Continental Divide on DVD

If you’re looking for a good old fashioned romantic comedy that’s witty, charming, and entertaining without activating your gag reflex, this is a good title.

John Belushi stars with Blair Brown as two people from completely different worlds who meet, fight, then fall in love.

Belushi?

Yep, and he’s darn good here, too – not meaning to minimize Blair’s winning performance as the “Ivory soap girl” character.

Belushi is Ernie Souchak, a crusading Chicago newspaper columnist who gets on the wrong side of a powerful local political figure, forcing him to get out of Dodge for a while. He’s sent to Wyoming to cover bald eagle researcher Nell Porter (Brown) – much to both of their chagrin.

Souchak is the fish out of water here, puffing and straining up the Rocky Mountains to Nell’s rustic log home. He’s low on cigarettes and his guide drank the last of his liquor, so he’s reasonably miserable right from the start.

Nell’s reaction to his being there – especially when she finds out that he’s a reporter there to report on her – is predictably hostile. She’s living in this mountain paradise with her Eagles and doesn't’t want anyone intruding on that, especially for blatantly commercial reasons.

But since Souchak is stuck there until his guide returns, she’s stuck with him, and his helplessness does manage to arouse the maternal in her. And when her mountain man friend turns out to be a big fan of Souchak - and Souchak a big fan of who the mountain man was in his previous existence - she begins looking at Souchak in a different light.

Thus begins the romance as these two passing ships tie up to each other and share their love – and each learns from each other, as happens in a relationship.

But Souchak’s time on the mountain tops is finite and before you know it he’s back in Chicago, able only to think about Nell and unable to write about anything else. Even his piece on her is journalism at its most unprofessional, as it becomes an ode to his love instead of “fair and balanced” (as if most media people are capable of that anyway!)..

He eventually gets over her and gets his head back into his writing, but then out of the blue Nell shows up in town to give a lecture – and Souchak is lost again. Fortunately, Nell feels the same way. Unfortunately, he doesn't’t want to leave Chicago and she doesn't want to stay away from the mountains and her Eagles – so what will they do?

Continental Divide was written by a young Lawrence Kasdan before he gained fame as the screenwriter or co-writer of such films as “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and director of “Body Heat,” “Wyatt Earp,” and others. It’s a marvelous script, ably directed by Michael Apted, and the locations in the US Rockies are spectacularly beautiful. It must have been quite the operation getting a movie crew into some of them.

Belushi is terrific as Souchak, the overweight and cynical scribe who’s so different from his most famous movie roles. And Brown is a joy, naturally beautiful and ever so charming.

The DVD is very good as well, featuring anamorphic widescreen video (16x9 TV compatible) that really does justice to the locations. Unfortunately, there’s quite a bit of grain at times, though most of the film is pretty clear.

The audio is unremarkable. It’s billed as Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, though it does appear to emanate from the center channel as it should.

Continental Divide, from Universal Home Video
103 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital mono
Starring John Belushi, Blair Brown,
Produced by Bob Larsen
Written by Lawrence Kasdan, Directed by Michael Apted

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