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The article is about the novel and film. For the Central American area see Mosquito Coast
Mosquito Coast

The Caribbean Mosquito Coast historically consisted of an area along the Atlantic coast of present-day Nicaragua, named after its native Miskito and long dominated by United Kingdom interests....
.


The Mosquito Coast (ISBN 0-14-006089-8) is a 1982
1982 in literature

The year 1982 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
 novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
 by Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux

Paul Edward Theroux is an United States travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is, perhaps, The Great Railway Bazaar , a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then...
 and a 1986
1986 in film

Events*April 12 - Actor Morgan Mason marries The Go-Go's Belinda Carlisle*Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger marries television journalist Maria Shriver....
 film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 based on the book. Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford is an United Statesn actor. Ford is best known for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy, and as the Indiana Jones in the Indiana Jones franchise#Films film series....
, Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren

Dame Helen Mirren, Order of the British Empire is a multi-award winnning English actor. She has won an Academy Award, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and four Emmy Awards during her career....
, and River Phoenix
River Phoenix

River Jude Phoenix was an United States film actor. He was listed on John Willis's Screen World, Vol. 38 as one of twelve "promising new actors of 1986", and was hailed as highly talented by such critics as Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel....
 star in the film directed by Peter Weir
Peter Weir

Peter Lindsay Weir Order of Australia is an Australian film director. After exerting a strong influence on the Australian New Wave with his films Picnic at Hanging Rock , The Last Wave and Gallipoli , Weir directed a diverse group of U.S....
. It was shot in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a U.S. state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against United Kingdom rule in the American Revolution....
 (Cartersville
Cartersville, Georgia

Cartersville is a city in Bartow County, Georgia, Georgia , in the United States. It was named after Col. Farish Carter. As of the United States Census, 2000, the city population was 15,925....
 and Rome
Rome, Georgia

Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County....
), Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland in the United States. Baltimore is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay....
, and Belize
Belize

Belize , formerly British Honduras, is a country in Central America. Once part of the Maya civilization, and very briefly the Spanish Empire, it was most recently affiliated with the British Empire, prior to gaining its independence in 1981....
. Although Ford claims he doesn´t like to watch and compare his films, he said that The Mosquito Coast is his favorite.

he Mosquito Coast is an adventure story of a family that leaves the United States and tries to find a happier and simpler life in the jungles of Central America.






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The article is about the novel and film. For the Central American area see Mosquito Coast
Mosquito Coast

The Caribbean Mosquito Coast historically consisted of an area along the Atlantic coast of present-day Nicaragua, named after its native Miskito and long dominated by United Kingdom interests....
.


The Mosquito Coast (ISBN 0-14-006089-8) is a 1982
1982 in literature

The year 1982 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
 novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
 by Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux

Paul Edward Theroux is an United States travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is, perhaps, The Great Railway Bazaar , a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then...
 and a 1986
1986 in film

Events*April 12 - Actor Morgan Mason marries The Go-Go's Belinda Carlisle*Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger marries television journalist Maria Shriver....
 film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 based on the book. Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford is an United Statesn actor. Ford is best known for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy, and as the Indiana Jones in the Indiana Jones franchise#Films film series....
, Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren

Dame Helen Mirren, Order of the British Empire is a multi-award winnning English actor. She has won an Academy Award, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and four Emmy Awards during her career....
, and River Phoenix
River Phoenix

River Jude Phoenix was an United States film actor. He was listed on John Willis's Screen World, Vol. 38 as one of twelve "promising new actors of 1986", and was hailed as highly talented by such critics as Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel....
 star in the film directed by Peter Weir
Peter Weir

Peter Lindsay Weir Order of Australia is an Australian film director. After exerting a strong influence on the Australian New Wave with his films Picnic at Hanging Rock , The Last Wave and Gallipoli , Weir directed a diverse group of U.S....
. It was shot in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a U.S. state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against United Kingdom rule in the American Revolution....
 (Cartersville
Cartersville, Georgia

Cartersville is a city in Bartow County, Georgia, Georgia , in the United States. It was named after Col. Farish Carter. As of the United States Census, 2000, the city population was 15,925....
 and Rome
Rome, Georgia

Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County....
), Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland in the United States. Baltimore is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay....
, and Belize
Belize

Belize , formerly British Honduras, is a country in Central America. Once part of the Maya civilization, and very briefly the Spanish Empire, it was most recently affiliated with the British Empire, prior to gaining its independence in 1981....
. Although Ford claims he doesn´t like to watch and compare his films, he said that The Mosquito Coast is his favorite.

Plot summary

The Mosquito Coast is an adventure story of a family that leaves the United States and tries to find a happier and simpler life in the jungles of Central America. The motivation comes from the father, Allie Fox, who is a character in the classic American mold. A cantankerous inventor, he is articulate, shrewd, scornful, funny, very angry, and slightly cracked. An individualist, Fox sees modern American culture as a despicable combination of the wasteful, the immoral, and the messy. Uprooting his family from their Massachusetts farm home, he takes them off to a primitive world in order to escape what he considers the imminent breakdown of civilization. The Mosquito Coast has been viewed as ironic version of Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe. It was first published in 1719 and sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. The book is a fictional autobiography of the title character, an English castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela, encountering Indigenous peoples of the Americas, captives, and mu...
 or a sardonic Swiss Family Robinson, along with the deeper levels akin to those of The Lord of the Flies.

The story is told by the fourteen year old Charlie, who observes his father with a mixture of love, horror, and astonishment. He describes the voyage, the trip into the interior, his father’s invention of a giant ice-making machine (which is supposed to bring a new era to the jungle), and all of the adventures that ensue. Charlie watches as his father becomes ever more obsessive, evermore lost to reality.

Cast

  • Harrison Ford
    Harrison Ford

    Harrison Ford is an United Statesn actor. Ford is best known for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy, and as the Indiana Jones in the Indiana Jones franchise#Films film series....
     - Allie Fox
  • Helen Mirren
    Helen Mirren

    Dame Helen Mirren, Order of the British Empire is a multi-award winnning English actor. She has won an Academy Award, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and four Emmy Awards during her career....
     - Mother Fox
  • River Phoenix
    River Phoenix

    River Jude Phoenix was an United States film actor. He was listed on John Willis's Screen World, Vol. 38 as one of twelve "promising new actors of 1986", and was hailed as highly talented by such critics as Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel....
     - Charlie Fox
  • Conrad Roberts - Mr. Haddy
  • Andre Gregory
    Andre Gregory

    Andre Gregory is an United States theatre director and actor.Gregory studied at Harvard University.During the 1960s and 1970s, Gregory directed a number of avant-garde productions developed through ensemble collaboration, the most famous of which was Alice , based on Alice in Wonderland....
     - Reverend Spellgood
  • Martha Plimpton
    Martha Plimpton

    Martha Campbell Plimpton is an Emmy Award-nominated United States actress....
     - Emily Spellgood
  • Dick O'Neill
    Dick O'Neill

    Dick O'Neill was an American stage, film and television character actor best known for playing Irish cops, fathers, judges and army generals. He began his acting career as an original company member of Arena Stage in Washington, DC....
     - Mr. Polski
  • Jadrien Steele - Jerry Fox
  • William Newman - Captain Smalls


External links