the road to wellville ( film )
t. c. boyle, the road to wellville (new york: viking, 1993) .
the road to wellville (based on the novel by t. coraghessan boyle), columbia, 1994 .
denby, david ,
the road to wellville ,
in new york, november 14, 1994 .
( and producer, with armyan bernstein and robert f. colesberry) the road to wellville, columbia, 1994 .
the road to wellville makes john harvey kellogg even more smutty and ridiculous than he made himself. that' s quite an achievement .
the road to wellville (directed by alan parker. starring anthony hopkins, bridget fonda, matthew broderick, john cusack, dana carvey )
i was first sent the manuscript of t. coraghessan boyle’s novel, “the road to wellville”, in july of 1992. i was immediately drawn to the three interwoven stories and the outrageous, eccentric world that tom boyle had parachuted us into with all of his usual anarchic and irreverent wickedness. and so by august, with the rights secured, i began the first steps on the road that led to the road to wellville
the road to wellville trailer 1994 director: alan parker starring: anthony hopkins, bridget fonda, dana carvey, john cusack, matthew broderick, official content from sony pictures home entertainment follows the exploits of dr. john kellog, fitness revolutionary, visionary, corn flake inventor, and founder of the world' s most outrageous health spa. an all star cast dish out the laughs in this period comedy. movie, the road to wellville movie, the road to wellville trailer, the road to wellville 1994, alan parker, anthony hopkins, bridget fonda, dana carvey, john cusack, matthew broderick ,
the assembly of talent for the road to wellville is impressive, but you know what they say about anthony hopkins. once he’s aboard, other actors beg to be involved .
and how do you like your protein shake? … matthew broderick and anthony hopkins in the road to wellville. all photographs: allstar / cinetext / columbia
ultimately, the script for the road to wellville is at fault. on the whole, the actors do the best they can with this material, but there is not much to work with. without a good plot or interesting characters, the pretty location and the bathroom humor can' t support the film on their own .
perhaps wellville should have just remained a book. as a turn - of - the - century period piece and social satire it connects, but the film won’t play in peoria. with too many scatological jokes to recommend and too little linear progress to engage, wellville is an acquired taste .
miss muntz to casanova’s overcoat…to…to charles goodyear, who made possible the vulcanized rubber condom .
it’s true to say that few novelists ever say nice things about the way their books are made into films. however, the ever gracious tom boyle did write this following piece about the road to wellville which first appeared in zoetrope: all story magazine. it’s only fitting that he should have the last word .
the phrase “road to wellville” was coined by c. w. post, originator of grape nuts, after undergoing an appendix operation at the san. he later used the expression as the title of a pamphlet he created to accompany his cereal. basically, the pamphlet urged consumers to “eat grape nuts, drink postum, and think positive thoughts. ” carson, 155. [ ↩ ]
in 1991 parker released the commitments, a film based on a novel by irish writer roddy doyle. the film, which garnered mixed reviews, told the story of the efforts of a ragtag group of musicians with widely varied individual agendas and their efforts to launch a successful band. 1994' s the road to wellville, meanwhile, despite an impressive cast headed by anthony hopkins, was a decidedly unsuccessful adaptation of t. coraghessan boyle' s novel .
like his american counterpart oliver stone, the british director alan parker has earned a unique reputation as being both a cultural instigator, and an insightful social commentator. through his films mississippi burning (1988) and evita (1996), parker has brought to life the twentieth century’s struggle with race, class, and gender. in 1994, parker continued this tradition of social commentary not through cinematic drama, but rather through his comedy road to wellville. 3 a perfectionist on every level, parker consulted t. coraghessan boyle, the author of the novel road to wellville, who, while writing his account, used the kellogg archives at the charles willard memorial library, in battle creek, michigan to ensure the social and historical accuracy of his portrayal. the library, which houses all of kellogg’s 220 articles and 81 books, helped boyle reconstruct kellogg’s eugenic theory of “race betterment, ” which, undoubtedly, influenced parker’s portrayal of race and class in road to wellville. 4
while parker’s use of parody, blackface, role - playing, and race / class - encoding might be perceived as a means of evading a realistic treatment of social issues, road to wellville is anything but a crude attempt to avoid the representation of enormously - difficult subject matter. rather, it is a sophisticated blend of humor and documented historical material that seeks to question the various forms that race and class have assumed in twentieth - century american society. consequently, the characters in road to wellville are not simply constructed for comedic purposes; each has a specific role in the dialogue of the film, whether it be to illustrate the absurdity of turn - of - the - century racial ideology, or to criticize modern social trends. what parker accomplishes in this film is more than a sum of its parts; one cannot merely look at an isolated scene to understand his anti - racist and anti - elitist commentary, for the fact that problematic social issues are often disguised is part of parker’s message. road to wellville is a statement to the world that in spite of our alleged social advances, not enough has changed with respect to race and class since the turn - of - the - century; many of the racist and classist assumptions in the film are, like corn flakes, still thriving today. while these prejudices might be more subtly expressed in today’s world, they are still as ubiquitous as they were back at the battle creek sanitarium .
book upon which the film was based, disown the project and refuse to allow any film adaptations of his work for the next 20 years. he relaxed his mandate just in time for
on the road (2012) — budget, $ 25 million. box office, $ 8, 784, 318. crashed the career of director walter salles .
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him. riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you. …
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t he road to wellville is a film made for anyone whose sense of humor leans towards the scatological. set at doctor j. h. kellogg' s battle creek sanitarium (affectionately called
the san
by its residents), this film contains an endless supply of fecal jokes. there are slogans such as
clean bowels make for clean thoughts
posted around the main dining hall, and the prevalent routine at this
temple of health
is an enema a day .
it’s always a mistake to zip through the main casting of a film. frankly, it’s all the financiers or studios care about. in the case of wellville it was a hefty cast to assemble before we were given the green light on the film. it has to be said, of course, that films can live or die because of the main cast. certainly, if you get the casting wrong, then chances are you’re going to get the film wrong. the same can be said for the quality of the casting, down to the smallest role, that surrounds the principal actors. wellville is an ensemble cast, and arguably, that ensemble is twenty actors deep. in supporting roles i was fortunate enough to have camryn manheim (virginia) it was odd to see camryn daintily peddling her bicycle along the forest path, when i cast her she had arrived in full leathers on a 1000cc motorcycle .
. this film and the chain of critical or commercial disappointments led to jeffrey katzenberg selling the studio to comcast / universal and divesting his interests in the firm after 22 years .
the road to wellville (1994) — budget, $ 25 million. box office, $ 6, 562, 513. based on a novel by t. coraghessan boyle about john harvey kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes, this comedy - drama was derided by critics for its servings of nausea fuel. matthew broderick considers it an old shame .
the insomniac: the novel and film both open with will lightbody suffering from severe insomnia due to his ulcer and opium withdrawal .
they should have begged for a coherent story. wellville threatens to be dazzlingly funny or at least amusingly manic, but it settles for tubefulls of enema jokes and a lame sex romp .
there can be found in the back pages of various health magazines a small advertisement for colonic irrigation. it is illustrated with a drawing of what looks like several tons of lava bursting forth from the earth' s core. i have never mailed away for the booklet offered, and now that i' ve seen
the road to wellville ,
i don' t think i need to. the movie is like an expedition through the digestive tract with gun and camera .
in kellogg’s opinion, the best way to ensure white racial purity was to cultivate “good health, ” which he propagated through his articles, books, lectures, and treatments at the san. the key factor of his health doctrine was self - regulation and moderation, which involved avoiding the undesirable elements of society (i. e. , immigrants, the working class, criminals, the mentally ill, prostitutes, the diseased, as well as anyone considered “non - white”). when anglo - americans did not follow these dictates, they could erode the civility that marked them as “superior, ” and, just like some of the characters in the road to wellville, become the degenerates that they feared. when such degeneration went completely unchecked, kellogg believed the result could be “an incurable and dirty criminal reminiscent of the dark races; an uncivilized beast. ” 16 in short, kellogg’s adopted son, george, who is played by dana carvey in road to wellville .
beep beep, richie! it' s time to go back to derry .
contributor of articles and cartoons to periodicals, including american cinematographer, american film, cineaste, films and filming, literature / film quarterly, and sight and sound .
the promise (2016) — budget, $ 90 million. box office, $ 9, 831, 487. this drama set before the armenian genocide was a passion project for casino maverick and former mgm owner kirk kerkorian, who didn' t live to see the film released. the film was also overshadowed by controversy due to genocide deniers' attempts to smear the film. critics thought the film was so okay its average while the niche subject matter may have killed it more than the controversy .
the rage: carrie 2 (1999) — budget, $ 21 million. box office, $ 17, 762, 705. this was intended to be an original film called the curse before it became retrofitted into a sequel to carrie. the end result was criticized for not living up to the original film .
). the opening scene alone was enough to cause nearly ever us theater to pass on the film (it was in a total of 21 theaters in the us). to make things even worse, it came out one day after
, mckenzie wark challenges theorists to invent new tools for criticism, tools adequate to the concrete problems of the anthropocene .
the final nail that sent itc to the bottom of the atlantic came a year later with the failure of the legend of the lone ranger .
. this remains the only film directed by editor and sound designer walter murch, who returned to those lines of work ever since. disney' s next attempt at an oz film was the much more successful
75. british screen advisory council, member, beginning 1985; head of film council, beginning 1999; lecturer at film schools .
revisited after listening to the dollop' s episode
the cereal men
.
dialogue on film: alan parker ,
in american film (washington, d. c .), january - february 1988 .
commencement speakers are right to not speak at the uc’s commencements, as pulling out sends a message to the university about the importance of employees’ livelihoods .
. it' s fair to say there may be a long wait before the next big screen adaptation of a cussler novel. this is the only theatrically released film featuring the
movies from warner bros. , dumped this film in a very limited amount of theaters. as a result, this film did not make as much money as the
the veneer of social altruism perpetuated by kellogg in road to wellville is more or less a conscious metaphor for a nostalgic time when “coons were coons” and racial segregation allowed whites to live in glass houses, such as the san, oblivious to the real world around them. in this context, the business relationship between george kellogg and charles ossining (john cusack), an upper class anglo - american who ventures into the cereal business for amusement and economic independence, complements the racial subtext of the film. during business negotiations, george is consistently aloof, more concerned with whiskey than with economics. constantly laughing, eating, and conning his father out of money, george mimics socially constructed “qualities of blackness, i. e. , brutality, crime, idleness, and licentious behavior. ” 23 thus, george clearly fits many of the racial stereotypes that exist in modern, as well as in antebellum, culture. a modern minstrel, george “mirrors the antebellum belief that slavery was good for the slave since it drew upon his natural inferiority and willingness to serve … slaves were content coons. the proof was offered in the happy images of sambo, a feebleminded slave who was content to laugh, eat, and drink. ” 24 in road to wellville, george is a modern - day “sambo. ”
given the racial subtext of the film, the medical diagnoses of the female characters in road to wellville are also very poignant social metaphors. ida is diagnosed with “green sickness, ” or chlorosis, as it was known in the nineteenth - century medical community. according to kellogg, chlorosis, or what twentieth - century physicians would call anemia, “is very often caused by menstrual irregularity and by the unholy practice in consideration [ i. e. , masturbation ]. ” 40 by associating chlorosis with masturbation and menstruation, kellogg simultaneously constructs the disease as both “perverse” and distinctly female in nature. in the film, ida is “sicker than anyone else, ” most likely because she suffers from “female” ailments as well as sexual vice. although will is her partner in adultery, as a woman, ida bears the symbolic burden of shame. in modern film, the consequence of such shame is always death, which finds ida just as she is beginning to gain the strength to act independently .
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pound puppies and the legend of big paw (1988) — budget, unknown. box office, $ 586, 938. this is the only feature film that director pierre decelles and writers jim carlson and terrence mcdonnell have been involved in; the film' s failure to leave a mark sent their careers back to television. this is also one of a handful of film adaptations of hanna barbera programs that was sent to the theatrical dog pound, and tristar pictures wouldn' t distribute another animated film until 2001 .
the fact that george is in “blackface” throughout the entire film is an important aspect of the racial commentary in road to wellville. according to lester friedman, “the white actor in blackface allows a safe, cinematic, non - discussion of the place and origins of blacks in america. ” 19 blackface minstrelsy, which involves white entertainers donning black make - up to “perform” black stereotypes on stage or in film, essentially constructs the minstrel (i. e. , george) as the classical fool. set apart from society and believed to be mentally inferior and immature, blackface characters such as the “city dandy, ” the “plantation darky, ” and “sambo the coon, ” can express serious criticism without compelling the audience to take them seriously. through the antics and opinions of these “benign” characters, audiences can laugh away racial anxieties while being assured that racial categories have not been altered. while the material conditions of slavery and segregation embodied white racism in the real world, blackface minstrelsy created jim crow in the theatrical world, guaranteeing racial domination in the imaginary realm well into the twentieth century. 20
on the occasion of the first irish screening of nagisa oshima’s ai no corrida (in the realm of the senses), banned for 18 years because of its explicit sex scenes involving lead actor tatsuya fujii’s hardcore hard - on’s, neil mccormick takes a ride through the history of the ’members’ of the film world’s penis colony and while he’s ‘at it’, talks to film sexpert david sullivan about the ever narrowing gap between the porn film industry and mainstream cinema .
porgy and bess (1959) — budget, $ 7 million. box office, $ 3. 5 million. this film version of george gershwin' s opera was only shown in a roadshow release due to its controversial subject matter. this was the last film produced by samuel goldwyn. it didn' t help that the gershwins disliked the film due to its adaptation decay and have kept it out of circulation to this day .
and parker has no doubt it is a joke. while it is certainly much healthier for anyone to eat no meat and take no alcohol, caffeine or tobacco ,
the road to wellville
uses those notions as mere stepping - stones to greater and goofier reforms. kellogg, played grandiloquently by anthony hopkins as a bucktoothed little drum - beater, condenses his beliefs into little sayings: the tongue is the billboard of the bowels. we are but lifeguards on the shores of the alimentary canal. an erection is a flagpole on your grave. as the movie opens, we see him demonstrating that under a microscope, pig droppings cannot be distinguished from a porterhouse .
trippy indie madeline' s madeline is the movie that lakeith stanfield and boots riley from sorry to bother you want to see the most .
the making of evita, introduction by madonna, photographs from the film by david appleby, collins publishers, 1996 .
a rumor of angels (2002) — budget, unknown. box office, $ 38, 610. this film was dumped into limited release to fulfill a contractual obligation with mgm and the films producers that the studio inherited from orion pictures .
playtime (1967) — budget, 12 - 17 million francs. box office, $ 2 million. the massive budget is due to the film' s equally massive set and director and star jacques tati filming it on 70mm film and using stereophonic sound. its low gross is due to not many theatres being able to screen the film properly. it' s since been vindicated by history as tati' s all - around masterpiece .
paparazzi (2004) — budget, $ 20 million. box office, $ 16, 796, 512. the only theatrical film directed by paul abascal and the only film written by forrest smith .
paradise road (1997) — budget, $ 16 million. box office, $ 2, 007, 100. this world war ii drama received mixed reviews and it topped out in 350 theaters .
i am not sure
the road to wellville
will be enjoyed by everybody. oddly enough, it may be the very people the satire is aimed at who will enjoy it the most. if you, like me, have wandered hypnotized down the aisles of health food stores, entranced by products like tvp, gardenburgers, soy milk, barbecued tofu and the ominous slimming tea - and if you, like me, have lingered over the shopping networks as they advertise gadgets that will give you a new body in three weeks of six minutes a day - you' ll probably like this film. if not, then all i can say is, you are probably carrying around a bucket of toxic sludge, and welcome to it .
the film starts off amusingly enough with large groups of unattractive people romping around the san in their bloomers performing ridiculous exercises and singing cheerful songs about their health. the guests of the san are subjected to a hair - brained but very funny health regimen. however, this gimmick for laughs soon wears off and there is not much of a plot to carry the film once the humor gets old .
passion of mind (2000) — budget, $ 12 million. box office, $ 769, 000. the first english film from belgian director alain berliner... and considering the negative reactions to the script, it showed. he never did another theatrical american film .
this focus on the site and moods of the scientist’s hermitage owes a great deal to thoreau .
( a picaresque fictionalization of responses to the disastrous chemical spill in bhopal in the 1980s) .
, to explore the limitations of masculinist nostalgia as a point of view, some authors of cli - fi have turned inward to dissect the protocol of the nerdy hero .
, and prompted financer lew grade to remark that
it would have been cheaper to lower the atlantic .
the movie running into its own killer iceberg in the box office helped bring about the
still on a high after his hobnob in the last issue with the greatest living film director, neil mccormick nears apoplexy as he gets to extract the closely - guarded secrets of being the finest actor in the world today from daniel day - lewis .
interview in american film (washington, d. c .), september 1990 .
the right stuff (1983) — budget, estimated between $ 19 million to $ 27 million. box office, $ 21, 192, 102. the triple - hit knockout of this film, twice upon a time, and once upon a time in america (the third of which became the unfortunate victim of executive meddling) led to the film' s executive producer alan ladd, jr. to shut down his production company and leave warner bros. , and while he was appointed executive of mgm / ua just a year after the third aforementioned film' s release, he would not personally produce another film until braveheart .
the other side of heaven (2001) — budget, $ 7, 000, 000. box office, $ 4, 760, 014. the film was the highest grossing lds movie at the time, but the take was unable to recoup its fairly high budget. director mitch davis would not direct another film for seven years .
before starting work on the screenplay, my first task was to immerse myself in the research behind the book and to dig deeper for the references needed to recreate the unique world of dr. kellogg’s battle creek sanitarium. visits to battle creek, in the southeast corner of michigan, yielded a mountain of faded photographs and memorabilia. the doctor’s penchant for documenting everything he did and his nose for publicity (he was one of the first to master the “photo op”) gave us over two thousand photographs and technical drawings to work from .
oldboy 2013 — budget, $ 30 million. box office, $ 4, 861, 022. spike lee' s remake of the 2003 park chan wook film was deemed a case of it' s the same, now it sucks and it was the penultimate film for film district before it was absorbed into focus features .
wellville, based on a novel by t. c. boyle, occasionally attains the laughter it seeks. broderick, fonda, and no surprise, hopkins are comical and some of the dialogue is well - written. astute director alan parker should also emerge unscathed .
steam punk the medical gadgetry, theories & practices seem farfetched enough to count .
urltoken gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the modern language association (mla), the chicago manual of style, and the american psychological association (apa) .
in the end, i felt this movie had no point to it and everyone is so weird, but it was still an entertaining watch. great character story film .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
dr. kellogg, dying of a heart attack while trying to prove how healthy he is. (though only in the film. the real - life kellogg lived into his 90s, as the book notes. )
princess mononoke (1997; all box office totals are inflated to the film' s original release date) — budget, 2. 1 billion japanese yen / $ 18. 5 million. box office, $ 2, 298, 191 (eight weeks in the united states), $ 11 million (international), 14. 5 billion japanese yen / $ 127. 5 million (japan; inflated at the time of the film' s release). an attempt by american distributor miramax' s boss harvey weinstein to make edits to this film to get a pg rating in the states prompted studio ghibli producer toshio suzuki to send him a katana with a note saying ,
no cuts !
, on it to prevent the film from suffering the same fate as nausicaä of the valley of the wind and its cut - and - paste translation warriors of the wind. it was a great success in japan and is a critically acclaimed film, but miramax / disney chose to screen it only in arthouse theaters such as the landmark theatres chain (which may have actually helped its reputation) .
production designer brian morris and i had decided that almost all of the interiors of the san would have to be built, as nothing resembling kellogg’s eccentric world existed (in north america at least). our film is set in 1907, and we also had to recreate the town of battle creek, which now has little or no resemblance to the period of our film. and so we began work on building the interior sets and exterior streets at the studios in wilmington, north carolina .
( 22 .) snowpiercer. dir. bong joon ho. cj entertainment, 2013. film; and interstellar. dir. christopher nolan. paramount pictures, 2014. film .
personal best (1982) — budget, $ 16 million. box office, $ 5, 672, 311. the film' s budget went slightly up due to executive meddling. writer / director robert towne also felt that warner bros. did a poor job marketing the film .
the road to el dorado (2000) — budget, $ 95 million. box office, $ 76, 432, 727. the first box - office bomb from dreamworks animation. plans for sequels were cancelled due to its lackluster take, and the series became a stillborn franchise as a result. this is one of several traditionally animated films at the turn of the millennium that sent the genre into the sunset until disney' s the princess and the frog. after this and shark tale 4 years later, director eric
bibo
bergeron' s american directing career sank like a stone; his next theatrical film was french and didn' t come until 2011. el dorado is also the second and last time elton john and tim rice would work together, with their other teamup being on the music for dwa founder jeffrey katzenberg' s final disney film, the lion king, and this film' s failure ensured that the lion king would be more fondly remembered. the rush by katzenberg to get this film out ahead of disney' s the emperor' s new groove (another buddy comedy in mesoamerica) also led animator will finn to defect back to disney and turned the film into an old shame for him (sadly, this move led him to direct home on the range at disney, which was a much bigger bust and derailed his career and 2d animation). el dorado did become a cult classic .
the nut job 2 nutty by nature (2017) — budget, $ 40 million. box office, $ 28, 370, 522 (domestic), $ 43, 421, 149 (worldwide). like its preceding film, it gained toxic reviews from critics, but while the last film did surprisingly well at the box office, this one performed very poorly. the second bomb in a row for animation studio toonbox entertainment, and part of a very bad year for distributor open road films .
the audience becomes aware of kellogg’s presence during the entire scene after george is chased out of the san. like a foucauldian panopticon, kellogg observes his son, and his patients, without being observed. while, as the observer, kellogg possesses power over his son, he also has a weakness for george that springs not from affection, but from a sense of failure. as he remembers george’s undisciplined childhood, kellogg realizes that george’s very existence undermines the doctor’s convictions by demonstrating the shortcomings of his theories. while kellogg promotes “biological living” and physical discipline at the san, he cannot help but think of his failure at home. for all his talk of racial, mental, and spiritual purity, he raises a son who embodies his worst nightmare. in road to wellville, this sense of failure is contrasted with the racist idealism that kellogg conveys to a group of reporters who visit the sanitarium: “as a child i had a dream, a marvelous dream, in which i saw a wild place in the country. dirty children were pouring down the road. the dream gave me the idea for my lifework … the sanitarium. everything here has behind it one ideal: biological living to improve the american race. ”
pollyanna (1960) — budget, $ 2. 5 million. box office, unknown. it got strong reviews despite critics being initially pessimistic, but it failed to make it even halfway to a projected $ 6 million goal gross. walt disney blamed the film' s box office performance on a failure to attract male audiences. no sequels to the movie were produced when it couldn' t perform financially. disney did remake the film for tv as the musical polly in 1989, which managed to get a sequel, polly: comin' home! a year later .
there are three different stories, with minimal connections to one another, followed throughout the film. will lightbody (matthew broderick) is ill so his wife eleanor (bridget fonda) brings him to the san to recover, and to solve their marital problems. anthony hopkins plays the spa' s owner, dr. kellogg, who is plagued by the untimely reappearance of his crazed, adopted son george (dana carvey) .
early on, because of my peculiar brand of obstinacy and my own napoleonic delusions, i refused to have anything to do with the film industry – i wasn’t gong to carry anybody’s jockstrap, by god. also, i understood something intuitively that seems to escape many of my contemporaries: novelists write novels, and directors direct films. all well and good. as a novelist, you have two options: to sell the film rights of a given book, thereby relinquishing control over the film version, or retain the rights and have your widow toss the manuscript atop your coffin as they lower you into the earth. (no fear: as soon as your seventy - eight years are up there’ll be competing film versions of all your books, early and late, and nobody to say different. look at wharton. austen, james. james, for christ’s sake! )
remo williams the adventure begins (1985) — budget, unknown. box office, $ 15 million. this film of the destroyer novels is its only cinematic outing. the book series survives to this day with new authors .
“i come here to look at the nude ladies. i like nude ladies. ”
a tribute to the late tab hunter, a gay matinee idol and hollywood trailblazer .
kellogg: take mister lightbody immediately to the yogurt room and give him fifteen gallons .
the rocketeer (1991) — budget, $ 40 million (not counting marketing costs). box office, $ 46. 7 million. this film was released in the shadow of terminator 2: judgement day and it had the walt disney pictures tag attached to it but deemphasized the studio' s involvement in advertising to avoid turning off older audiences (international releases put it under touchstone pictures instead). it did do very well on video, gaining an additional $ 23 million, but it wasn' t enough to prevent the intended film series from being grounded. the film' s video performance and tv airings ultimately led to director joe johnson directing spiritual successor captain america: the first avenger for the rocketeer' s 20th anniversary and ultimately led to the sequel getting greenlit at last in 2016 .
the racist associations between people of color and jungle animals that occur in the “red onion” scene are prevalent throughout kellogg’s writings and road to wellville. in plain facts, kellogg states that there is an inverse relationship between intelligence and savagery: “as the intellect is developed, the animal passions are brought into subjection … the animal passions seem to survive when all higher intelligence is lost. ” 33 he believed that those who lived like savages, i. e. , “non - white” peoples who had not been “christianized, ” were unintelligent, and therefore beastly in behavior. he cites various examples of savagery in his works, such as the infanticidal “jaggers of guinea, who devour their own children, ” and “the uncouth negro who haunts the jungles of southern africa. ” 34 in road to wellville, parker lampoons kellogg’s bizarre racist assumptions through george’s humorous animal - like expressions and behavior. not only does george eat like a pig, but he also inhabits a pig sty. at one point in the film, george fills his father’s cereal boxes with human excrement, and throws them at the guests, jumping up and down in an almost simian fashion. in another scene, george overhears a conversation about the origins of kellogg’s enema: “i heard the doctor got the idea for the enema in india … no, no, i believe africa … india, africa, what’s the difference, they are both the same … apes eat and defecate simultaneously. they don’t suffer from the same ailments as the civilized bowel … we are far too house - trained. ” the conflation of indians and africans not only illustrates the extent to which these individuals were interchangeable and expendable in american society, but it also conveys the extent to which many americans associated, and still associate, peoples of color with “incivility, ” savagery, sub - humanity, and bestial behavior .
night of the demons 2009 — budget, $ 10 million. box office, $ 64, 040. originally premiering at the london frightfest in 2009, this film ultimately came direct - to - dvd .
in the lap of the gods and the hands of the beatles, st. louis, 1990 .
popeye (1980) — budget, $ 20 million. box office, $ 49, 823, 037 (domestic), $ 60 million (worldwide). even with this high gross, paramount and co - producer disney considered this movie to be a flop due to not reaching the expected gross target, plus it received mixed reviews from critics. subsequently, paramount bosses michael eisner and jeffrey katzenberg would jump to disney within 5 years. screenwriter jules feiffer did not have another screenwriting credit on a full - length film until the end of the decade (and that movie is feiffer' s last film), and it' s the last film robert evans produced before a cocaine trafficking conviction sent his life and career downhill for the 1980' s. no other attempts to bring popeye to the big screen have materialized since this film .
. and that' s not even counting the advertising budget. dreamworks animation had already been suffering from previous box office stings, but this film delivered the biggest blow to the studio. after the studio predicted it would make a $ 49 million loss at theaters
kellogg’s racial theory, and thus the racial theory in road to wellville, is based on the work of sir francis galton, who, in 1883, invented the term eugenics to express the “science of improving stock, especially in the case of man, to give the more suitable [ i. e. , “white” ] races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing, over the less suitable, than they otherwise would have had. ” 5 as net migration to the united states reached the twenty million mark in 1920, many “progressive” americans, including john harvey kellogg and president theodore roosevelt, feared that the “great protestant - american race, ” which allegedly possessed superior genetic qualities, might be drowned by an “invasion” of inassimilable, and “uncivilized, ” immigrants from asia, eastern europe, and central america. 6 by invoking the eugenic specter of race suicide, the pre - existing fear of black - white miscegenation and class - mixing, and the takeover of modern society by defective degenerates and “foreigners” who would out - breed the established white anglo - saxon stock, popular authors were able to convince americans that the influx of these “new” immigrants would affect the national gene pool. 7
robocop 3 (1993) — budget, $ 22 million. box office, $ 10, 696, 210. killed the film franchise for over 21 years before the 2014 continuity reboot, which also flopped (at least domestically) and again killed the film franchise .
in road to wellville, parker uses the comedic techniques of blackface and role - playing to create a “racial double”: that is, a “white” character (george kellogg) who, through class and race - oriented constructions, represents the token inclusion of a black character in the essentially white society depicted in the film. 17 george’s role as a “person of color” stems from his personal history. in the film, the kelloggs adopt forty - two children and raise them to be examples of “race betterment” by teaching them the proper rules of diet, exercise, and sexual abstinence. to prove his eugenic theories are valid, dr. kellogg adopts a prostitute’s son, names him george, and tries to “convert” him to a model of white racial superiority. as george attests: “my mother was a chicago whore … she died one night, and then weeks later the good doctor found me in the slum, cowering over her dead body. he cleaned me up and took me home, but i’m not that clean now am i? ” the fact that george is the son of a prostitute from a working - class chicago neighborhood, where people of color mixed freely with “lower - class” whites, automatically renders him “black” in both race and class. moreover, his unsavory background opens up a space in the viewer’s imagination for racialized and sexualized encounters in the dark streets of chicago .
the other sister (1999) — budget, $ 35 million. box office, $ 27, 807, 627 (domestic). this glurge - laden film' s failure, along with mandeville films' founder david hoberman temporarily going to work for hyde park entertainment for the next few years, led to mandeville not getting another film into theaters for 5 years .
building on a longstanding conversation in science fiction studies, the capitalocene question for cli - fi is why and whether it is easier to imagine the end of the world through climate - induced flooding than it is to ponder life after capitalism, to paraphrase fredric jameson .
reach the rock (1998) — budget, unknown. box office, $ 4, 960. the last film distributed by gramercy pictures without the aid of polygram pictures .
upon her arrival, will’s wife, eleanor, is diagnosed as having “an acute case of autointoxication and neurasthenia, brought on by the loss of a child. ” one year prior to their stay at the san, the lightbodies became the parents of a baby girl. while the film does not disclose the reason for the infant’s death, it does convey the fact that at the time of the baby’s birth, will was an alcoholic, who was also addicted to the “juice of the poppy” [ i. e. , opium ]. kellogg informs the couple that will’s vices led to degeneracy and the child’s health: “if sterility does not result from vice, the children of degenerates are liable to be delicate, puny, and decrepit … sometimes, the unfortunate result is the death of degenerate offspring. ” to save society from another george kellogg, maintain the “racial purity” of the san, and illustrate the vengefulness of kellogg’s ideology, the lightbody’s child must be killed in the film. as eleanor states, “by the time you sobered up will, our child was dead. now we have nothing left. ”
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all this by way of saying that i’m not a player. not then, not now. never have been, never will be. so when alan parker made his offer on my 1993 novel, the road to wellville, i was pleased to meet with him and his producers for a celebratory dinner, presided over by our mutual agents, jane sindell and sally willcox, of creative artists agency, because there was never any question of my participation. alan, at that point, already knew much ore more than i did about the subject (turn of the century battle creek, michigan, and dr john harvey kellogg’s famed sanitarium). the subject lit alan up, and he is a brilliant and tireless researcher. he liked me because i’d written a book he loved and given him the story and setting for the film to follow the commitments, in his career, and i liked him because he’d made at least three of my all - time favourite movies .
paint your wagon (1969): budget: $ 20 million. box office: $ 31. 7 million. although it was the sixth highest - grossing film of the year, it came out when movie musicals were on the decline and it failed to make back its high budget. clint eastwood and lee marvin' s singing abilities bared the brunt of the film' s negative reviews, though the latter' s rendition of the ballad
wandrin' star
became a surprise hit in europe. this was the final film for director joshua logan and would be memorably parodied in the simpsons in 1998. one bright side is that the film' s troubled production gave eastwood valuable experience for his later directorial career .
tony was the darling of the british crew, sharing as they did, many an in - joke from past movies. much has been written about tony and his dedication to alcoholics anonymous. his easy bonhomie and friendly shenanigans with the crew—hamming it up, sharing their jokes and licorice all - sorts (in a bag taped to the front of the camera dolly ,) hid a much darker side which, thankfully, we didn’t witness on wellville. tony’s own secret shadows of the soul are now kept in check with enormous discipline .
nothing but the truth (2008) — budget, $ 11 million. box office, $ 409, 832 (worldwide). its production company, yari film group, filed for bankruptcy the month it was supposed to open in the us. it went straight - to - dvd there and limped into theaters around the world .
the obama effect (2012) — budget, $ 10 million. box office, $ 110, 000. the last film directed by charles s. dutton to date; it was also his only writing credit .
in an effort to distinguish what was said by the fictitious kellogg from what was said by the “real” kellogg, i will preface a quote from the “real” kellogg with the name of the work from which it comes, and follow the quote with a footnote. all quotes that are not followed by a footnote come from the film. [ ↩ ]
return to the blue lagoon (1991) — budget, $ 11 million. box office, $ 2, 807, 854. an old shame for star milla jovovich. director william graham never worked on another theatrical film after this one crashed, writer leslie stevens only wrote one other cinematic film, gordy, before he died, and no further attempts to make a the blue lagoon feature film adaptation have surfaced since, though a quasi - remake was produced for tv in 2012 .
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pippi longstocking (1997) — budget, $ 11. 5 million. box office, $ 505, 335. one of two attempts in north america to adapt the literary classic. however, hbo executives were impressed enough by the film to launch a television series based on it .
no good deed 2002 — budget, $ 12 million. box office, $ 181, 600 (faints). was unfortunate enough to have a very limited release (402 theaters). it was the last film that bob rafelson has directed to date .
rock a doodle (1991) — budget, $ 18 million. box office, $ 11, 657, 385. this film sank don bluth' s studio into bankruptcy, though it would survive to make three more critical and commercial busts (thumbelina, a troll in central park, and the pebble and the penguin), and turned star glen campbell into a laughingstock; campbell would never return to the big screen again. it also led to child actor toby scott granger, who played the lead child in this film, to fade out from the entertainment business within 5 years; he only really appeared in a few disney sing along songs videos after this. finally, christopher plummer, who voiced the villain of the film, did not do another theatrically released animated film until 2009; one of his movies that year was as the villain of pixar' s up .
once this historian dined with, among others, a five - year - old child. throughout three courses the child sat stern - faced, doggedly repeating the words
poo, bum, willy .
he seemed to take no pleasure in this act. he was merely playing out a grim compulsion to keep saying the words in front of a group of adults too liberal to give him a clip round the ear. were this five - year - old child to write a screenplay, it would come out just like the road to wellville. poo is flung at characters. bums are wobbled around full - screen. will lightbody obsesses about his willy. in one excruciating scene, during which he undergoes colonic irrigation, all three elements are combined. another scene is constructed solely so that fictional entrepreneur charles ossining (john cusack) can say :
with friends like you, who needs enemas ?
some scatological content is historically justified. still, the film' s joyless repetition of
poo, bum, willy
soon becomes like chinese water torture. which, history fans may like to know, is not chinese at all. it was invented in italy during the early 16th century by the lawyer hippolytus de marsiliis.
the road to wellville is a 1994 american comedy-drama film adaptation of t. coraghessan boyle 's novel of the same name , which tells the story of the doctor and clean-living advocate john harvey kellogg and his methods employed at the battle creek sanitarium at the beginning of the 20th century . the film was written and directed by alan parker . the film stars anthony hopkins as dr. kellogg , matthew broderick as william lightbody , bridget fonda as his spouse eleanor , john cusack as charles ossining , dana carvey as the doctor 's adopted son george , and colm meaney as dr. lionel badger . it was filmed in new paltz , new york at the mohonk mountain house . other locations were the north carolina towns of winnabow and wilmington . 
the road to wellville is a 1994 american comedy-drama film adaptation of t. coraghessan boyle's novel of the same name, which tells the story of the doctor and clean-living advocate john harvey kellogg and his methods employed at the battle creek sanitarium at the beginning of the 20th century. the film was written and directed by alan parker. the film stars anthony hopkins as dr. kellogg, matthew broderick as william lightbody, bridget fonda as his spouse eleanor, john cusack as charles ossining, dana carvey as the doctor's adopted son george, and colm meaney as dr. lionel badger. it was filmed in new paltz, new york at the mohonk mountain house. other locations were the north carolina towns of winnabow and wilmington.
the road to wellville is a 1994 american comedy-drama film adaptation of t. coraghessan boyle's novel of the same name, which tells the story of the doctor and clean-living advocate john harvey kellogg and his methods employed at the battle creek sanitarium at the beginning of the 20th century. the film was written and directed by alan parker. the film stars anthony hopkins as dr. kellogg, matthew broderick as william lightbody, bridget fonda as his spouse eleanor, john cusack as charles ossining, dana carvey as the doctor's adopted son george, and colm meaney as dr. lionel badger. it was filmed in new paltz, new york at the mohonk mountain house. other locations were the north carolina towns of winnabow and wilmington.