If I had to sum up the Peanut Butter Falcon in one word it
would be “sweet”. Like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn it’s a story about finding friendship
and running away on a homemade raft. But where Huck Finn held up a mirror to society and showed flaws about the
treatment of blacks, Falcon is concerned with individual growth through
redemption. Two men with different lives form a bond by escaping their problems’
through the marshy Outer Banks along the Carolina coast in search of a
different life.
Zak (Zack Gottsagen) is a young man with Down’s Syndrome who
lives in a nursing home with other elderly patients and tries on multiple occasions
to escape. He has no family so the state put him in the facility although he
isn’t happy about it. As he says to his case worker Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) in
one scene “I’m young, And I’m not old”. His roommate Carl (Bruce Dern) sympathizes
with the desire to leave. One night Carl helps Zak escape through the bars of
his room and head off into the night. While running around Zak stumbles upon a
fishing boat owned by a crabber, Tyler (Shia LaBeouf) with a penchant for
stealing from other crabbers. Tyler gets into a fight with the other fisherman
and sets their gear on fire, setting of a chase through the tributaries of the
Carolina coastline. While hiding he discovers Zak hidden under a tarp.
From this point the movie begins to feel Huck Finnish, both
men running away from something and depending on each other in the process. Zak
isn’t capable of living along and Tyler is a broken man trying to forget about
his dead brother. The film hints that he was responsible for his brother’s
death. It’s a burden he carries around like the tattered ruck sack on his back.
Zak wears nothing but underwear since his escape, a symbol of his total
dependence on others for help. Tyler eventually gives him pants and boots, a
sign of manhood and independence. Zak desperately wants to go to a wrestling
school run by a former pro named “Saltwater Redneck” and become a “Bad Ass”. Tyler wants to go to Florida and run a charter
service. He agrees to take Zak to the town where the wrestling school is
supposedly housed.
Tyler teaches Zak how to fight, how to fire a shotgun and how
to fish. Their collective pasts keep catching up with them at various times.
The crabbers who Tyler stole from catch him in cabin and set his raft alight
before Zak appears with a shotgun to scare them away. Eleanor finds the pair on
a beach one morning after a night of drinking homemade liquor. She tries unsuccessfully
to bring Zak back to the nursing home but neither Zak nor Tyler is having it.
Besides, Tyler is struck by her and convinces her to join the pair on their
rafting crusade to find the wrestling school for Zak.
The materials for the raft they eventually build came from a
blind preacher that nearly shot them as they drifted onto his property looking
for a boat to steal. He agreed to let them built it in exchange for an old
style baptism down at the water’s edge. After that scene Tyler seems to let go as
the redemptive nature of baptism washes away the guilt for his brother. I may
be assuming some of this because it never shows him going under the water. But
a lot of his weariness melts away and he becomes a more sympathetic character.
It’s impossible not to root for Zak. He is completely alone
in the world. He lacks independence and has little understanding of the world
outside the home. He desperately needs a friend, a “Bro Dawg” as he calls it.
He has some pain from being called a ‘retard’ by people in his past. He is passionate
about wrestling and believes he can become a superstar. The film’s title is
taken from a scene where Tyler tells Zak that he needs a wrestling name. It’s a
beginning of sorts for him, a new name and a new purpose. They settle on the ‘Peanut Butter
Falcon’. I won’t give away the ending but this is a movie for everyone.
At its core is a
story that shows how we all need each other.
I highly recommend.
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