An old patriarch unites all members of his family for his birthday, but the group of people are full of personal and social problems.An old patriarch unites all members of his family for his birthday, but the group of people are full of personal and social problems.An old patriarch unites all members of his family for his birthday, but the group of people are full of personal and social problems.
- Amanda 'Billi' Rockwell
- (as Sinead Cusack)
- Kane Rockwell
- (as Dan Corkill)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDebut theatrical feature film of actor Macaulay Culkin.
- GoofsAs the camera pans from the boat model on the window sill to Burt Lancaster lying in bed while Billie Holiday's "You Better Go Now" plays, we see that the record player is turning counter-clockwise - indicating that she scene is played in reverse.
- Quotes
Levi Rockwell: Their whole life was the sea, the sea and their boats. So in celebrating their deaths- yes, you can say celebrating - they used both. The families of the great Viking would put the body of their loved one on a ship, cover it with straw, and then, as the sun was setting, cast it away into the water. They would light huge bonfires on the beach, and then the Vikings would light the tips of their arrows in the bonfire and shoot them at the ship. Ah, it must have been so beautiful, fire on the water. Legend has it that if the color of the setting sun and the color of the burning ship were the same then that Viking had lead a good life, and in the afterlife he would go to Viking heaven. All night long the Viking men, women, and children watched the ship with the body as it burned in the water. By dawn all that was left were ashes, complete obliteration, carried by the currents to the four corners of the earth, fresh and beautiful, and vanished completely, like a dream.
- ConnectionsFeatured in A Night with Suzy Amis Cameron (2020)
- SoundtracksSo Tired Of Being Alone
Written and Performed by Al Green
According to a recent biography of Burt Lancaster this was to be his On Golden Pond or The Shootist, but it did not win the critical reception that those other two films got. In time though it found its audience and I'm part of that audience. Burt was 75 when he made this film and he was playing a part of a man who was going into his 77 birthday and his family has come out to Westhampton Beach out in Suffolk County to celebrate his birthday.
Burt has three daughters and a son and has led an interesting life. He was a writer of sorts who survived the McCarthy/blacklist era and has brought the kids up with certain values. The kids have gone out on their own however and while none of them is a disgrace, they're far from what he idealized them to be. His wife had died several years earlier.
The daughters are Suzy Amis, Patricia Clarkson, and Frances Conroy and the son is John Glover. Amis is unmarried and truth be told she's one of loose morals. The other daughters are married to Kevin Spacey and Bill Pullman, a hack comedian and a washed up ballplayer.
It's in the grandkids that Burt sees some hope and maybe salvation for his ideals. He likes them all, but his favorite is MacCauley Culkin years before his Home Alone films. He tells them that his ideal would be a Viking funeral, after all the thought of his cadaver being worm food is nothing for a real man to want.
Of course the kids set out to do just that and they do it in a winning manner. These kids truly connected with their grandfather the love really comes through in the scenes with each other and with Lancaster.
Rocket Gibraltar is funny and sad and bittersweet all at once. I'd give it a look, there are worse ways to go out.
- bkoganbing
- Apr 14, 2012
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $3,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $187,349
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $60,523
- Sep 4, 1988
- Gross worldwide
- $187,349
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