Roxanne (1987) is a delightful Romantic Comedy starring Daryl Hannah in the title role, Roxanne, an astrophysicist, and Steve Martin as Charles “C. D.” Bales, the local Fire Chief. The film is moderately based on the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rosland, updated to a contemporary, rural city somewhere in the United States. Bales is the modern version of Cyrano, complete with a outstanding nose. This is the second in a series of movies I am writing about, the first being Cyrano de Bergerac (1950). You can check out the first entry at – @thunderjack/review-cyrano-de-bergerac-1950.
In this updated version, we have a variation of a duel, with C.D. wielding a tennis racket and having jest with two bullies who mocked C.D. over is magnificent nose. The fight is as funny as it is ridiculous, however it goes a long way in establishing C.D.’s character. Later, he meets Roxanne who has managed to lock herself out of her house, and C.D. assists her. How Roxanne got herself locked out is a bit, um, unusual, to be polite. And the two enter a long and interesting conversation, thus starting a budding friendship. Meanwhile, a new professional fire fighter shows up in the form of the very handsome Chris (Rick Rossovich), who Roxanne is attracted to. Now if you know the story of Cyrano, you can figure out where this is going, and it does reflect the original play and the 1950 film that starred Jose Ferrer fairly nicely, with a number of modern adaptions.
How I missed this film in its original run is beyond me as I was back Stateside after my three year stint in Spain with the Air Force. But it wasn’t too long after my return, so probably busy doing things like settling in at Travis AFB at the time. Looking back at this film, I am wishing I had seen it as it is such a delightful movie to watch, with a lot more humor in it that the previous adaptation; and Steve Martin is just a hoot to watch as he bests bullies and competitors alike, both verbally and physically. If you saw the Jose Ferrer film, Roxanne has a similar duel where C.D. mocks his opponent with a wide variety of insults about his nose that are fitting for a modern setting and are quite a laugh.
All of this makes Roxanne a delightful and humorous interpretation of the original material, with a number of different twists and turns that provide some much needed conflict between the leading characters. We see how Roxanne is led to believe that her love interest, Chris, is an absolute brainiac, while those around him know otherwise. We learn that Chris has troubles connecting with women he finds very attractive, which leads to other goofy, and embarrassing, situations for him.
I think I gave away enough of what goes on in the film without revealing much in the way of spoilers. There are some other very funny bits that take place with training the fire fighters that takes place, as some of the guys, well, all of them except for C.D. and Chris, kind of bumble around the tasks need to prepare for fighting a real fire.
Most of the cast, except for Martin and Hannah, are people I am not familiar with, although my Bonnie Bride pointed out that Dixie is played by Shelley Duvall. Yes, I know she was in Popeye, and no I never saw it. And so I didn’t recognize her. I did recognize, as did one of our friends who was over watching Roxanne, Michael Pollard who played Andy, one of the fire fighters. Yes, he was in Star Trek, the first season episode “Miri”, and he also appeared in Lost in Space, “The Magic Mirror”, which is one of the more interesting episodes of the series (prior to it going full on campy). This guy looked pretty much the same facially, making him easily recognizeable from both of those TV shows. The interesting point here is that my Bonnie Bride recognizes better known actors like Shelley Duvall and I’m like who, but anyone who appeared in the original Star Trek, she is oblivious and I am rattling off name of episode and character.
Roxanne is a definitely a movie worth watching; it’s quirky and funny, with a bit of drama tossed in for good measure. The creative team did a great job in making this film, from the writing and all the behind the camera crews, to those performing in front of the camera. Plus, as Roxanne is an Astrophysicist, it is at times educational as she explains things like Quarks and the comet she discovered to C.D.
