''Holes'' is a 2003 American

neo-Western The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referre ...

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by Andrew Davis and written by Louis Sachar, based on his novel of the same name, originally published in August 1998. The film stars

Sigourney Weaver Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gramm ...

Jon Voight Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award–nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). During the 1970s, h ...

Patricia Arquette Patricia Tiffany Arquette (born April 8, 1968) is an American actress. She made her feature film debut as Kristen Parker in '' A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors'' (1987). Her other notable films include '' True Romance'' (1993), '' Ed ...

Tim Blake Nelson Timothy Blake Nelson (born May 11, 1964) is an American actor and playwright. Described as a "modern character actor", his roles include Delmar O'Donnell in '' O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' (2000), Gideon in '' Minority Report'' (2002), Dr. Pend ...

and Shia LaBeouf. The film was produced by Chicago Pacific Entertainment in association with

Phoenix Pictures Phoenix Pictures is an American film production company that has produced films since the late 1990s with features including ''Black Swan'' (2010), '' Shutter Island'' (2010), ''The People vs. Larry Flynt'' (1996), '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), a ...

, presented by

Walden Media Walden Media, LLC or Walden Media is an American film investor, distributor, and publishing company. Its films are based on children's literature, biographies or historical events, as well as documentaries and some original screenplays. The corpo ...

and

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...

, and distributed in many markets by the

distribution company Distribution (or place) is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. Distribution is the process of making a product or service available for the consumer or business user who needs it. This can be done directly by the producer or service p ...

Buena Vista Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to: Places Canada *Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the name being originally derived from “Buena Vista” *Buena Vista, Saskatchewan * Buena Vista, Saskatoon, a neighborhood in ...

. ''Holes'' was released in the United States on April 18, 2003, earning $71.4 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its cast, faithfulness to its source material, and sense of nostalgia. The film is dedicated to Scott Plank, who died in a car accident six months before the film's release in October 2002.

Plot

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, the Yelnats family has been cursed to be unlucky, which they blame on their ancestor Elya's failure to keep a promise to fortune teller Madame Zeroni over a century earlier in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. One day, Stanley Yelnats IV is wrongfully convicted of stealing a pair of sneakers that were donated to charity by

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston, and is sentenced to 18 months at Camp Green Lake, a

juvenile detention camp In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC),Stahl, Dean, Karen Kerchelich, and Ralph De Sola. ''Abbreviations Dictionary''. CRC Press, 20011202. Retrieved 23 August 2010. , . juvenile de ...

, in lieu of jail time. Stanley arrives to find that the camp is a dried-up lake run by warden Louise Walker, her assistant Mr. Sir, and camp counselor Dr. Pendanski. Prisoners, known by their nicknames—including Zero, Zig-Zag, Armpit, Squid, X-Ray, and Magnet—spend each day digging holes in the desert; they may earn a day off if they find anything interesting inside the holes. One night, Mr. Sir rescues Stanley from a yellow-spotted lizard, which he warns Stanley are aggressive, venomous, and lethal. After finding a golden lipstick tube initialed K.B. and a fossil, Stanley is accepted into the group and given the nickname Caveman. After taking the blame for Magnet's stealing of Mr. Sir's sunflower seeds, Stanley is taken to the warden's house, where old wanted posters and newspapers lead him to realize that "KB" stands for Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow, a schoolteacher turned outlaw from the past. Walker asks Stanley to grab her box of nail polish and mentions that it contains rattlesnake venom. After he and Mr. Sir explain what happened with the sunflower seeds, Walker injures Mr. Sir and allows Stanley to return to his hole. Camp Green Lake's history is revealed in a series of flashbacks as a flourishing lakeside community in the 19th century. Barlow is wooed by the wealthy Charles "Trout" Walker, whom she rejects, and by an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

onion seller named Sam, whom she loves. One night, the jealous, racist Walker and the town's citizens burn down the schoolhouse and murder Sam. In retaliation, Barlow kills the local sheriff, who ignored her pleas for help, and becomes an outlaw hunting down Walker's men; at one point, she steals a chest of gold from Stanley Yelnats Sr., Elya's son. Twenty years later, the now-bankrupt Walkers track Barlow down and tell her to hand over her treasure. Barlow refuses and tells them to dig for it, after which she dies from a lizard bite and the Walkers set about digging for the treasure. In the present, when Pendanski mocks Zero, whose name is actually Hector Zeroni, the latter hits Pendanski with a shovel and runs off. After some deliberation, Stanley searches for Hector. The pair have difficulty surviving in the desert without water. Eventually, Stanley carries the ailing Hector up the mountain, where they find a wild field of onions and a source of water, helping them regain strength; at the same time, Stanley unknowingly fulfills his ancestor's promise to the fortune teller and breaks the curse. While camping on the mountain, Hector tells Stanley that he stole Livingston's sneakers and threw them over the bridge to evade the police, only for them to inadvertently hit Stanley's head. Returning to the camp, Stanley and Hector investigate the hole where Stanley found the lipstick and discover a chest before they are discovered by Walker, Mr. Sir, and Pendanski. They soon realize that Walker, who is Trout's granddaughter, is using the inmates to search for Barlow's treasure. The adults are unable to steal the chest from the boys, as the hole has swarmed with lizards, which do not bite Stanley and Hector due to the onions they ate earlier. The adults, puzzled, wait for the lizards to kill the boys. The next morning, the attorney general and Stanley's lawyer arrive, accompanied by Texas Rangers; the chest Stanley found is discovered to have belonged to his namesake great-grandfather. Walker; Mr. Sir, who is revealed to be a paroled criminal named Marion Sevillo; and Pendanski, who is a criminal impersonating a doctor, are arrested. Stanley and Zero are released and it rains in Green Lake for the first time in over 100 years. The Yelnats family claims the chest, which contains jewels, deeds, and promissory notes, which they share with Hector, who uses it to hire private investigators to find his missing mother, and both families live a life of financial ease as neighbors.

Cast

* Shia LaBeouf as Stanley "Caveman" Yelnats IV * Khleo Thomas as Hector "Zero" Zeroni * Brenden Jefferson as Rex "X-Ray" Washburn *

as Warden Louise Walker *

as Marion "Mr. Sir" Sevillo *

as Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow *

as Dr. Kiowa "Mom" Pendanski * Jake M. Smith as Alan "Squid" * Byron Cotton as Theodore "Armpit" Johnson * Miguel Castro as José "Magnet" * Max Kasch as Ricky "Zig-Zag" *

Dulé Hill Karim Dulé Hill (; born May 3, 1975) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as personal presidential aide and Deputy Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff Charlie Young on the NBC drama television series ''The West Wing'', for whi ...

as Sam, The Onion Man *

Henry Winkler Henry Franklin Winkler, OBE (born October 30, 1945), is an American actor, comedian, author, executive producer, and director. After rising to fame as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli on the American television series '' Happy Days'', Winkler has ...

as Stanley Yelnats III * Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Tiffany Yelnats * Nathan Davis as Stanley Yelnats Jr. * Noah Poletiek as Brian "Twitch" * Rick Fox as Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston * Nicole Pulliam as Mrs. Sweetfeet * Scott Plank as Trout Walker *

Eartha Kitt Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song " Santa ...

as Madame Zeroni *

Roma Maffia Roma Maffia is an American actress. Life and career Roma Maffia grew up in Brooklyn, New York and is of English, German and West Indian descent. Her Italian surname reportedly comes from her stepfather. Maffia began her official acting career ...

as Attorney Carla Morengo *

Zane Holtz Zane-Ray Brodie Holtz (born January 18, 1987) is a Canadian actor and model. He is best known for playing Richie Gecko on the El Rey Network television series '' From Dusk till Dawn: The Series'' (2014–2016) and K.O. Kelly on The CW ''T ...

as Louis "Barf Bag" * Shelley Malil as The Yelnatses' Landlord * Allan Kolman as Stanley Yelnats Sr. * Damien Luvara as Elya Yelnats * Sanya Mateyas as Myra Menke *

Ravil Isyanov Ravil Akhmedullovich Isyanov (russian: Равиль Ахмедуллович Исьянов; 20 August 1962 – 29 September 2021) was a Russian actor who appeared in over 70 film and television roles, primarily in the United States. He was most ...

as Morris Menke * Ken Davitian as Igor Barkov * Steve Koslowski as "Lump" * Michael Cavanaugh as Judge Austin Gorg

Production

''Holes'' was filmed in California in the summer of 2002, and produced with a budget of $20 million. When looking for a child actor to play the role of Stanley, director Andrew Davis asked for an actor like "a young

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

". Shia LaBeouf, who ended up receiving the role, read the script before reading the original novel. In the original book, Stanley is depicted as obese, shedding considerable weight as the book progresses. The filmmakers chose to drop this aspect from the movie, as they believed it would have been difficult to convincingly portray the loss of weight in a live-action film. The film was shot in several locations, including

Ridgecrest, California Ridgecrest is a city in Kern County, California, United States, along U.S. Route 395 in the Indian Wells Valley in northeastern Kern County, adjacent to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS, or China Lake). It was incorporated as a ...

. LaBeouf was simultaneously doing work for the

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...

show ''

Even Stevens ''Even Stevens'' is an American comedy television series that originally aired on Disney Channel from June 17, 2000, to June 2, 2003, airing a total of 65 episodes over three seasons. It follows the life of the Stevens, a family living in subur ...

'', and worked on the film after taping ''Even Stevens''. To show the seven kids' holes being dug gradually throughout the day, different "phases" were used, for each of which the seven holes were given different levels of depth. For the yellow spotted lizards, fourteen

bearded dragon ''Pogona'' is a genus of reptiles containing six lizard species which are often known by the common name bearded dragons. The name "bearded dragon" refers to the underside of the throat (or "beard") of the lizard, which can turn black and gain we ...

s were used, four of which were used for the main parts, and the rest used as "background atmosphere lizards".

Release

The film was released theatrically in the United States on April 18, 2003, by

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, formerly known as Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. until 2007, is an American film distribution studio within the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. It h ...

Music

The film's music includes the

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

-winning single "Just Like You" by Keb Mo', and "Dig It" by The D Tent Boys (the actors portraying the D Tent group inmates), which included a video that was played regularly on the

. The soundtrack also includes contributions by the

Eels Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

, Devin Thompson,

Dr. John Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music encompassed New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B. Active as a session musician from ...

Eagle Eye Cherry Eagle-Eye Lanoo Cherry (born 7 May 1968) is a Swedish singer and stage performer. His 1997 single "Save Tonight" achieved commercial success in Ireland, the United States and the United Kingdom, and was voted song of the year in New Zealand. Cher ...

, Fiction Plane, Little Axe,

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

North Mississippi Allstars North Mississippi Allstars is an American blues and southern rock band from Hernando, Mississippi, founded in 1996. The band is currently composed of brothers Luther Dickinson (guitar, lowebow, vocals) and Cody Dickinson (drums, keyboards, elec ...

Pepe Deluxé Pepe Deluxé is a Finnish electronic music oriented band, formed in 1996 by DJ Slow (Vellu Maurola) JA-Jazz (Tomi Castrén, formerly Paajanen) and James Spectrum (Jari Salo) in Helsinki, Finland. They started to experiment with sounds of hip ho ...

Shaggy Shaggy may refer to: People *Shaggy (musician) (born 1968), Jamaican American reggae rapper and singer *Shaggy 2 Dope, half of the hip hop, horrorcore band Insane Clown Posse *Shaggy Flores (born 1973), Nuyorican poet, writer and African diaspora ...

, Stephanie Bentley, and

Teresa James & the Rhythm Tramps Teresa (also Theresa, Therese; french: Thérèse) is a feminine given name. It originates in the Iberian Peninsula in late antiquity. Its derivation is uncertain, it may be derived from Greek θερίζω (''therízō'') "to harvest or r ...

. The score was composed and conducted by Joel McNeely. # "Dig It" – D-Tent Boys # "Keep'n It Real" –

# "Mighty Fine Blues" –

# "

Honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

" –

# "I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday" –

# "Just Like You" – Keb' Mo' # "Everybody Pass Me By" –

# "I Will Survive" – Stephanie Bentley # "Shake 'Em On Down" –

# "Don't Give Up" –

# "Happy Dayz" – Devin Thompson # "Let's Make A Better World" –

# "If Only" – Fiction Plane # "Eyes Down" – Eels # "Down To The Valley" – Little Axe

Reception

Box office

''Holes'' grossed $16.3 million in its opening weekend, finishing #2 at the box office behind ''

Anger Management Anger management is a psycho-therapeutic program for anger prevention and control. It has been described as deploying anger successfully.Schwarts, Gil. July 2006. Anger Management', July 2006 The Office Politic. Men's Health magazine. Emmaus, PA: ...

''s second weekend. It went on to gross a domestic total of $67.4 million and an additional $4 million in international revenue, totaling $71.4 million at the box office, against a $20 million budget, making the film a moderate financial success. The film was released in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

on October 24, 2003, and opened at #9.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 139 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Faithful to its literary source, this is imaginative, intelligent family entertainment." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film has a 71 out of 100 rating, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' rated the film 3.5 of four stars and wrote, "Davis has always been a director with a strong visual sense, and the look of ''Holes'' has a noble, dusty loneliness. We feel we are actually in a limitless desert. The cinematographer, Stephen St. John, thinks big and frames his shots for an epic feel that adds weight to the story. I walked in expecting a movie for thirteen somethings, and walked out feeling challenged and satisfied. Curious, how much more grown up and sophisticated ''Holes'' is than ''

''", which was released the same month.

Awards

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Holes 2003 films 2000s Western (genre) comedy films American Western (genre) comedy films Neo-Western films 2000s adventure comedy-drama films 2000s buddy films American adventure comedy-drama films American buddy films American comedy-drama films American mystery films 2000s English-language films Films directed by Andrew Davis Films based on children's books Films about curses Films about lizards Films set in the 1850s Films set in the 1890s Films set in the 1900s Films set in the 1990s Films set in Texas Films shot in California Films shot in Los Angeles Films about interracial romance American prison films Walt Disney Pictures films Walden Media films Films based on American novels Films scored by Joel McNeely Phoenix Pictures films Films set in deserts Films based on young adult literature American children's comedy films Films about child labour Films about juvenile delinquency 2000s American films Magic realism films