Wanda Nevada

Plot synopsis:
Set in 1950s Arizona, the story follows a drifter and gambler named Beaudray Demerille (Fonda). In a card game he wins the movie's title character Wanda Nevada (Shields), a 13-year-old orphan with dreams of singing at the Grand Ole Opry. Despite his best efforts, Wanda sticks to Demerille, accompanying him to a pool hall. Texas Curly (Fix), an aging prospector, enters and tells the bar patrons about his gold mine in the Grand Canyon. They laugh him off as a drunk. As Curly leaves the bar, he drops a pouch. Wanda picks it up and follows Curly, then sees Strap Pangburn (Markland) and Ruby Muldoon (Askew), two cons from the bar, harassing the man about the location of the mine. Wanda runs when Strap and Ruby kill Curly, alerting them to her presence. She hides in Demerille's car and tells him about Curly's death. Strap and Ruby see Wanda in the car but get lost in the chase. Stopped for the night, Demerille and Wanda open Curly's pouch and find a map. They head to the Grand Canyon and trade the car for pack mules and mining supplies. Strap and Ruby follow behind by half a day.
While traveling in the canyon Demerille and Wanda meet Dorothy Deerfield (Lewis), a Life magazine photographer. Dorothy and Demerille try to get better acquainted after dinner in her tent, but jealous Wanda intrudes. They discuss their pasts, with Dorothy's husband and Wanda's father both killed during military service. Demerille tries to be nice but comes off as insensitive, and he and Wanda leave camp in the morning. They find a rope ladder over the canyon's side to a small cave. Before going down, Wanda confesses to Demerille that she loves him. He holds the rope as she rappels down the rock wall. An owl flies out at her and Wanda falls, but Demerille pulls her back up only to find that she is unconscious. He sits cradling Wanda and says he loves her, too. Demerille then explores the cave himself and finds gold. He returns to find Wanda awake and shows her a large gold piece. While mining the next day, Strap and Ruby finally catch up to them. Wanda and Demerille return to camp with four bags of gold only to find their mules gone. They throw the bags into the canyon in case someone is watching, then start walking. Strap and Ruby hold them at gunpoint and demand the gold, but Wanda insists there was none. A shootout leaves everyone unharmed. Strap and Ruby run off, and Demerille and Wanda seek shelter for the night. The following morning they find Strap and Ruby crucified in the desert. Wanda finds the mined gold scattered nearby. They pack it up and head down to the shore, where a boat is buried in the sand. After docking downstream, Demerille counts the gold as Wanda sleeps. The owl from the cave appears and an arrow is shot from the distance into Demerille's chest. Demerille, seemingly mortally wounded, pushes the boat into the river and passes out. Wanda wakes up the next morning as the boat is afloat in the river and finds Demerille near the edge of death, he professes his love for Wanda and passes out.
Sometime later, Wanda is in a hotel and is about to be returned to the orphanage by looming nuns. Reporters swarm the hotel lobby, all trying to get an exclusive story. Wanda flees the nuns as Demerille, now recovered and rich from selling the gold, pulls up outside the hotel in a new convertible. Wanda jumps in the convertible, and both laugh as Demerille tells the reporters there never was any gold in the Grand Canyon and Demerille and Wanda drive off into the sunset, while the song Morning Sun by Carole King adds to the atmospheric finale.

Tags: violence

Review:
The silly and animated acting reminds me somewhat of "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken", another great adventure film.
It is not meant to be a "romance movie" as it is too ridiculous, but more an adventure, with breathtaking scenery.
Peter Fonda's part of a 35 year old or so gambler, never does anything to abuse or hurt Wanda, "Brooke Shields" who is coming of age and wants to see the world and be a star.
She brings out the good luck charm and they end up happy together, yeah, so there is a slight difference in age, there is no sex or nastiness in the movie.
The so called "bad acting" that some people mention is their hamming it up to add to the script.
A Guilty Pleasure For Me, Too. I've read a lot of negative reviews for the film, and yes, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but somehow I've always enjoyed the movie in a "dumb fun" sort of way.
But maybe I'm biased because the town scenes were shot in Prescott, Arizona where I lived, and as a teenager, I remember the excitement of the film crew hitting town.
And, of course, all of the teenage boys I knew thought Brooke Shields was hot!
I don't know why---maybe it is because of the strongly implied love affair between the middle-aged Peter Fonda and the 13 year old Brooke Shields (whose on-screen character is 13 as well).
For some strange reason, the odd couple consisting of Peter Fonda and Brooke Shield works in this movie.
The movie plot is basically a fantasy and you shouldn't try to see it as a western or a drama.
Brooke Shields is portrayed in her usual role as a much more mature than her natural age girl, who's an even match to the older prospector played by Peter Fonda.
The plot may not work for mature audiences in this country, but in other parts of the world, such genre exists as fantasy/adventure and might be getting high marks.
I give two thumbs up for Brooke Shields and Peter Fonda..
As a Master Yoga Therapist and Jungian, I know that men with black-and-white morality values cannot face finding a thirteen-year-old sexually or romantically attractive; so they suppress their desire and compensate by rejecting the catalyst.
Older women often have problems with those who are young and attractive.The precious message of this charmingly unpretentious film is this: All General Rules of behavior must be given room for grand exceptions.
Wanda Nevada is probably one of the oddest movies ever made, yet it ends up working very well.
Brooke Shields is salty and sassy and delightful but the two bad guys in this movie actually steal the show and they're performances are a 'must see' reason to watch this movie.
The two of them are positively hysterical in what should have been a straight badguy role, but they work so well together (great friends in real life) and play off each other so smoothly that their deadpan delivery makes this otherwise droll film shine.
OK,I'm prejudiced.I watched this movie in Livingston,Montana when it came out in the local theatre.There were a few rather rowdy folks behind me in an otherwise pretty empty house and they were being a bit noisier than I liked.After a few pointed stares and shushes as the movie started I got PO'D and turned around and flat told them to "shut the Hell up!".It was with some chagrin that about two minutes later I recognized Peter Fonda on screen as the guy sitting behind me.........Now,context.The movie is set in the early 50's(Studebaker Hawks etc) and the relationship between the Fonda character and the Shields character reflects/mirrors that between jerry lee Lewis and his child bride and Elvis Presley and Priscilla!
Either it is totally coincidental or Old Petey was at least trying to be prescient.Yes it is a kinda dopey movie but I did enjoy it,not just because Peter was sitting behind me (He is a darn nice guy,not at like his nasty sister) but it was just a rather harmless bit of fun movie.Nuff said.
I loved it.of course ain't one of those movies u have to watch over and over again to get its meaning cos ain't much to analyze but thats what i liked was simple funny and romantic and i also liked it cos when i was bout her age little older 15 I met this guy that resembled Pete Fonda ^^ and was in his 30's i watched it by those days i start seeing him ..about Brooke Shields she couldn't be any cuter and hilarious ,funny how her make up hair and clothes remains untouchable although she spends all those days in the mountains..^^ many more goofs but still cool..loved the nuns at the end...Jime By submitting this comment you are agreeing to the terms laid out in our Copyright Statement.
Fonda meets Wanda.
A poker playing Peter Fonda winds up the winner of an attractive and spunky thirteen year old orphan played by Brooke Shields.
Too young to be his girlfriend, he nevertheless finds himself stuck with her, in a plot that has the two of them in a kind of buddy film about a gold strike in the Grand Canyon.
A poker game in the back room of a barber shop, and later a scene in a bar, and the adventure through the Grand Canyon is beautifully captured by the cinematographer.
As well, this is essential viewing for fans of Brooke Shields, who has plenty of vitality and energy.
In spite of its good points, the characters are mostly unbelievable, especially the two bad guys.
That's because this film doesn't establish itself as much more than a misdirected new age adventure comedy..
Any movie in which Brooke Shields out-acts a Fonda is going to be both an anomaly and a horror.
Shields actually is only bad because she's youthful, inexperienced, and clearly not well directed by her co-star.
I've never seen a movie with this many bad performances.
One bright spot: the cinematography in the Grand Canyon is exquisite, capturing the beauty of that area in a way even big-screen Imax productions have not quite done so well.
And finally: either this is a bad version of Paper Moon, with a lovable pair of father-daughter types, or it's a bad version of Pretty Baby, with a considerably more icky romantic relationship between a forty-something and a 13-year-old.
Wanda Nevada is a pubescent fantasy movie using circa 1979 ideas of what constitutes illicit romance for 13 year old girls.
Characters speak with the simplified diction one usually finds in films aimed at the under 10 set, but also includes multiple sexual references involving Shields' character as well as graphic deaths.
The movie wants to be a comedy on some level but is never funny, an adventure picture but plot and action are insipid, and a children's movie but introduces pedophilia and child rape as real possibilities.
It also wants to be a buddy picture, a coming of age picture, a ghost movie, an Indian spiritual movie, a travelogue, and a western.
Wanda Nevada is a complete waste of time unless you want to see a good many terrific shots of the Grand Canyon.
They showed this movie on my basic cable system all the time.
Where I grew up in San Jose, California (right on the border of Cupertino) we had this thing called The G Channel on our cable system where they basically showed the same one movie over and over and over again.
Wanda Nevada was one of those movies.
I fell in lust and love with the young Brooke Shields and loved her adventures in the Grand Canyon in the 1950s.
The script at times makes almost no sense, the film contains one of the lamest four character gun shootouts ever, highlights are that Henry Fonda makes an appearance, some beautiful shots of the Grand Canyon, a cool 1970s film score, a lot of dialog that's so bad it's good and a nice Carole King song played over the end credits.
I have to say I'm not sure what to make of this film after seeing Peter Fonda with Brooke Shields at the tender age of 14 making this film in the title role.
Gambler/Drifer Peter Fonda winds young Brooke Shields in a poker game and then Brooke happens to get the map and some gold nuggets courtesy of a recently deceased Paul Fix. Fonda and Shields decide to go prospecting in the Grand Canyon.You know had Wanda Nevada been cast with someone Brooke's age as the lead, say Christopher Atkins for instance this film might have worked as a kid's adventure film.
But with Fonda or anyone his age the movie is strange at best.
Henry Fonda plays a grizzled old prospector with a beard like Gabby Hayes which completely covers his face together with goggle glasses.
He's only got one scene with his son and Wanda Nevada as mediocre and strange as it is has some historical significance as a joint project with father and son.
One of the best parts of the movie is the scenery.
i aint too impressed, its not bad but too much fantasy in it, maybe it would look way better if it was made to be more realistic.
And im always glad i mean was,cause today its rare that they make a 13yo caracter be played by a real 13yo,when theres a "mature" subject in the movie,..
I totaly love it when the actors are really the age they are playing.
All in all , not so well acted movie, with a tabooish story in it ,and a great scenery all around..
Beaudray Demerille(a weak Peter Fonda, who also directed), an aging gambler, wins young teen Wanda "Nevada"(pretty, but not talented Brooke Shields) in a poker game.
Together the unlikely pair(of course)embark on a search for Indian gold in the Grand Canyon.That's the story and there really is no need to search for a deeper meaning in it.
The acting is very weak too, which was quite a surprise given the fact that Peter Fonda was in the lead.If you're looking for something interesting in this film, take a look at the nice scenery and some good looks of a young Brooke Shields.
I wonder why Peter Fonda directed and starred in this film.
He must have even talked his father(Henry Fonda)into a (useless) cameo in this ridiculous mess.
After getting hold of a treasure map promising gold in the Grand Canyon, the bickering twosome become prospectors.
Peter Fonda is an actor/director asleep at the wheel; he is so enervated here, his lachrymose line-readings cancel out any irony intended in the dialogue.
Whether trading would-be sassy barbs with Brooke Shields or fingering a barely-there mustache under his nose, Fonda doesn't reveal a character so much as an unsure actor being directed by an unsure filmmaker--himself!
The movie has a few nice touches and pretty vistas, and the camera loves Shields' youthful beauty (although the young actress exhibits very little personality and no screen presence).
Still, it's a fatigued, forgettable comedy-drama with lots of puttering along plus an odd cameo by Henry Fonda, nearly unrecognizable as a grizzled canyon man.
Most people in my age group at the time, late 20s, were somewhat aghast about the whole Brooke Shields-as-a-movie-star concept.
People in my age cohort will remember how she was regarded back then: a little bit gawky, and with her long dark hair, flawless skin, and overpowering eyebrows, she was also seen as preternaturally adult-like, uncomfortably so.
The camera loved Brooke, no question, still and moving cameras alike, she was photogenic her entire life, but this nevertheless was a phase when watching her on screen was on the uncomfortable side.
When thinking about Brooke Shields as she was, her early career, and her being sexually exploited, I've flashed on Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon.
It is a charming, almost whimsical little movie.
Equally charming is Brooke Shields in it.
A few things about the movie bothered me, but overall I found myself liking it more than not.
This movie is largely Peter Fonda's movie.
He directed and he starred as the male lead opposite Brooke Shields, but he didn't write it and he didn't produce it, the importance of which distinctions will become clear below.
Fonda directed the players, mainly himself and Brooke.
Little Brooke steals the movie.One little thing Fonda could have corrected if he had known to is the annoying repetitive pronunciation of Wanda's last name as "Nev-ah-da," the way many east coast people say it.
This movie was set in the desert southwest, where people know how to properly pronounce Nevada, something I know, because I'm from there.
But when glowing ghost Indian arrows start flying, actually harming and killing real characters, verisimilitude goes out the window, and it stops being a movie which takes itself seriously.
My biggest problem with the movie relates to my comments above about the sexualization of Brooke Shields.
First, let's be clear: Brooke Shields IS NOT sexualized in this movie, nor is she exploited in that way either.
Brooke Shields and her character were 13 years old here, and Fonda and his character were 38.
Peter Fonda deserves enormous credit for this.
My guess is whoever put this movie project together, along with the stage mother, conceived it as another explosively hot vehicle for Brooke Shields as the marquee player, fresh off Pretty Baby the year before, with The Blue Lagoon to follow the next year.
They knew what they wanted, and Peter Fonda was thusly told to follow the script as written.
I read elsewhere that Fonda's acting performance was not good here, that Brooke out-performed him.
Maybe Fonda the actor was trying to take the Beaudray Demerille character some place other than that of a 38-year old man who would take a 13-year old girl as his lover, layering him with other nuances, giving him other motivations.
Remember, Peter Fonda's daughter, Bridgette, is just a year older than Brooke Shields.
Men with 14-year old daughters don't want such aged girls in the way this story goes, nor are they remotely titillated by the idea.
Which I submit is what may have been going on here with Peter Fonda.
Summer of 42, Taxi Driver, Pretty Baby, The Blue Lagoon, Wanda Nevada.
Could these movies have ever been made at any other time, before or since?
Of those, maybe Wanda Nevada, maybe because Peter Fonda saved it from itself.
Say what you want about the Fonda clan, but sexploitation of 13-year olds is not their style.
And by the way, watch for the cameo of Henry Fonda..
I see nothing serious happening in it, just hints and in 1979 that was just "kinda" creepy.I saw this before there was much internet and surely no IMDb -- so finding Henry Fonda's name in the credits (Yep, used to read those) was quite the thrill!
Luckily it was on cable and I got to watch again and watch Hank more closely - what a gem.Sweet movie, simple fun, no big heavy stuff to deal with.
Peter Fonda lends a great comic performance in this film, which is his 3rd time directing.
It's a great little film and I enjoyed the humorous quarrels and spats between him Brooke Shields.
Fonda's character can see right through and calls her "a skinny little runt " that talks way too much.
The funny scenes where Fonda pleads with God and talks to a mule for assurance are great.
Shields' character knows how to push Fonda's buttons and even steals a ride with him unaware.
I see his character as a father figure protecting her begrudgingly so she doesn't wind up as "buzzard's bait" in the Grand Canyon search for gold.
This is not an exploitation film of a younger girl older man romance but rather a fantasy adventure of two money hungry misfits out for riches with killers following them.
It is a fun film and the chemistry between Fonda and Shields is warm and undeniable, though never sexual.
It tries to stay sweet while all the time building up a sexual attraction between the 2 leads, Brooke Sheilds (13), and Peter Fonda, who looks to be about 35 in the picture.
Since Peter Fonda is the director also, it must be him who I must assail to have created this unseemly, immoral paradigm for lustful regress with this young almost pre-teen.
It never goes very far toward any kind of actual sexuality, so it skirts danger that way, but the very idea of it is a bit hard to take.
I rented this movie because it falls under the genres of "romance" and "western" with some Grand Canyon scenery thrown in.
The romance is between a YOUNG GIRL who has not even gone through puberty and a MIDDLE-AGED MAN!
It's sickening.Peter Fonda is portrayed as being virtuous by trying to resist his attraction to Brooke Shields, and her character is mostly the one that pursues the relationship.
Really, seriously this movie is a complete waste of time.
Made by the most inept and undistinguished of directors (not very good actor either) Peter Fonda, and staring Brooke Shields as...you guessed it...a child-woman-sex-object.
Peter Fonda simply cannot act, period.
He misses such basic acting chores like showing emotion, reacting to emotion or building a believable character that this film is unwatchable.
Whatever range of human emotion Mr. Fonda has at this point in time is kept tightly under wraps for any on screen appearances.
Casting Broke Shields was a mistake too, because she cannot act either.
There is no grand arc of drama, no reason to care about these people, nothing but to keep watching to see if something happens romantically between these two.
Case in point is the film Blue Lagoon where she actually gets good lines, is well directed and has developed some rudimentary but powerful acting ability.