10 Great Movies About Men In The Wilderness
5. The Mosquito Coast
Earlier we saw how Captain Fantastic depicted the effects of a wild landscape on the male psyche, and consequently on a family. This time Harrison Ford was in the hot seat. Very hot as it turned out, for he transplanted his brood to a Central American village he'd bought.
Helen Mirren co-starred, watching as her inventor husband pushed himself to the brink in an increasingly intense psycho-odyssey. Ford's Allie Fox wanted to make a home amongst the foliage and local characters, contending with the forces of religion in addition to the onset of madness associated with playing God.
Adapted from the novel by Paul Theroux, it was a very different foray into the exotic from the pulp universe of Indiana Jones. Audiences had the dubious pleasure of watching the usually reliable and sturdy screen presence of Ford unravel into mania. The movie is one of the definitive stories of one man attempting the fruitless task of shaping his environment.