''Desert Bloom'' is a 1986 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Eugene Corr and starring an ensemble cast led by

Jon Voight Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award–nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). During the 1970s, h ...

and

JoBeth Williams Margaret JoBeth Williams (born December 6, 1948) is an American actress and television director. Her directorial debut with the 1994 short film ''On Hope'' earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film. In 2009 she began ...

. It was screened in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

section at the

1986 Cannes Film Festival The 39th Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 19 May 1986. The Palme d'Or went to '' The Mission'' by Roland Joffé. The festival opened with ''Pirates'', directed by Roman Polanski and closed with '' El Amor brujo'', directed by Carlos Saura ...

and funded through the Sundance Film Festival Institute.

Plot

Six years after World War II has ended, Jack Chismore, a veteran suffering from

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

, runs a gas station in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jack is married to Lily, and stepfather to Lily's three daughters including Rose, a teenager at an impressionable age. Lily's sister, Starr, has come to Las Vegas for a quick divorce and comes to live with them, upsetting the routine of what is already a small and cramped house. Lily lands a job with the Atomic Testing Office and cannot tell Jack or the girls when the military is conducting atomic-bomb testing in the desert region nearby. This embitters and frustrates Jack, who takes his anger out on Rose many times. When Rose runs away, it is Jack who shows the most courage and concern.

Cast

Annabeth Gish Anne Elizabeth "Annabeth" Gish (born March 13, 1971) is an American actress. She has played roles in films ''Shag'', ''Hiding Out'', '' Mystic Pizza'', ''SLC Punk!'', ''The Last Supper'' and ''Double Jeopardy''. On television, she played Special ...

as Rose Chismore *

as Jack Chismore *

as Lily Chismore * Ellen Barkin as Aunt Starr *

Jay Underwood Jay Underwood (born October 1, 1968) is an American actor and pastor. Beginning a prolific career as a teen actor in the mid-1980s, he is perhaps best known for his starring feature film roles; portraying Eric Gibb in ''The Boy Who Could Fly'', ...

as Robin (as Jay D. Underwood) * Desiree Joseph as Dee Ann Chismore * Dusty Balcerzak as Barbara Jo Chismore *

Allen Garfield Allen Garfield (born Allen Goorwitz; November 22, 1939 – April 7, 2020) was an American film and television actor. Early life Garfield was born in Newark, New Jersey, to a Jewish family, the son of Alice (née Lavroff) and Philip Goorwitz. H ...

as Mr. Mosol * Tressi Loria as Shelly * Laura Rasmussen as Meryl * William Lang as Colonel * Jim McCarthy as Driver *

Ann Risley Anna F. "Ann" Risley (born September 30, 1949, Madison, Wisconsin) is a retired American actress and comedian. She was a cast member of the TV series ''Saturday Night Live'' for the 12 episodes of the 1980–1981 season. These 12 broadcasts were t ...

as Mrs. Muratore

Reception

In the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

'', critic Roger Ebert wrote:

''Desert Bloom'' contains the material for a very good film and it certainly contains the performances, but it moves in too many directions and contains too many issues. It's about the bomb, McCarthyism, the role of women, alcoholism and child abuse, and it's a wonder it doesn't get around to gambling.
There are scenes that start out as perfectly observed moments and end up as a series of speeches as the movie tries to keep track of all of its issues. If they had just gone through and strengthened the characters and allowed the messages to find themselves, they would have really had something here.

References

External links

* * * 1986 films 1986 drama films American drama films Carson Productions films Columbia Pictures films Films about domestic violence Films scored by Brad Fiedel Films about post-traumatic stress disorder 1980s English-language films 1980s American films {{1980s-drama-film-stub