceremony
Category
Nominee
Result
1975 Tony Award Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play Elizabeth Ashley Nominated
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actress in a Play Nominated
Outstanding Set Design John Conklin Nominated
1990 Broadway revival[edit]
Year
Award ceremony
Category
Nominee
Result
1990 Tony Award Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play Kathleen Turner Nominated
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play Charles Durning Won
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play Polly Holliday Nominated
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Revival Nominated
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Charles Durning Won
Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Revival of a Play Won
Outstanding Actor in a Play Charles Durning Nominated
Outstanding Actress in a Play Kathleen Turner Nominated
2003 Broadway revival[edit]
Year
Award ceremony
Category
Nominee
Result
2004 Tony Award Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play Margo Martindale Nominated
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Ned Beatty Won
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play Margo Martindale Nominated
Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Ned Beatty Won
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play Margo Martindale Nominated
Drama League Award Distinguished Revival of a Play Nominated
2008 Broadway revival[edit]
Year
Award ceremony
Category
Nominee
Result
2008 Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play James Earl Jones Won
See also[edit]
Theatre portal
1950s portal
United States portal
LGBT portal
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Parker, Brian: "Swinging a Cat", as published within Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, p. 175. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004.
^ Jump up to: a b Williams, Tennessee: "Notes for the Designer", Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, p. 15. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004.
Jump up ^ Williams, Tennessee: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, p. 173. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004.
Jump up ^ Williams, Tennessee: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, p. 14. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004.
Jump up ^ Parker, Brian: "Swinging a Cat", published within Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, p. 177. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004.
^ Jump up to: a b Parker, Brian: "Swinging a Cat", published within Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, p. 181. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004.
Jump up ^ Williams, Tennessee (1983). Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. New York: Signet. pp. 134–135. ISBN 0-451-17112-8.
^ Jump up to: a b Williams, Tennessee (1983). Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. New York: Signet. p. 4. ISBN 0-451-17112-8.
Jump up ^ "Tony Awards".
Jump up ^ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: The Playbill for the Morosco Theatre. Playbill Incorporated. 1955. pp. 25, 27, 36, 38.
Jump up ^ Theatre World Annual (London) number nine [editor: Frances Stephens], London 1958
Jump up ^ Albee, Edward: "Introduction" for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, p. 8. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004.
^ Jump up to: a b Williams, Tennessee: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, p. 13. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004.
Jump up ^ "Belvoir news".
Jump up ^ "Cat West End". CatWestEnd.com. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
Jump up ^ "Benjamin Walker, Debra Monk and Ciarán Hinds Will Join Scarlett Johansson in Broadway's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". Playbill. 2012-09-20. Archived from the original on 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2012-12-28.
Jump up ^ Gray, John. Beaver on a Hot Tin Roof, Troy Record, June 22, 2016 http://www.troyrecord.com/opinion/20160622/john-grays-fade-to-gray-column-beaver-on-a-hot-tin-roof
^ Jump up to: a b c Williams, Tennessee: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, p. 12. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004.
Further reading[edit]
Bloom, Harold (ed.). Tennessee Williams, Modern Critical Views, 80. New York: Chelsea House, 1987.
Cañadas, Ivan. "The Naming of Straw and Ochello in Tennessee Williams's Cat On a Hot Tin Roof", English Language Notes 42.4 (June 2005): 57–62.
Clum, John M. "'Something Cloudy, Something Clear': Homophobic Discourse in Tennessee Williams", South Atlantic Quarterly 88.1 (Winter 1989): 161–79.
The National, indie rock band. "City Middle" from the record Alligator: "I think I'm like Tennessee Williams, I wait for the click; I wait, but it doesn't kick in."
Plooster, Nancy. "Silent Partners: Lost Lovers in American Drama". 1995 Queer Frontiers: Proceedings of the Fifth Annual National Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Graduate Student Conference. University of Southern California. March 23–26, 1995, Ed. John Waiblinger. University of Southern California Library. USC.edu
Shackelford, Dean. "The Truth That Must Be Told: Gay Subjectivity, Homophobia, and Social History in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". Tennessee Williams Annual Review 1 (1998): 103–118.
Spoto, Donald (1985). The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams. Boston: Little Brown. ISBN 0-306-80805-6.
Stanton, Stephen S. (Ed.). Tennessee Williams: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1977.
Winchell, Mark Royden. "Come Back to the Locker Room Ag'in, Brick Honey!". Mississippi Quarterly: The Journal of Southern Culture. 48:4 (Fall 1995): 701–12.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Internet Broadway Database
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Internet Broadway Database
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof study guide, themes, quotes, character analyses, teaching guide
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Works by Tennessee Williams
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Spring Storm (1937)
Fugitive Kind (1937)
Not About Nightingales (1938)
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The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968)
In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969)
Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? (1969)
Out Cry (1971)
Small Craft Warnings (1972)
The Two-Character Play (1973)
The Red Devil Battery Sign (1975)
This Is (An Entertainment) (1976)
Vieux Carré (1977)
A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (1979)
Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980)
The Notebook of Trigorin (1981)
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A House Not Meant to Stand (1982)
Novels
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Moise and the World of Reason (1975)
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Three Players of a Summer Game and Other Stories (1960)
The Knightly Quest: a Novella and Four Short Stories (1966)
One Arm and Other Stories (1967)
Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed: a Book of Stories (1974)
Screenplays
The Glass Menagerie (1950)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
The Rose Tattoo (1955)
Baby Doll (1956)
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
The Fugitive Kind (1959)
Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1966)
Boom! (1968)
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (1957, filmed 2009)
Non-fiction
"The Catastrophe of Success" (1947)
"A Streetcar Named Success" (1947)
Poetry
In the Winter of Cities (1956)
Androgyne, Mon Amour (1977)
Unfinished
manuscripts
In Masks Outrageous and Austere (1983)
Related
articles
List of one-act plays by Tennessee Williams
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Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Stephen Herek
Produced by
Scott Kroopf
Michael S. Murphey
Joel Soisson
Written by
Chris Matheson
Ed Solomon
Starring
Keanu Reeves
Alex Winter
George Carlin
Music by
David Newman
Cinematography
Timothy Suhrstedt
Edited by
Larry Bock
Patrick Rand
Production
companies
Interscope Communications
Nelson Entertainment
Distributed by
Orion Pictures
International:
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group[1]
Release date
February 17, 1989 (1989-02-17)
Running time
89 minutes[2]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$10 million
Box office
$40.5 million
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a 1989 American science-fiction comedy buddy film in which two slackers travel through time to assemble a menagerie of historical figures for their high school history presentation.[3]
The film was written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon and directed by Stephen Herek. It stars Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston, Esquire; Keanu Reeves as Ted "Theodore" Logan; and George Carlin as Rufus. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure received generally positive reviews upon release and was commercially successful. It is now considered a cult classic. A sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, was released two years later.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
3.1 Differences from original script
4 Soundtrack
5 Related productions
5.1 Sequels
5.2 Television
5.3 Comics
5.4 Video games
5.5 Theme parks
6 Reception
7 In cultural analysis
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
Plot[edit]
In Futuristic City, 2688, humanity exists as a utopian society due to the inspiration of the music and wisdom of the Two Great Ones: Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan. Rufus is tasked by the leaders to travel back to San Dimas, California, in 1988 using a time machine disguised as a telephone booth to ensure that Bill and Ted, who are dimwitted metalhead slacker high school students, get a good grade in their final history oral report and pass the class. Should they fail, Ted's father, Police Captain John Logan, plans to ship Ted to a military academy in Alaska, ending Bill and Ted's fledgling band, the "Wyld Stallyns", thus altering the future. Bill, meanwhile, has a crush on his father's new wife Missy who's just a few years older than Bill himself.
Bill and Ted struggle with the report, which asks them to envision how three historical figures would see San Dimas in the present. While they are asking strangers at the local Circle K convenience store for help, Rufus arrives in the time machine. The two are distrustful until the time machine arrives again nearby, out from which step future versions of Bill and Ted. They prove to their younger selves that they are really them and that they should trust Rufus. They privately ask Rufus a question and then depart. The younger versions of Bill and Ted accept Rufus' offer to take them into the past. Rufus takes them to a battlefield in Austria, 1805 where Napoleon Bonaparte is commanding the French army against Austria. They return to the present, unaware that the time machine has caught Napoleon in its wake and pulled him along. Landing near Ted's house, Rufus reminds them that they must still reach the school on time to give their report and then departs, returning the time machine to them. The two discover Napoleon after he falls out of a nearby tree, and come up with the idea of kidnapping other historical figures to bring to the present. They leave Napoleon with Ted's younger brother, Deacon, and start traveling through time.
The two befriend Billy the Kid in The Old West, 1879 and Socrates in Ancient Greece, 410 BC before stopping in London, 1461 where they become infatuated with Princesses Elizabeth and Joanna. The teens anger the princesses' father, Henry VI of England, who orders their beheading, but they are rescued by Billy and Socrates. They are forced to leave without the princesses and, in the escape, the telephone booth is damaged. Dialing a random number, they land next in the Utopian future, where Bill and Ted are amazed by the music playing and that the citizens worship them. They leave after a brief stay and, believing they have plenty of time before the report, start collecting more historical figures for extra credit, including Sigmund Freud in Vienna, 1901, Ludwig van Beethoven in Kassel, 1810, Joan of Arc in Orléans, 1429, Genghis Khan in Mongolia, 1209, and Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., 1863. Having run out of room in the phone booth, Bill and Ted finally discover the time machine is damaged.
After making ad hoc repairs to the time machine, Bill and Ted try to return to the present but land outside the Circle K, recognizing the situation they previously witnessed. After reassuring their younger selves, they learn from Rufus how to dial the right number to get to their present and that they are running out of time. Once they arrive to the present, Bill's mother has him, Ted, and the historical figures get their household chores done before taking them to the local mall, where the historical figures are left to experience San Dimas while Bill and Ted look for Napoleon; Ted finds Deacon had ditched Napoleon earlier out of embarrassment, but they later find him at the water slide park "Waterloo" (the name based on the Napoleon's famous battle of "Waterloo"). Meanwhile, the historical figures had caused trouble at the mall and have been arrested by Captain Logan. Upon discovering this, Bill and Ted figure out how they can use the time machine to set up an event at the police station to allow them to free the historical figures without getting caught. After freeing them, Bill's mother drives them all to the high school and arrive just in time, where they give an impressive presentation with the help of the historical figures that receives a standing ovation. They pass their course and return the historical figures to their proper times.
Later, as Bill and Ted are practicing, Rufus arrives, showing he had rescued the princesses from England and introduced them to the modern world, and that they become part of Wyld Stallyns. Elated, Bill and Ted resume their practice with their usual ineptitude, with Rufus breaking the fourth wall and promising, "They do get better..."
Cast[edit]
Main
Keanu Reeves as Ted "Theodore" Logan
Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston Esq.
George Carlin as Rufus
Historical Figures
Terry Camilleri as Napoleon Bonaparte
Dan Shor as Billy the Kid
Tony Steedman as Socrates
Rod Loomis as Sigmund Freud
Al Leong as Genghis Khan
Jane Wiedlin as Joan of Arc
Robert V. Barron as Abraham Lincoln
Clifford David as Ludwig van Beethoven
Supporting
Hal Landon Jr. as Captain Jonathan "John" Logan
Bernie Casey as Mr. Ryan
Amy Stock-Poynton as Missy/Mom Preston
J. Patrick McNamara as Mr. Preston
Frazier Bain as Deacon Logan
John Karlsen as Evil Duke
Diane Franklin as Princess Joanna
Kimberley LaBelle as Princess Elizabeth
The Three Supreme Beings of the Future
Clarence Clemons
Martha Davis
Fee Waybill
Production[edit]
The film was shot in 1987 in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area, mostly in and around Scottsdale's Coronado High School. Coronado's auditorium was torn down during 2005-07 renovations, but its unique roof and intricate exterior mosaic, seen in an opening scene when Bill and Ted leave school in a red Mustang, was saved and moved, piece by piece, to the new auditorium. The interior shots of the auditorium were filmed inside the East High School auditorium, which was in Phoenix on 48th Street just north of Van Buren. East High School was demolished in 2002 as part of a redevelopment project. The production also shot a sequence on the Western Street on the back lot of Southwestern Studio in Carefree, Arizona. Odescalchi castle was used as Henry VI's castle.
The scenes at Waterloo are a combination of establishing shots at Raging Waters in San Dimas and shots with the actors at Golfland Sunsplash in Mesa, Arizona. The bowling alley was a Fair Lanes-branded alley at that time but is now the AMF Tempe Village Lanes on Rural Road at US 60, three miles south of Arizona State University. The mall was Phoenix Metrocenter, between Peoria and Dunlap Avenues at Interstate 17. It has since been renovated and no longer looks as it did in the film. The Circle K store is at the intersection of Southern and Hardy in Tempe.[4][5]
The film also employs computer-generated imagery for the scenes where Bill & Ted are travelling through the 'Circuits of Time', created by the VFX house Perpetual Motion Pictures.
The film's writers, Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, appear in the film's ice cream scene. Solomon is credited as the "stupid" waiter, and Matheson is credited as the "ugly" waiter. They are given similar credits in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.
When Rufus plays his guitar solo, the hands in the close-up are those of Stevie Salas, who composed the film's guitar music.[6]
The film took nearly two years to make. Filming took place from February to May 1987[7] and it was planned to be released in 1988. However, the film's original distributor, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, went bankrupt. Orion Pictures and Nelson Entertainment bought the rights to the movie in 1988, and it was released theatrically on February 17, 1989.[8] As a partial result of the delay, certain dates in the film originally scripted as "1987" had to be re-dubbed as "1988". The copyright date of this film is 1989, while 1988 incorrectly appears on the DVD cover (though some copies still note 1989 as its release date) and 1987 appears on the back of the Blu-ray release.
It was followed in 1991 by a sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.
Writing for Wired to mark the 25th anniversary of the film's release, Angela Watercutter noted:
"There's a longstanding urban legend that Reeves auditioned for the role of Bill and Winter auditioned for Ted, but that's not exactly how Winter remembers it. 'The reason that that ended up in lore was because at a certain point Keanu got it in his head that he was playing Bill and I was playing Ted,' he says. 'To be fair to Reeves, it's possible that out of the 80 trillion times we had to do the scenes [in auditions] the very, very last time we went in he happened to get the Bill sides and I happened to get the Ted sides.' After Reeves found out he was playing Ted, though, he was Sad Keanu. 'We're sitting in the office waiting to meet the producers for the first time and I'm pretty jazzed and he's miserable,' Winters says. 'I'm like, "Dude, what's wrong? We finally got it after all this bullshit," you know? And he's like, "Yeah, but I'm Ted." And I was like, "Yeah, you're Ted. That's awesome." He was like, "I thought I was Bill." I was like, "What fucking difference does it make? For god's sake, they're completely interchangeable. If you want you can be Bill and I'll be Ted, I really don't care. It's not going to impact the way I play this guy one iota.'"[9]
Differences from original script[edit]
In earlier drafts of the script, Rufus was 28 years old and historical figures Bill and Ted plucked from history included Charlemagne (whom they referred to as "Charlie Mangay"), Babe Ruth, and a non-famous medieval person called "John the Serf". John is listed in the credits.[10]
In a 1991 interview, co-writer Ed Solomon said the characters of Bill and Ted were originally envisaged as "14-year-old skinny guys, with low-rider bell-bottoms and heavy metal T-shirts" who were despised by the popular kids at school. Casting Reeves and Winter changed the filmmakers' images of the characters because "...once you cast Alex and Keanu, who look like pretty cool guys, that was hard to believe".[11]
Originally, the time machine was to be a 1969 Chevrolet van, but the idea was abandoned as being too close in concept to the DeLorean used in the Back to the Future trilogy.[9] Instead, despite the similarities to Doctor Who's time machine, the TARDIS, the film's time machine was styled after a 1960s American telephone booth, though a newer model Ford van would be used as the rock concert "band wagon" for the sequel.
In April 2013, Winter commented on Carlin's casting: "He was a very happy accident. They were going after serious people first. Like Sean Connery. And someone had the idea, way after we started shooting, of George. That whole movie was a happy accident. No one thought it would ever see the light of day."[12]
Soundtrack[edit]
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by various artists
Released
1989
Genre
Hard rock, heavy metal, glam rock, glam metal, pop rock, rock 'n' roll
Length
40:32
Label
A&M Records
The film's soundtrack was released in 1989. The tracks are as follows:
"Play with Me" by Extreme
"The Boys and Girls Are Doing It" by Vital Signs
"Not So Far Away" by Glen Burtnik
"Dancing with a Gypsy" by Tora Tora
"Father Time" by Shark Island
"I Can't Break Away" by Big Pig
"Dangerous" by Shark Island
"Walk Away" by Bricklin
"In Time" by Robbie Robb feat. Stevie Salas
"Two Heads Are Better Than One" by Power Tool
These tracks are ordered for the album differently than they are in the movie. In the movie, the songs show up in the following order: "I Can't Break Away", "Dancing with a Gypsy", "Father Time", "Dangerous", "In Time", "Two Heads Are Better Than One", "The Boys and Girls Are Doing It", "Play with Me", "Walk Away", "Not So Far Away" and "Two Heads" (reprised over the credits).
The following songs appeared in the film but were not included in the soundtrack:[citation needed]
"No Right to Do Me Wrong" by Range War
"Party Up" by Rori
"Bad Guitar" by Stevie 'No Wonder' Salas
"Carlin's Solo" by Hands of Flutes
"Game of War" by Warrant
Related productions[edit]
Main article: Bill & Ted (franchise)
Sequels[edit]
A theatrical sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, was released in 1991.
A third theatrical film in the Bill & Ted franchise was planned, and a screenplay was written, though it never got past the pre-production phase. Although rumors claimed that the script was adapted into the 1996 film Bio-Dome, Alex Winter has said that it was not.[13]
In 2010, Reeves indicated that Matheson and Solomon were working on a script for a third film,[14] confirming in April 2011 that a draft was complete.[15] Winter said in March 2012 that he and Reeves both liked the finished script, which revisits the two characters after the changes of the past twenty years.[16] The current script does not feature the return of the Grim Reaper from Bogus Journey, but since actor William Sadler has expressed interest, the writers are considering ways to include the character.[17] In August 2012, Dean Parisot (director of the sci-fi/comedy film Galaxy Quest) signed on to direct the film, although MGM, which holds the rights to the Bill & Ted franchise, has yet to give the movie an official greenlight.[18] In an April 2014 article on the original film's 25th anniversary, Alex Winter reported that work on going ahead with the second sequel was still in progress.[11]
Television[edit]
Two spin-off television series were produced; both were titled Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures was an animated series that first ran on CBS in 1990, and featured the voices of Winter, Reeves and Carlin returning to their roles in the film. A second season of eight episodes ran on Fox Kids, with the voice cast of Fox's upcoming live-action series.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures was a live-action series that ran only seven episodes on Fox in the summer of 1992. It featured none of the cast from the film apart from Lisa Wilcox. Evan Richards and Christopher Kennedy played Bill and Ted.[19]
Comics[edit]
DC Comics produced a tie-in comic following the plot of the first movie timed to coincide with that film's release on home video.[20] The sequel was adapted by DC's competitor Marvel Comics, published to coincide with the second film's release in theaters. Its popularity led to the ongoing Marvel series Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book by Evan Dorkin, which lasted for 12 issues.[21]
There was a weekly 2/4 page semi-adaptation of the animated series published for a year by UK's defunct Look-In Magazine from 1991 to 1992.[22]
Video games[edit]
There were also Game Boy, NES and Atari Lynx games released, which were very loosely based on the film's plot. A PC title and nearly identical Amiga and Commodore 64 port were made in 1991 by Off the Wall Productions and IntraCorp, Inc. under contract by Capstone Software and followed the original film very closely.
Theme parks[edit]
The annual Halloween Horror Nights events at Universal Studios Orlando and Hollywood have featured since 1992 (Orlando) and 1997-1999/2007 (Hollywood) Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure, a show satirizing pop culture of the year with Bill & Ted as the protagonists fighting villains who steal their phone booth for their own schemes.
The show differs from year to year, with spoofs of various pop culture icons. The main plot involves Bill and Ted being threatened by an evil villain from a popular film of that year, with appearances by a host of villains, heroes, and celebrities. The show usually includes elaborate dance numbers, stunts, and multiple double-entendres for the late night event crowd.[23][24] In 2013, the Hollywood version of the show was cancelled in the middle of its run following complaints of homophobic humor.[25]
On August 15, 2017, Universal announced that 2017 will be the final year of Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure in Orlando.[26]
Reception[edit]
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure grossed $40.4 million domestically on a budget of about $10 million.[27] The Washington Post gave the film a negative review, finding the script written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon as "made only the sketchiest attempts to draw their historical characters. They exist as foils and nothing else, and the gags that are hung on them are far from first-rate", and that if director "Stephen Herek, has any talent for comedy, it's not visible here. More than anything, the picture looks paltry and undernourished."[28] Variety wrote about each historical figure that Bill & Ted meet, stating that "Each encounter is so brief and utterly cliched that history has little chance to contribute anything to this pic’s two dimensions."[29] Vincent Canby of The New York Times referred to the film as a "painfully inept comedy" and that the "one dimly interesting thing about Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is the way the two teen-age heroes communicate in superlatives. We are about to fail most egregiously, says Ted to Bill, or maybe it's Bill to Ted. They are also fond of odd words, such as bodacious."[30] In the Los Angeles Times, Chris Willman was also unimpressed, concluding: "Make no mistake, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure […] is not a satire of mindlessness; it's unabashed glorification of dumbness for dumbness' sake. Bill and Ted are heroic in their ability to reduce some of history's great minds to their level.[3] However, writing for Radio Times, Alan Jones decided: "A nonstop giggle from start to finish, this beguiling grab-bag of time-travel clichés, hard-rock music and Valley-speaking cool dudes is a flawless, purpose-built junk movie".[31]
The film has an 78% "Certified fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 45 reviews with an average rating of 6.5/10, the site's critical consensus reads: "Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are just charming, goofy, and silly enough to make this fluffy time-travel Adventure work".[32]
The successes of the film and the animated series spawned a short-lived breakfast cereal called Bill & Ted's Excellent Cereal.[33]
The phone booth used in the film was given away in a contest presented by Nintendo Power magazine, to promote Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure. It was won by Kenneth Grayson of Mississippi.[34][35]
In 2010, the city of San Dimas celebrated 50 years of incorporation. The celebration's slogan was San Dimas, 1960–2010 – An Excellent Adventure.[36]
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure was selected as number 8 in Rolling Stone's '10 Best Stoner Movies of All Time' in 2013.[37]
Writing in The Guardian on the occasion of the film's 25th anniversary, Hadley Freeman found: "Of all the delightfully improbable scenarios depicted in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure – from Napoleon Bonaparte causing havoc on a waterslide to Billy the Kid and Socrates (aka "So-crayts", of course) picking up chicks in a California mall to George Carlin acting in a film alongside Keanu Reeves and a member of the Go-Go's – none would have seemed more unlikely on its release than the idea that one day, with much media fanfare, the public would be celebrating the film's 25th anniversary. By the time Bill & Ted was released in 1989, the 80s teen film explosion was starting to taper out. […] Moreover, there had already been plenty of films about time-travelling teens by the time Bill & Ted rocked up in cinemas, such as Peggy Sue Got Married and Back to the Future. Few who were around then would have bet that a goofy movie about a pair of California metalheads skipping back through time in a phonebox collecting historical characters to bring back to 20th-century California for their history report would still be remembered today. But I am very much among those few".[11]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
Bill/Ted: "Excellent!" – Nominated[38]
In cultural analysis[edit]
Writing in British Sunday newspaper The Observer, Tom Holland noted,
"Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure does not tend to be rated as one of cinema's profounder treatments of the relationship between present and past. The story of two Californian slackers with a time machine who, for complicated reasons, have to assemble assorted celebrities from history in order to pass a high-school project, it is chiefly remembered for bringing Keanu Reeves to the attention of a mass audience. Classicists, however, will always cherish it as the only film ever to combine the music of Van Halen with Greek philosophy. When Bill and Ted embark on their quest, what should be their first destination if not classical Athens, and who should be the very first 'historical dude' bundled into their time machine if not a bald-headed man in a sheet whom they persist in calling 'Soh-kraytz'?"[39]
Holland continued:
"Even to metalheads, then, the philosophy of ancient Greece serves as something that is both primal and emblematic of civilisation as a whole. Socrates, in particular, the 'lover of wisdom' who insisted that the most fundamental presumptions of his countrymen should be subjected to experimental investigation, and who ended up being made to drink hemlock for his pains, has always been admired as the very fountainhead of rationalism. Yet when it comes to identifying what he taught and believed, there is a problem, on which Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, rather unexpectedly, puts its finger. Socrates, transplanted to 1980s California, can only communicate with his abductors by gesturing and gurning – since Bill and Ted, it goes without saying, speak not a word of ancient Greek. Even the miracle of time travel, it appears, cannot serve to alter what is, for any historian, a most awkward fact: that it is impossible to be certain of what Socrates actually said."[39]
See also[edit]
Film in the United States portal
Comedy portal
1980s portal
Deus ex machina
Novikov self-consistency principle
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Thompson, Anne (March 16, 1989). "Profiting from youth In search for adult fare, studios overlook a hit". Chicago Tribune.
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. July 18, 1989. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
^ Jump up to: a b Willman, Chris (17 February 1989). "Movie Reviews : Adventure, Thy Name Is Not 'Bill & Ted'". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
Jump up ^ "The 80s Rewind: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure". Fast-rewind.com. 1991-07-19. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
Jump up ^ "Eighties Movie Locations That Really Exist". In The 80s. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
Jump up ^ Baamonde, Matt (July 28, 2006). "Stevie Salas Interview". Modern Guitars Magazine. Archived from the original on August 14, 2006. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) - Box office / business".
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) - Trivia".
^ Jump up to: a b Watercutter, Angela (17 February 2014). "Bill & Ted at 25: Dude, Bet You Didn’t Know These 7 Gnarly Facts". Wired. San Francisco. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)". Us.imdb.com. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
^ Jump up to: a b c Freeman, Hadley (17 April 2014). "Bill & Ted's 25th birthday: party on, dudes!". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
Jump up ^ alxwinter (April 26, 2013). "Hey, Alex Winter here from Bill & Ted and Downloaded and noticed a lot of child stars memes today. That's what my next documentary's about. Thought it would be a good day to say hi. Ask me anything!". reddit.com. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
Jump up ^ "Was Bill & Ted 3 Rewritten Into Bio-Dome?". Slashfilm. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
Jump up ^ "Reeve talks new 'Bill and Ted' adventure". Archived from the original on September 23, 2010.
Jump up ^ "'Bill & Ted 3' screenplay actually exists, according to Bill".
Jump up ^ "'Bill & Ted' Sequel: 'There Probably Will Be Another One'". 2012-03-09. Retrieved 2012-03-10.
Jump up ^ "The Grim Reaper Could Return for Bill & Ted 3, Says William Sadler". 2012-04-18. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted 3 Has a Director". August 13, 2012. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
Jump up ^ Herbert, Steven (June 28, 1992). "Bill and Ted Make It to Prime Time, City Doesn't". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted's Excellent Online Adventure - Collectibles - Books, Comics & Trading Cards - Excellent Adventure Comic Book". www.billandted.org. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted's Excellent Online Adventure - The Comics - Marvel Comics - Issues". www.billandted.org. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted's Excellent Online Adventure - The Comics - Look In! - Overview". www.billandted.org. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
Jump up ^ Arthur Levine (August 10, 2006). "Universal Orlando is Out for Blood". Archived from the original on November 21, 2006. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
Jump up ^ Teresa Plowright (October 15, 2004). "Halloween Horror at Universal". Archived from the original on February 9, 2006. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
Jump up ^ Couch, Aaron (2013-10-23). "Universal Studios Hollywood Pulls 'Anti-Gay' 'Bill and Ted' Halloween Show". The Hollywood Reporter.
Jump up ^ Tuttle, Brittani (15 August 2017). "Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure to say farewell to Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights". Attractions Magazine. Retrieved August 19, 2017.
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 23, 2009.
Jump up ^ Hinson, Hal (February 17, 1989). "‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’". Washington Post. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
Jump up ^ "Review: ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’". Variety. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
Jump up ^ Canby, Vincent (February 17, 1989). "Bill and Ted s Excellent Adventure (1989) Reviews/Film; Teen-Agers On a Tour Of History". The New York Times. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
Jump up ^ Jones, Alan. "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure: Review". Radio Times. London. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on October 27, 2009. Retrieved November 23, 2009.
Jump up ^ "Bill & Ted's Excellent Cereal, Reviewed". X-Entertainment. 16 March 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
Jump up ^ Error Macro (June 2, 2006). "The Saturday Scan - Give It Away Now". Archived from the original on March 18, 2007. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
Jump up ^ "Picture of phone booth winner". Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved 2006-12-10. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
Jump up ^ "2. 50th Anniversary Celebration" (PDF). Minutes: City Of San Dimas Council. City of San Dimas. November 15, 2008. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
Jump up ^ Sheffield, Rob (6 June 2013). "10 Best Stoner Movies of All Time". Rolling Stone. New York City. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
Jump up ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-07-30.
^ Jump up to: a b Holland, Tom (24 October 2010). "The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life by Bettany Hughes – review". The Observer. London. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
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