''Old Explorers'' is a 1990 American

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film directed by

Bill Pohlad Bill Pohlad is an American film producer and director. He is the son of Mary Eloise (O'Rourke) and billionaire financier Carl Pohlad, who owned the Minnesota Twins baseball franchise from 1984 until his death in 2009; and the brother of Jim Pohla ...

and adapted from a stage play of the same name by James Cada and Mark Keller. It stars

José Ferrer José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime, w ...

and

James Whitmore James Allen Whitmore Jr. (October 1, 1921 – February 6, 2009) was an American actor. He received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award, plus two Aca ...

as two seniors who dream up fantastical adventures. The film was Ferrer’s final film role.

Plot

Warner Watney and Leinen Roth are two retired widowers and friends. Watney lives with his adult son Alex, daughter-in-law Leslie and their growing family, but may soon be going to live at an old-age home. Leinen lives alone in an apartment. The two friends cope with their old age and physical disabilities by getting together and imagining fantastical adventures in search of exotic locales such as

Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...

, the

Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel ''Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, ge ...

in the

Himalayan Mountains The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

, and the

Bermuda Triangle The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an urban legend focused on a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterio ...

. After Leinen survives a stroke, the pair set off on a real-life adventure, joining a tugboat sailing down the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

Cast

as Warner Watney *

as Leinen Roth *Jeffrey Gadbois as Alex Watney *Caroline Kaiser as Leslie Watney *

William Warfield William Caesar Warfield (January 22, 1920 – August 25, 2002) was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor, known for his appearances in stage productions, Hollywood films, and television programs. A prominent African American artist ...

as tugboat captain

Reception

Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' praised the performances of the two lead actors and said, "Individually and especially together, Ferrer and Whitmore are a treat, with the dry humor of Ferrer’s character contrasting amusingly with his more conservative friend." Thomas critiqued the film’s transition from stage to screen and said "the poignance Ferrer and Whitmore generate is undercut by the tedium of talky stretches of theatrical dialogue." He concluded, "There’s no denying, however, that 'Old Explorers' certainly drives home the plight of the aged in our society and that its heroes’ flights of fancy underline the true state of isolation, neglect and lack of respect so frequently accorded even to alert and affluent older Americans." ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' said, "Directed by William M. Pohlad, mostly as a two-character study, 'Old Explorers' says something touching about the quietly growing terror of old age and the use of childlike imagination to--if only momentarily--forestall it, but it gets lost in the listless, paper-thin adventure sequences, filmed in Arizona and Florida."

References

External links

* * {{rotten-tomatoes, old_explorers 1990 films 1990 directorial debut films 1990 drama films 1990 independent films 1990s buddy drama films American buddy drama films American drama films American films based on plays Films about old age Films shot in Arizona Films shot in Florida Films directed by Bill Pohlad 1990s English-language films 1990s American films