Zachary FenellSunday Classics: Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension
January 19th 2009 01:15
Buckaroo Bonzai, 1984
What, you may ask, makes the Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension count as a classic? If you're asking this, you haven't seen it, which means that you must rush out right now now and rent/buy it immediately.
Everyone has their formative moment as a child, the one defining element that acts as a point of perspective for the choices they make for the rest of their lives. Buckaroo Bonzai was my formative moment, and I've never met a single person who was not also affected on some level.
Buckaroo is a martial arts expert, a physicist, an engineer, a musician, a surgeon, a comic book inspiration, a compassionate guy and a hero. He's not a "superhero" - he has no powers - but his kindness and strength of character makes him so charismatic that only the fierce loyalty of his team surpasses his natural stand-alone awesomeness.
In this "episode", Buckaroo Bonzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers deal with the threat of the Red Lectroids from Planet 10. Their leader, John Wharfon, escaped into the body of Emelio Lizardo during an attempt to penetrate into the 8th dimension years earlier, and Bonzai's success later of stabilizing transportation between our dimension and theirs with his oscillating overthruster motivates the Black Lectroids to threaten earth with annihilation in an attempt to stop Wharfon from releasing his cohorts from the 8th dimension and overthrowing Planet 10 again.
What is fascinating about Buckaroo Bonzai is not so much what kinds of threats and conflicts he deals with but rather how he deals with them. Although he's incredibly brilliant, he relies on the knowledge, experience and loyalty of his team, his community, to help him solve problems. He doesn't mind getting his hands dirty, but he always maintains his integrity. He is truly the inspiration for every heroic and positive goal I've personally developed for myself.
In the same spirit as Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins, we get a glimpse into a rich and exciting world, only to be disappointed in our desire to continue the story, in this case because the studio went bankrupt before the movie was finished and subsequent attempts the sell the rights were unsuccessful. Still, it's a story we don't mind seeing again and again, and thanks to a great deal of finagling, we can even enjoy the extended version on DVD.
Buckaroo Bonzai gets five stars based on awesome and attractiveness.
5 Stars
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