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| Secondhand Lions follows the comedic adventures of an introverted14 year-old boy who reluctantly finds himself spending the summer with a pair of cranky, eccentric great-uncles |
(2003) Film Review by Greg Wright |
| This page was created on September 8, 2003
This page was last updated on
November 5, 2003
—Review
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
—Forum
Dial up modems will take a few moments |
| CREDITS |
| Directed by Tim McCanlies
Written by Tim McCanlies
Producers
Cale Boyter ... executive producer
Janis Rothbard Chaskin ... executive producer
Kevin Cooper ... executive producer
Joe Dishner ... line producer: second unit
Mark Kaufman ... executive producer
David Kirschner ... producer
Karen Loop ... executive producer
Scott Ross ... producer
Amy Sayres ... co-producer
Corey Sienega ... producer
Cast - in credits order
Michael Caine ... Garth
Robert Duvall ... Hub
Haley Joel Osment ... Walter
Kyra Sedgwick ... Mae
Emmanuelle Vaugier ... Princess Jasmine
Nicky Katt
Jennifer Stone ... Martha
Mitchel Musso ... Boy #1
Marc Musso ... Boy #2
Dameon Clarke ... Driver
Other credited cast listed alphabetically
Elizabeth Bertrand ... Nun
Bo Brinkman ... Adult Frankie
Rick Dial ... Feed Store Owner
Jason Douglas ... Helper
Elizabeth Gast ... Walt's Wife
Kevin Haberer ... Young Garth
Christian Kane ... Young Hub
Polli Magaro ... Miss Allison
Deidre O'Connell ... Helen
Michael O'Neill
Adam Ozturk ... Young Evil Sheik
Jace Pitre ... Frankie
Nick Price ... Walt's Son
Brian Stanton ... Hood #2
Rory Thost ... Walt's Son#2
Travis Willingham ... Hood #1
Original Music by Patrick Doyle
Cinematography by Jack N. Green
Editored by David Moritz
Rated PG
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM, and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG |
| TRAILERS AND CLIPS |
| Trailer:
QuickTime, Various |
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| CD |
Secondhand Lions
Various Artists - Soundtrack - 2003
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| BOOK |
Secondhand Lions
by John Whitman
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| POSTER |
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| SYNOPSIS |
 Academy Award winners Michael Caine (The Cider House Rules, Hannah and her Sisters) and Robert Duvall (Tender Mercies) star alongside Oscar nominee Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense, A.I.) in Secondhand Lions, written and directed by Tim McCanlies
(writer of the acclaimed The Iron Giant and writer/director of Dancer, Texas). Secondhand Lions follows the comedic adventures of an introverted 14 year-old boy (Haley Joel Osment) who reluctantly finds himself spending the summer with a pair of cranky, eccentric great-uncles (Michael Caine and Robert Duvall). At first appalled by their gruff uncaring manner, over time he becomes enthralled with his uncles as the exotic tales and remembrances of their own youthful exploits introduce the
boy to a world of imagination and wonder and re-ignites the old men’s spirits. Co-starring Kyra Sedgwick and Nicky Katt, Secondhand Lions is produced by David Kirschner, Corey Sienega and Scott Ross. |
 Review by
GREG WRIGHT
hjpastorgreg@hotmail.com
Pastor and Tolkien Scholar.
Greg Wright has written a book on the mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien and has degrees in Theology, English Literature and Computer Science. |
Audiences may be surprised that the large feline from which this movie symbolically takes its name has as little screen time as it does. Yet audiences may also find the fact fitting, since one of the lessons which Tim McCanlies' film teaches is that appearances may not be as important as we sometimes think |
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This is a good lesson to learn, for a variety of reasons. With movies, it's a good lesson to learn because we can never get a really good impression of a movie just from the trailers: how in the world can two hours of meaning and entertainment be properly condensed into a three-minute tease? It can't, really -- and marketing departments don't necessarily try to. What they do try to do is to give us enough of a taste to make us want more, while generally being true to the idea of the movie. They want our butts in the seats, yes; but they also want us satisfied, so we'll recommend the movie to others, and more butts will fill the seats. |
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This is a movie that should put some butts in the seats. Secondhand Lions aims to please -- and, very much like your favorite dotty grandma, please it does. Robert Duvall's performance as Hub anchors this movie, in a way which reminds us that people are essentially unknowable, surprising and ultimately very human. People have the capacity, as history shows us, for great and capricious evil; but they also, as Hub teaches Walter, have the capacity for -- even the duty to learn -- nobility, mercy and love. |
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To Walter (Haley Joel Osment), Hub initially appears to be gruff, irascible, annoyed and annoying. In reality, Hub has loved greatly, lost greatly, and come home to die -- and as he thinks, without purpose. Both Walter and Hub are wrong. There's more to Hub than meets the eye, and plenty of purpose left, too.
As Walter learns more about Hub, the two grow closer together. Hub learns that Walter gives him purpose, and Walter learns -- well, Walter learns from Hub what it means to be a man. It's a long lesson, and the young Walter (as well as the audience) only hears a fragment of the lesson. But it's enough for Walter. And for the butts in the seats, it's likely to be enough, too. So appearances are not only deceiving, as we've often been told -- they're also less important than we think.
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It's fun watching Walter learn this lesson, and it's fun watching him grow from a boy into a man. And it's also fun watching Osment grow from a boy into a man! In addition, there's something sweet about Michael Caine's performance as Hub's brother Garth -- which is to say that Secondhand Lions offers up something pretty rare.
But many people may be put off by the movie's trailer. In it, we hear Hub telling Walter, "Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most." This statement itself may be deceiving. It may be taken to mean, "Believe what you want to. It's just important that you believe it. Truth doesn't matter."
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In the context of the movie, the statement takes on an entirely different meaning: "Believe the things that are important to believe, even if 'facts,' experience and the opinions of others contradict what you believe: because the appearance of things is only an illusion."
The Apostle Paul put it a little differently: "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; [when perfection comes] we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:11-13, NIV)
Secondhand Lions delivers much the same message. It's a message sorely needed today.
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SECONDHAND CHILDREN
A Talk with Michael Caine
by GREG WRIGHT |
At work the other day, my wife Jenn was waiting for an elevator during her lunch break. She works at a hospital, and frequently encounters the sick, dying and grieving. As she waited, a young woman came up and asked for directions to the cafeteria. My wife volunteered that she was herself on her way there, and said she would be happy to show the way. As the elevator door closed, my wife asked, "Are you okay?" The young woman sobbed, "No, I'm not."
After the young woman had composed herself, she shared with my wife that she was visiting her grandmother. She was distraught at the prospect of facing her 20th birthday without her best friend.
Like many young people, this woman grew up with absentee parents. As a result, she was mostly raised by her grandmother.
 It's a situation very much like the one facing Walter in Secondhand Lions -- child abandonment. What may surprise filmgoers is that Walter's predicament is not just a plot device: it's an issue which director McCanlies and Lions star Michael Caine care very much about.
"Growing up, my father was military," said McCanlies during recent interviews promoting his film. "So I was kind of on my own a lot." His experience, said Lions costar Haley Joel Osment, was the inspiration for the script.
 "Walter's story has a lot to do with what Tim experienced when he grew up," offered Osment. "Though he may not have had such a negative childhood as Walter, I think he knew what it was like" to have to discover a role model. "He spoke of his grandfather a lot," Osment continued, as "the influence for the two uncles."
But that wasn't the only influence. "Because my father wasn't around much," explained McCanlies, "it seems like I learned a lot of my lessons from books and movies." So the idea occurred to McCanlies to make a film which might help other youngsters find a role model.
 The protagonist "really needed to hear what it is that men teach boys," says McCanlies, who also wrote the script. "This is a story about men who are sort of used up - secondhand lions, if you will - and this kid who really needs them, and how they sort of save each other."
Michael Caine signed onto the project, in part, because of this element in the story. "We're always reading in the papers - and we know - that families are falling apart, and for a massive amount of people, both in this country and in my country." It's no secret, Caine said, that we have "families where the father is not present." Nor are "the problems that is causing with their children" much of a secret. One of the key messages of Lions, said Caine, is that "you have to take responsibility for your actions."
 Hub, the character played by Robert Duvall in Lions, has a speech which he says all young men need to hear. We see Walter receive the first part of the speech, but the latter part is not included in the film - and in fact was never scripted. It was, however, according to Caine, completed between he and Duvall. And its thrust was just this: "Your child is your action," advised Caine. "You have to take responsibility."
Caine and Duvall -- caring, involved fathers -- point both to young Haley Joel Osment and his performance as examples of what proper parental involvement can yield. Caine first pointed out Osment's performance: "a little boy who never had a father figure, and he finds him." And who is Osment's inspiration? His own father, says the young actor - which leads to Caine's second observation. Osment is "such a wonderful actor," Caine claims, "because he has an incredible family; and his parents are wonderful. His father is there for him, all day long, every day - and that's what you get: you get this rounded, great kid with a talent, as opposed to the kid who he plays, who is really lost and sad."
 If Lions "could help one child, one boy," concluded Caine, "who just sits there and watches this, and says, 'that's what I needed,'" the movie would be worth making.
Of Walter's uncles Hub and Garth, Caine said, "These two guys thought that they were at the end of their lives and useless. I've never thought I'm any where near the end of my life or useless, so the idea was to change them to make them feel the way that I do now."
 In the same way, the idea of Secondhand Lions is to reach abandoned, discarded children, encouraging them to seek out a role model - whether it be "an uncle, one of those big brother guys," a grandmother, or - just maybe - a stranger in an elevator.
What a sad thing it would indeed be to turn away from someone in need. "To the extent that you did it to the least of these," said Jesus, "you did it to me."
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