"But why ornithology?"
"I like the uniform."
-Ernie Souchak and Nell Porter
Thirty years ago this month, John Belushi tragically died of a drug overdose. Like Robert Shaw and John Candy, Belushi was a wonderful and underrated talent who was taken from us too soon.
He deservedly became famous with his work on Saturday Night Live, but it was National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) that made him a film star. That film is one of the few to give bodily humor a good name and Belushi's character, Bluto, became ingrained into the minds of filmgoers.
Continental Divide, however, showed people that there was more to Belushi's acting than just playing a college delinquent who thought the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.
Here, he played Chicago Sun-Times columnist Ernie Souchak, whose work has both its fans and detractors. His fame comes in handy when muggers recognize him, giving police time to arrive. Ironically, those very cops put Souchak in a hospital due to their unhappiness with his work.
This hospital stay prompts his editor to give Souchak a change of pace by sending him to the Rocky Mountains to interview reclusive ornithologist Nell Porter (Blair Brown).
Souchak is against this due to his love for the city life and his unfamiliarity with the country. Although they argue at first, Sourchak and Porter slowly fall in love the more they adjust to each other's personalities. This love wins out despite the fact that they are in their professional depth at opposite ends of the country.
This film reminds me a bit of Crocodile Dundee(1986), in that it deals with a reporter who goes into unfamiliar territory only to find happiness with one of the locals.
In the cases of both films, the romance is played in a nice way which doesn't hammer into our skulls that our two leads just have to get in bed together (and the pathetic way other subsequent comedies have tried to put irony into the proceedings by having them hate each other when they first meet). The fact that the two evenutal lovebirds are likeable-in contrast to, say, Tomcats(2001)-is another reason we hope this love story ends on a happy note.
In addition to being proof that Belushi could play a 'straight man' role, this film was the first to be produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment company (although Amblin would become better known once it got its logo of E.T. and Elliott on their bicycle). The film would also prove a good thing for its screenwriter, Lawrence Kasdan, because it was his Divide script which would convince Spielberg and George Lucas that he was the best choice to write the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
The less said about Belushi's next and final film-Neighbors (1981)-the better, but Divide should stand proudly alongside Animal House and The Blues Brothers (1980) as proof of how good he really was.
