''Safe Passage'' is a 1994 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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

starring

Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actor. With a career spanning over five decades, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to ...

, and featuring

Sam Shepard Samuel Shepard Rogers III (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American playwright, actor, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned half a century. He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, ...

Robert Sean Leonard Robert Lawrence Leonard (born February 28, 1969), known professionally as Robert Sean Leonard, is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Neil Perry in the drama film ''Dead Poets Society'' (1989) and Dr. James Wilson in the med ...

Marcia Gay Harden Marcia Gay Harden (born August 14, 1959) is an American actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards. Harden's breakthrough came in 1990 with the Coen brothers' film '' Miller's ...

Nick Stahl Nicolas Kent Stahl (born ) is an American actor. Starting out as a child actor, he gained recognition for his performance in the 1993 film ''The Man Without a Face'', in which he was directed by and starred alongside Mel Gibson. Stahl later tr ...

Sean Astin Sean Patrick Astin (; born February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Mikey Walsh in '' The Goonies'' (1985), Billy Tepper in '' Toy Soldiers'' (1991), Dave Morgan in '' Encino Man'' (1992), Daniel Ruettiger in '' Rudy'' ...

, and Jason London. Directed by

Robert Allan Ackerman Robert Allan Ackerman (June 30, 1944 – January 10, 2022) was an American film and theatre director. He directed numerous films since 1992. Ackerman was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1944, and moved to Kew Gardens, Queens, when he wa ...

and written by Deena Goldstone, it is based on the 1988 novel ''Safe Passage'' by Ellyn Bache. The film centers on a large family that reconvenes when one of the adult sons, a Marine deployed in Lebanon for the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

, is possibly among the victims of an explosion at his base. As the family waits out the news, they reopen old wounds, grudges, and unresolved issues.

Plot

Margaret "Mag" Singer, a wife and mother of seven sons, is on the verge of divorcing her husband Patrick and moving to the city for a life of her own. All of the Singers' sons—except for Simon, the youngest—are grown and live on their own. Suddenly, Mag hears news of a terrorist bombing at a Marine base in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, where Percival, one of her sons, is stationed. Upon learning the news, the remaining five sons gather at the Singer home, anxiously awaiting updates on Percival. The sons include Alfred, the eldest Singer, who is engaged to Cynthia; Gideon, who feels responsible for Percival's decision to enlist and thus blames himself for Percival's possible death; identical twins Darren and Merle; and Izzy, the second-youngest who followed his father into science. The film's plot shifts between the Singer family resolving old hurts and wounds and flashbacks to Mag raising her sons. At the end, the family is gathered around the TV nervously waiting for word on Percival. Percival is revealed to be safe, and the family rejoices at the good news and their renewed bonds.

Cast

as Margaret "Mag" Singer *

as Patrick Singer *

as Cynthia *

as Alfred Singer *

as Izzy Singer *

as Simon Singer * Matt Keeslar as Percival Singer ** Jesse Lee Soffer as young Percival *Steven Robert Ross as Darren Singer *Philip Arthur Ross as Merle Singer *Benjamin Preston as Cynthia's Son * Jordan Clarke as Coach *

Jeffrey DeMunn Jeffrey P. DeMunn (born April 25, 1947) is an American stage, film, and television actor known for playing Captain Esteridge in '' The Hitcher'' (1986), Sheriff Herb Geller in '' The Blob'' (1988), Andrei Chikatilo in '' Citizen X'' (1995), Harry ...

as Doctor *

Philip Bosco Philip Michael Bosco (September 26, 1930 – December 3, 2018) was an American actor. He was known for his Tony Award-winning performance as Saunders in the 1989 Broadway production of '' Lend Me a Tenor'', and for his starring role in the 2007 f ...

as Mort * Jason London as Gideon Singer *

Rutanya Alda Rutanya Alda (born Rūta Skrastiņa; October 13, 1942) is a Latvian-American actress. She began her career in the late 1960s, and went on to have supporting parts in ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), ''Rocky II'' (1979), and ''Mommie Dearest'' (1981). ...

as Beth * Joe Lisi as Dog Owner *

Marvin Scott Marvin Bailey Scott (born March 10, 1944) is an American politician and university professor in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a nationally known figure for his involvement in school desegregation cases. Scott ran for political office several times ...

as Newsperson #1 *

Bill Boggs William Boggs III (born July 11, 1941) is an American television host and journalist. Biography Boggs was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA. He earned a master's degree from the university's Anne ...

as Newsperson #2 *Christopher Wynkoop as Evangelist

Production

''Safe Passage'' was shot in

Glen Ridge, New Jersey Glen Ridge is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 7,802, an increase of 275 (+3.7%) from the 2010 United St ...

. It began shooting on January 26, 1994, and completed on March 22 of that year. The film was held up for release by a court injunction brought by Dan Lupowitz, who claimed he brought both the director and Susan Sarandon into the project and wanted an "executive producer" credit. The claim was later dismissed in court.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews, with a

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

score of 54% based on 13 reviews. In a two-star review,

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

praised the cast and Sarandon’s performance, but said the family drama felt contrived and formulaic.

Lisa Schwarzbaum Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 1952) is an American film critic. She joined ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a senior writer in 1991, working as a film critic for the magazine alongside Owen Gleiberman from 1995 to 2013. Early life Lisa Schwarzbaum w ...

of ''Entertainment Weekly'' gave the film a grade of B−, commending the acting but saying Goldstone’s screenplay “has all of the heft of a special, two-hour episode of ''

Party of Five ''Party of Five'' is an American teen and family drama television series created by Christopher Keyser and Amy Lippman that originally aired on Fox from September 12, 1994, to May 3, 2000, with a total of six seasons consisting of 142 epis ...

'' — a TV-shaped domestic drama overloaded with the kinds of emotions you see only on TV and never in your own family.”

Year-end lists

* 4th – Mack Bates, ''

The Milwaukee Journal The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by the ...

'' * Honorable mention – Glenn Lovell, ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

References

External links

* * * {{Robert Allan Ackerman 1994 films 1994 drama films 1990s English-language films American drama films Films about brothers Films about families Films based on American novels Films directed by Robert Allan Ackerman Films produced by Gale Anne Hurd Films scored by Mark Isham Films shot in New Jersey Films about mother–son relationships New Line Cinema films 1990s American films English-language drama films 1994 directorial debut films