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Bottle Rocket (1996) 95 minutes (Columbia) Written by Owen C. Wilson and Wes Anderson. Directed by Wes Anderson. "Uh, do you have any bigger bags for atlases and dictionaries, sir?"  At
first glance, Bottle Rocket is an innocuous comedy about a couple
of numbskulls-turned-thieves: two newly sprung mental patients (lifelong
friends) embark on a burglary spree whose initial proceeds net all of a
few day’s stay at a budget hotel. Thanks to the mercilessly arrogant and
tactical Dignan (played by Owen C. Wilson), the duo’s suburban battle plans
are on the order of The Dirty Dozen. Their operations, however,
resemble fourth grade recess wars, complete with ego skirmishes and histrionic
mutinies. As in director Wes Anderson’s other recent films (The
Royal Tannenbaums and Rushmore), nothing in Bottle Rocket
quite
adds up to normal. But it’s close. And that is the first even
remotely philosophical query this movie makes. In that small but
discomforting differential between the normal and not-quite-normal comes
the question, “What is sanity, anyway?”
For all its slapstick humor, Bottle Rocket ends up posing a decidedly philosophical, even anthropological question. This isn’t just a story about a not-quite normal pair of dreamers. It is about the not-quite normal, American society that created them. In the end, Bottle Rocket may have less to do with numbskull crime or even the borders of sanity than the self-absorption and ennui of suburban life…an ennui so radicalized that it actually catalyzes insanity. For the first half of the film, one can’t help wishing Dignan and Anthony (played by Luke Wilson) would find something useful to do, someone outside of themselves to bring a moment’s meaning to their video-game-like existence. It is Anthony who finally steps (albeit tentatively) into his own journey of significance. And danged if I didn’t want to take that step with him. In between belly laughs, of course. essay by Sally
Morgenthaler
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