Holes (2003 film)

''Holes'' is a 2003 American neo-Western comedy-drama film directed by Andrew Davis and written by Louis Sachar, based on his novel of the same name, originally published in August 1998. The film stars Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, Tim Blake Nelson and Shia LaBeouf.

The film was produced by Chicago Pacific Entertainment in association with Phoenix Pictures, presented by Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures, and distributed in many markets by the distribution company Buena Vista.

''Holes'' was released in the United States on April 18, 2003, earning $71.4 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its cast, faithfulness to its source material, and sense of nostalgia. The film is dedicated to Scott Plank, who died in a car accident six months before the film's release in October 2002.

Plot

In Texas, the Yelnats family has been cursed to be unlucky, which they blame on their ancestor Elya's failure to keep a promise to fortune teller Madame Zeroni over a century earlier in Latvia. One day, Stanley Yelnats IV is wrongfully convicted of stealing a pair of sneakers that were donated to charity by baseball player Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston, and is sentenced to 18 months at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp, in lieu of jail time.

Stanley arrives to find that the camp is a dried-up lake run by warden Louise Walker, her assistant Mr. Sir, and camp counselor Dr. Pendanski. Prisoners, known by their nicknames—including Zero, Zig-Zag, Armpit, Squid, X-Ray, and Magnet—spend each day digging holes in the desert; they may earn a day off if they find anything interesting inside the holes. One night, Mr. Sir rescues Stanley from a yellow-spotted lizard, which he warns Stanley are aggressive, venomous, and lethal. After finding a golden lipstick tube initialed K.B. and a fossil, Stanley is accepted into the group and given the nickname Caveman.

After taking the blame for Magnet's stealing of Mr. Sir's sunflower seeds, Stanley is taken to the warden's house, where old wanted posters and newspapers lead him to realize that "KB" stands for Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow, a schoolteacher turned outlaw from the past. Walker asks Stanley to grab her box of nail polish and mentions that it contains rattlesnake venom. After he and Mr. Sir explain what happened with the sunflower seeds, Walker injures Mr. Sir and allows Stanley to return to his hole.

Camp Green Lake's history is revealed in a series of flashbacks as a flourishing lakeside community in the 19th century. Barlow is wooed by the wealthy Charles "Trout" Walker, whom she rejects, and by an African-American onion seller named Sam, whom she loves. One night, the jealous, racist Walker and the town's citizens burn down the schoolhouse and murder Sam. In retaliation, Barlow kills the local sheriff, who ignored her pleas for help, and becomes an outlaw hunting down Walker's men; at one point, she steals a chest of gold from Stanley Yelnats Sr., Elya's son. Twenty years later, the now-bankrupt Walkers track Barlow down and tell her to hand over her treasure. Barlow refuses and tells them to dig for it, after which she dies from a lizard bite and the Walkers set about digging for the treasure.

In the present, when Pendanski mocks Zero, whose name is actually Hector Zeroni, the latter hits Pendanski with a shovel and runs off. After some deliberation, Stanley searches for Hector. The pair have difficulty surviving in the desert without water. Eventually, Stanley carries the ailing Hector up the mountain, where they find a wild field of onions and a source of water, helping them regain strength; at the same time, Stanley unknowingly fulfills his ancestor's promise to the fortune teller and breaks the curse. While camping on the mountain, Hector tells Stanley that he stole Livingston's sneakers and threw them over the bridge to evade the police, only for them to inadvertently hit Stanley's head.

Returning to the camp, Stanley and Hector investigate the hole where Stanley found the lipstick and discover a chest before they are discovered by Walker, Mr. Sir, and Pendanski. They soon realize that Walker, who is Trout's granddaughter, is using the inmates to search for Barlow's treasure. The adults are unable to steal the chest from the boys, as the hole has swarmed with lizards, which do not bite Stanley and Hector due to the onions they ate earlier. The adults, puzzled, wait for the lizards to kill the boys. The next morning, the attorney general and Stanley's lawyer arrive, accompanied by Texas Rangers; the chest Stanley found is discovered to have belonged to his namesake great-grandfather. Walker; Mr. Sir, who is revealed to be a paroled criminal named Marion Sevillo; and Pendanski, who is a criminal impersonating a doctor, are arrested. Stanley and Zero are released and it rains in Green Lake for the first time in over 100 years.

The Yelnats family claims the chest, which contains jewels, deeds, and promissory notes, which they share with Hector, who uses it to hire private investigators to find his missing mother, and both families live a life of financial ease as neighbors.

Cast

* Shia LaBeouf as Stanley "Caveman" Yelnats IV
* Khleo Thomas as Hector "Zero" Zeroni
* Brenden Jefferson as Rex "X-Ray" Washburn
* Sigourney Weaver as Warden Louise Walker
* Jon Voight as Marion "Mr. Sir" Sevillo
* Patricia Arquette as Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow
* Tim Blake Nelson as Dr. Kiowa "Mom" Pendanski
* Jake M. Smith as Alan "Squid"
* Byron Cotton as Theodore "Armpit" Johnson
* Miguel Castro as José "Magnet"
* Max Kasch as Ricky "Zig-Zag"
* Dulé Hill as Sam, The Onion Man
* Henry Winkler as Stanley Yelnats III
* Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Tiffany Yelnats
* Nathan Davis as Stanley Yelnats Jr.
* Noah Poletiek as Brian "Twitch"
* Rick Fox as Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston
* Nicole Pulliam as Mrs. Sweetfeet
* Scott Plank as Trout Walker
* Eartha Kitt as Madame Zeroni
* Roma Maffia as Attorney Carla Morengo
* Zane Holtz as Louis "Barf Bag"
* Shelley Malil as The Yelnatses' Landlord
* Allan Kolman as Stanley Yelnats Sr.
* Damien Luvara as Elya Yelnats
* Sanya Mateyas as Myra Menke
* Ravil Isyanov as Morris Menke
* Ken Davitian as Igor Barkov
* Steve Koslowski as "Lump"
* Michael Cavanaugh as Judge Austin Gorg

Production

''Holes'' was filmed in California in the summer of 2002, and produced with a budget of $20 million. When looking for a child actor to play the role of Stanley, director Andrew Davis asked for an actor like "a young Tom Hanks". Shia LaBeouf, who ended up receiving the role, read the script before reading the original novel. In the original book, Stanley is depicted as obese, shedding considerable weight as the book progresses. The filmmakers chose to drop this aspect from the movie, as they believed it would have been difficult to convincingly portray the loss of weight in a live-action film.

The film was shot in several locations, including Ridgecrest, California. LaBeouf was simultaneously doing work for the Disney Channel show '' Even Stevens'', and worked on the film after taping ''Even Stevens''. To show the seven kids' holes being dug gradually throughout the day, different "phases" were used, for each of which the seven holes were given different levels of depth. For the yellow spotted lizards, fourteen bearded dragons were used, four of which were used for the main parts, and the rest used as "background atmosphere lizards".

Release

The film was released theatrically in the United States on April 18, 2003, by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.

Music

The film's music includes the Grammy-winning single "Just Like You" by Keb Mo', and "Dig It" by The D Tent Boys (the actors portraying the D Tent group inmates), which included a video that was played regularly on the Disney Channel. The soundtrack also includes contributions by the Eels, Devin Thompson, Dr. John, Eagle Eye Cherry, Fiction Plane, Little Axe, Moby, North Mississippi Allstars, Pepe Deluxé, Shaggy, Stephanie Bentley, and Teresa James & the Rhythm Tramps.

The score was composed and conducted by Joel McNeely.

# "Dig It" – D-Tent Boys
# "Keep'n It Real" – Shaggy
# "Mighty Fine Blues" – Eels
# "Honey" – Moby
# "I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday" – Teresa James & the Rhythm Tramps
# "Just Like You" – Keb' Mo'
# "Everybody Pass Me By" – Pepe Deluxé
# "I Will Survive" – Stephanie Bentley
# "Shake 'Em On Down" – North Mississippi Allstars
# "Don't Give Up" – Eagle Eye Cherry
# "Happy Dayz" – Devin Thompson
# "Let's Make A Better World" – Dr. John
# "If Only" – Fiction Plane
# "Eyes Down" – Eels
# "Down To The Valley" – Little Axe

Reception

Box office

''Holes'' grossed $16.3 million in its opening weekend, finishing #2 at the box office behind '' Anger Management''s second weekend. It went on to gross a domestic total of $67.4 million and an additional $4 million in international revenue, totaling $71.4 million at the box office, against a $20 million budget, making the film a moderate financial success. The film was released in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2003, and opened at #9.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 139 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Faithful to its literary source, this is imaginative, intelligent family entertainment." On Metacritic, which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film has a 71 out of 100 rating, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the '' Chicago Sun-Times'' rated the film 3.5 of four stars and wrote, "Davis has always been a director with a strong visual sense, and the look of ''Holes'' has a noble, dusty loneliness. We feel we are actually in a limitless desert. The cinematographer, Stephen St. John, thinks big and frames his shots for an epic feel that adds weight to the story. I walked in expecting a movie for thirteen somethings, and walked out feeling challenged and satisfied. Curious, how much more grown up and sophisticated ''Holes'' is than '' Anger Management''", which was released the same month.

Awards

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Holes
2003 films
2000s Western (genre) comedy films
American Western (genre) comedy films
Neo-Western films
2000s adventure comedy-drama films
2000s buddy films
American adventure comedy-drama films
American buddy films
American comedy-drama films
American mystery films
2000s English-language films
Films directed by Andrew Davis
Films based on children's books
Films about curses
Films about lizards
Films set in the 1850s
Films set in the 1890s
Films set in the 1900s
Films set in the 1990s
Films set in Texas
Films shot in California
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films about interracial romance
American prison films
Walt Disney Pictures films
Walden Media films
Films based on American novels
Films scored by Joel McNeely
Phoenix Pictures films
Films set in deserts
Films based on young adult literature
American children's comedy films
Films about child labour
Films about juvenile delinquency
2000s American films
Magic realism films