DIRECTED BY: Mel Gibson

WRITTEN BY: Isabelle Holland (novel), Malcolm MacRury (screenplay)

MEL GIBSON AS: Justin McLeod

GENRE: Drama

TAGLINES:

- A fatherless boy had almost given up all his dreams… until one man believed in him enough to make them come true.

PLOT SUMMARY:

The story of a relationship between a teacher and his troubled pupil. Justin McLeod is a former teacher who lives as a recluse on the edge of town. His face is disfigured from an automobile accident and fire ten years prior in which a boy was incinerated and for which he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He is also suspected of being a pedophile. He is befriended by Chuck, causing the town’s suspicion and hostility to be ignited. McLeod inculcates in his protege a love of justice and freedom from prejudice which sustains him beyond the end of the film. –IMDB

RELEASE DATES:

1993 August 25 (United States)
1993 September 16 (Australia)
1993 November 19 (United Kingdom)
1993 November 25 (Germany)
1993 December 25 (Sweden)
1994 January 26 (France)
1994 March 11 (Spain)
1994 May 20 (Finland)
1994 June 17 (Denmark)
1994 August 24 (Argentina)
1994 November 3 (Hungary)
1995 March 9 (Netherlands)

BOX OFFICE GROSS:

United States: $23,061,599

FILMING LOCATIONS:

Camden, Rockland, Portland, Deer Isle and Bayside, Maine, USA; and Canada.

TRIVIA:

- Mel Gibson cast himself in the role of McLeod only after he was unable to find any other satisfactory actor willing to take the part.

- Mel Gibson’s directorial debut.

- Nick Stahl’s feature-film acting debut.

- The poem about airplanes that McLeod gives to Chuck to read is “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee.

- The scene between Justin and Charles on the mountain overlooking the water was filmed on Bradbury Mountain, located in Pownal, Maine. Because of the steep fall to the water, the mountain has had, for many years, a protective fence on the side facing the water. The filmmakers took down the fence prior to filming and replaced it after.

- The brief shot supposedly of Boston, Mass in the beginning of the film is actually the Portland, Maine waterfront.

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