Tony Richardson's final film was well-done. Carly Marshall (Jessica Lange) is the wife of military guy Hank Marshall (Tommy Lee Jones) in charge of atomic tests. Due to his frequent absence, she's beginning to lose her grip on mental sanity. Somewhere along the line, she reaches the breaking point, which also makes her see the folly in Hank's propagandistic work. She has no choice but to undermine it.
Jessica Lange finally won a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar for "Blue Sky" (she should have gotten one for "Frances"). Maybe some parts are a little hokey, but it's overall a good movie, looking at the nuclear age and also relationships.
Blue Sky
1994
Action / Drama / Romance
Blue Sky
1994
Action / Drama / Romance
80% - Critics
58% - Audience
6.4Keywords: husband wife relationship1950smental illnessmilitary basedysfunctional marriage
Plot summary
It's the early 1960s. Nuclear engineer Hank Marshall is a major in the US Army, he who works on top secret nuclear testing projects. Trouble follows him from posting to posting largely because of his mentally unstable wife, Carly Marshall, who is bipolar. During her manic phases, her already overt sexuality, which she models after such sex symbols as Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot, is ratcheted up a notch, that partying behavior which is mixed with less frequent phases of physically destructive behavior. Regardless, Hank and Carly love each other, Hank who would admit to himself that he enjoys the fact that other men find Carly attractive, which is partly why he allows her to act the way she does in public. In turn, they mutually love their now two teenaged daughters, Alex and Becky. Reassigned from their two year posting in Hawaii largely due to the ruckus Carly has caused there, they are next sent to Alabama, the base under the command of Vince Johnson, his wife, Vera Johnson, who heads the wives' welcoming committee. At an age of starting to test her own sexuality, Alex starts to date the Johnsons' son, Glenn. Due to no fault of his own, Hank faces some problems in the latest project on which he is working, code named Blue Sky. And Carly continues her regular behavior, which catches Vince's overtly wandering eye. These items in combination lead to the potential of the Marshalls' home life being pulled apart and Hank's career destroyed, both irreparably.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tommy Lee Jones as Hank Marshall
Jessica Lange as Carly Marshall
Chris O'Donnell as Glenn Johnson
Amy Locane as Alex Marshall
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 720.46 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
As "Lange" as the sky is blue...
Reviewed by
Never take a pretty woman...
There is an old Calypso ditty that states "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never take a pretty woman to be your wife." If you want to have a career in the Army, you might also want to avoid bi-polar women.
Tommy Lee Jones (The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) was an Army Major, a nuclear engineer working on atomic tests, that had a gorgeous wife who was a little crazy. Jessica Lange (Broken Flowers) was awesome as his wife and won every award that year for her performance. She deserved every win in a movie that was a testament to love. No matter how crazy, Major Marshall (Jones) was there for her because of his love. And her love brought her out of her disorder long enough to save him.
This was director Tony Richardson's last film and he made it a winner all the way.
Reviewed by
A Bit Rough But Gets Better
Jessica Lange stars in a period drama about a family moving to a military base, and she quickly becomes part of a cover-up involving nuclear bomb tests.
Lange won the 1994 Academy Award for Best Actress, along with the Golden Globe Award and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award. So it seems appropriate to address her role, which is sort of polarizing.
Typically a main character has to be likable for a film to work, and it is hard for Lange to be likable -- she is morally loose, embarrasses her husband and seems to have a general disregard for her family and children. As the film progresses, she makes an effort to redeem herself, but will it be enough? Tommy Lee Jones is also good, playing Lange's supporting character. He goes through a range of emotions, which is interesting... though the scene that would usually be called Oscar-worthy is just sort of sad and disappointing. (I can't say what it is because it would ruin things, but those who have seen the film will know.)