Movies - TV
Harrison Ford Insisted On Adding A Key Scene To The Mosquito Coast's Screenplay
By DREW TINNIN
In his role as Allie Fox in 1986's "The Mosquito Coast," Harrison Ford delivered his most politically-minded role by portraying a discontented family man who had grown tired of the deconstruction of American values. While campaigning for the Golden Globes, Ford talked about his insistence on adding one crucial scene that proved his character still loved his country.
Ford pushed to include a moment from the original novel that wasn’t in Paul Schrader’s screenplay. In the pivotal scene, Fox compares his dying mother to America herself and remembers her asking for some rat poison to end her suffering. Loving the country just as much as his own mother, he turns his back on both because he can't bear to see them perish.
"There's a great independence of spirit in the American people and some will see Allie Fox as a fool while others will see him as a sympathetic person," Ford acknowledged back in 1986. "I expected that, I never wanted anybody to be comfortable with him. I was not expecting this character to be embraced as a prophet for the new America."
Ford's words back then still resonate today, maybe even more so. The modern-day television series of “Mosquito Coast” is facing the same problem that the original film did in a way, forcing an America that's arguably more divided and distracted than ever to take a break from their screen life to look at the uncertain world around them.