Racing With The Moon

Originally I had intended to watch this movie-- which follows the exploits of two rambunctious young men about to ship off World War II-- as part of a double feature with Cage's subsequent film Birdy, about two young men who return from Vietnam severally mentally and physically scarred. Unfortunately Birdy proved extremely difficult to acquire, so consider this Part One: Let's Drink Some Coke Before The Horrors of War Destroy Our Innocence and That of Our Nation's.

To be fair, Racing With the Moon certainly aspires to be more than a sepia-toned romp through Nostalgia Towne, and to some extent it succeeds. Yet its desire for both realistic, hard-hitting emotions and hilarious hi-jinks make for a somewhat uneven tone: when the scene in which two poor 17-year olds are being threatened by the pool sharks they tried to hustle to get the money to pay for a desperately needed abortion is played for laughs and scored with a jaunty swing beat the audience cannot but be somewhat confused.

Less confusing is Cage, who spends much of this film engaged in his traditional pursuits of wearing a wifebeater, swigging from a flask, and occasionally screaming curse-filled monologues at innocent bystanders.  He is one of the aforementioned 17-year olds, Nicky, the stalwart best friend of the protagonist, Henry "Hopper" Nash (Sean Penn). Hopper and Nicky are shipping out for war in a month, and the movie follows them as they wile away their pre-combat time walking through their Norman Rockwell painting of a town, leaping over white picket fences with their faithful dog, eating pie at the diner, and plotting how to get laid.

Although this lands Nicky with some unintended consequences, Hopper ends up happily in love with a spritely brunette he spies at the library. After stealthily jumping on the back bumper of the bus she is riding, Hopper sees she lives in a huge Victorian mansion, and thus is what he and Nicky dub a "Gatsby girl".  For a moment, this seems to presage Valley Girl-style class conflict, as Hopper and Nicky come from less distinguished backgrounds-- the son of a gravedigger and abusive alcoholic ne'er-do-well, respectively-- and both have unglamorous jobs setting pins at the bowling alley (in fact, earlier in the film some "rich bastards" [distinguished from regular bastards by their plutocratic argyle sweaters] were shouting insults at them as they worked until Hopper ran up the lane and-- prepare to be shocked--punched the leader in the face).

But everything goes smoothly between Hopper and Caddie, and soon they are playing "Heart and Soul" duets together and making sweet love by the pond. Unfortunately, Nicky's girl's "trouble" begins to loom larger, and after failing to win the money at pool, Nicky feels he has no choice but to ask Caddie for a loan, which he does with characteristic tact by suddenly shouting "DAMMIT CADDIE, I NEED 150 DOLLARS!" with no explanation, then storming away. After Hopper explains the situation, Caddie pledges to help, but there is a nervous look in her eyes that belies her dark secret: she is not the rich girl she is assumed to be, but merely the daughter of a wealthy family's live-in maid.

Luckily her employer's daughter is an extremely understanding girl Caddie's age, who gets her the money easily, but the incident sparks first a fight between Caddie and Hopper (of the "You only liked me because you thought I was rich!" variety) then Hopper and Nicky (of the "You're always making a mess of your life and I have to get you out of it!" variety). After some encouraging words from his dad, Hopper is ready to make amends, which he does first with Nicky-- in a Hemingway-esque conversation full of emotions conveyed through terseness and repetition: "We gotta stick together, Nicky. We gotta stick together." "Yeah... yeah"-- and then with Caddie by buying her shoes (Oh, women! What won't you forgive for a new pair of heels?)

Soon enough time has come for the boys to ship off, and after saying their goodbyes they have one more instance of youthful shenanagins as the train begins to pull away from the station and they have to run alongside it and leap onto the side ladders, as the jaunty music strikes up again to send them off to their next adventure...WAR!

This movie was a good sight Cagier than the last, both in terms of screen time and extent of distinctive Cage flavor. Sean Penn proved an excellent foil, sharing enough of Cage's slightly unbalanced intensity to make them believable friends (let's not forget it was his character who punched the rich kid in the face) yet maintaining a practicality that grounds Cage's wilder moments, such as when Nicky decides to have an eagle tattooed on his chest (The beginning of the scene is viewable here, from 2:10-3:14, although the best part is later when Nicky is drunk and Hopper has to pull him away from picking a fight with a tattoo artist.) It will be interesting to see what happens in the next movie, where the dynamic is reversed and Cage plays the sane one, who has to take care of his bird-obsessed friend. Watch for Part Two of our series, Cage at War... coming soon.