Ulee's Gold

Ulee's Gold

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Editorial Reviews

Sometimes a man's true strength lies in his power to grow from the forces that sting the heart and cut deep into the soul. Peter Fonda (Easy Rider), in 'the performance of his career (Newsweek), received a Best Actor Golden Globe and an Academy Award(r) nomination* for his portrayal of a man who escapes one war only to find himself at battle with an even greater enemyhis wounded spirit. Featuring an uncommonly fine cast (Rolling Stone), Ulee's Gold comes wonderfully close to magic (Los Angeles Times)! Third-generation Florida beekeeper UleeJackson (Fonda) may have gotten out of Vietnam alive, but he left a part of himself behind. Now he methodically tends his bees, carefully provides for those who need him and vigilantly keeps his emotions at bay. But when both his family and his livelihood are threatened by a long-buried secret, Ulee must break through his emotional walls, find the strength to change and begin life anew. *1997: Actor

Director Victor Nunez's richly photographed Ulee's Gold drew critical acclaim for Peter Fonda's and Patricia Richardson's subtle performances--and premiered as the Festival Centerpiece in 1997's Sundance Film Festival. Vividly photographed and set amid southern Florida's tupelo swamps, the film's narrative hinges on the evolution of a more-than-platonic connection between neighbors Ulysses, Ulee for short (Fonda), and Connie (Richardson). Known for her role on TV's Home Improvement, Richardson makes a satisfying foray into film with this appropriately smaller role where she manages to hatch out of potential typecasting. Fonda's independent, stubborn, and reserved Ulee anchors the narrative. He is a bee keeper whose struggling small business is all that keeps him focused in the wake of his wife Penelope's death, his daughter-in-law Helen's (Christine Dunford) drug addiction, and the de facto single-parent obligations he takes on to his adolescent granddaughters. (Notice the Homeric references.) Soon the plot twists, however, in the sociopathy of Eddie and Ferris, friends of Ulee's jailed son--a sociopathy that is also the impetus for the family to confront its dysfunction and for Connie and Ulee to see more in each other than mere neighborliness. Thankfully, Nunez foregoes the bathos of a Hollywood ending and leaves us satisfied on one hand with Helen's healing and Eddie's justice but uncertain, though hopeful, about Ulee's next step. --Erik Macki

Customer Reviews

Ulee, Tupelo, Will Clever Names Never Cease

Reviewed by Rev. E. Antonio Hernandez, 2010-03-06

Ah, I cannot add much here except deeply personal feelings.

This film, a sort of auto-pilot performance by Fonda that still fetched him an Oscar, is classic. Fonda had to do auto-pilot: his character required it.

Fonda is a VietNam hero with a nice family business (bee farmer, specializes in Tupelo honey) and a not-so-nice family. He's raising his grand-daughters alone, since his wife is dead, his daughter-in-law is a druggie prostitute, and his son is serving time for strong-arm robbery. The older grand-daughter hates his guts, as does everyone else except his youngest grand-daughter. He seems let down by the fact that he may have to leave the business to her, and she's only 8 years old.

The treasure-hunt-by-criminals unfolds as the storyline...but it is Fonda who actually catches gradual fire with this performance, as he shows some young ruffians what he learned in Nam, goes on an adventure to find "buried" treasure, makes up with his family and as a by-your-leave gets stabbed by the bad guys in the bargain (no...he survives it).

This film hooked me on several things. It rekindled my love of Peter Fonda. It impressed me that it had little to do with Nam flashbacks or homilies. There's a quiet, desolate, desperate quality, which films have been copying since but can't quite get right. It has flawless peformances. Patricia Richardson ("Home Improvement") makes a wide, impressive splash that I haven't seen anywhere else, and more's the pity. She has acting chops and zero dilettantism.

A great and totally ignored beauty I see in "Ulee's Gold" is Lanier's Bee Farms, of Florida, where the film was mostly filmed...and they kindly allowed filming at their various bee yards. Lanier's produces some of the world's finest Tupelo honey. Find out about Tupelo for yourselves, but GET THIS CLASSIC MOVIE.

The atmosphere itself could be spread on a biscuit for breakfast!

Quietly details the dramas of everyday people...

Reviewed by Chris Wilson, 2009-12-05

Multiple factors come together to make "Ulee's Gold" a great film. First and foremost is the extraordinary performance of Peter Fonda. It was trendy when the film was released in 1997 to trumpet Peter's resemblance to father Henry, but I'm not sure even his dad could have played this role with such subtlety and skill. I think the supporting performances are equally strong, all the way down to the sheriff played by J. Kenneth Campbell.

The on-location shooting in Florida further adds shades to the everyday proceedings. I love films that take you to unique locales and introduce you to characters inhabiting those spaces. "Ulee's Gold" takes us to the world of rural Florida and quietly details the occasionally ugly dramas of everyday people. Victor Nunez, the enormously talented writer/director, was raised in Florida and the detail of a life spent there comes through.

In a small town in the Florida panhandle, a recently widowed beekeeper (Fonda) goes about his daily chores while trying to raise two granddaughters. He drives a beat up truck around town, buys groceries alone and minds his business. His incarcerated son calls from prison and informs him that his wife (Christine Dunford) is in nearby Tampa and needs to be rescued. She's been missing in action for the last year and is now essentially in the throes of drug addiction while living in beat-up motels. Ulee reluctantly makes the long drive to fetch his daughter-in-law and finds her being kept by two hoodlums. He brings her home, where her daughters must witness first-hand the hideous days of withdrawal. A divorced neighbor Connie (Patricia Richardson), who's a nurse, assists Ulee with the difficult supervision. In the meantime, it's honey season, and Ulee goes about his chores with little sleep in the dead of night, finding time to take naps on the hardwood floor because of a bad back. Turns out the hoodlums robbed a bank with Ulee's son and learned of hidden money. They will soon pay a visit to his home.

The essential core of "Ulee's Gold" is the painful attempts of a modest yet noble man to hold the ragged remnants of his family together. He has a difficult teenage granddaughter (Jessica Biel in her debut role) in the throes of hormone struggle and rebellion ("You'll pay for the rest of your life for being a jackass!"). The youngest granddaughter Penny (Vanessa Zima), has yet to be corrupted by life's darkness. Ulee attempts to protect her, bringing her along one afternoon to assist with his beekeeping chores.

There's also a growing, quiet attraction, between Ulee and Connie, and they discuss the frustrations of their lives during a brilliant scene one morning over tea at the breakfast table. Through it all, Fonda's Ulee stands firm through the pains and difficulties of a man far past middle age. His hair is graying, he gingerly puts on his spectacles and limps from humble home to work to can jars and barrels of honey so his family can survive.

What I love about "Ulee's Gold" is its quiet nature. This is a film driven by character rather than action. These are instantly identifiable people - human, flawed, making the best of lives of disappointment. "Ulee's Gold" is inspirational because these characters are us, performing small, difficult actions to make things right, if not bearable. Even when the hoodlums arrive, the thrust of the drama does not go where you expect, and yet the way it plays out feels like life - dumb decisions, tactful maneuvers, quiet decency influencing all.

"Ulee's Gold" is not only the greatest film of Peter Fonda's career, it is one of the greatest films of the decade of the 1990s. It's a perfect example of film-making becoming art, where a cracked vase of flowers possesses the beauty of the universe.

The movie of an American kind to

Reviewed by Hirohisa Sasaki, 2009-10-15

Talk of the old man of the apiarist who protects the family who made the country town in the United States the stage. This is the polite production whose control was very effective, and especially Peter Fonda is wonderful. It becomes a candidate of academy Best Actor on this movie, or having got Best Actor, the Golden Glove Award, also gives a nod of assent. The narrative style of a movie is just going to carry out [ scent / of the U.S. movie of the beginning of the 70s ] that it is deterministically different that it can be dramatic, a great incident cannot be found, either and an indifferent old man's every day is drawn although there is not necessarily nothing on an indies movie of Japan, either. By for example, the marks which fought with the villain when the hero of "Fighting Mad" of the same Peter Fonda was young Then, this hero also drags the half the body lost in the Vietnam War, and lives in the country as the language which lives calmly as begun is changed or the gunman of "Unforgiven" of an intermediary is awkwardly alive in the country.
In the 70s, the hero of the Vietnam War return comes back to the country in the United States, fights by the villain and violence there, and will protect a family. The movie in which the hero of the psychology distorted just for a moment who says plays an active part formed one genre. Although a masterpiece will be "rolling Sander" There is a work group which should be said also on if it is Jonathan Demme's "Fighting Mad" mentioned previously even if it does not carry out reason attachment of Vietnam, the "U.S. raid movie" which Kurosawa Kiyoshi says is John Flynn's "THEOUTFIT." Not men with a macho hero but the men who rather undertook the crack to the heart and have fled from war or a city were heroes. When carrying out body present [ of the character said so ], the actor called Peter Fonda fitted in very much. And the thing which the movie of which time likes, or answering first of all, when asked ? were the raid action film which made the country in this United States the stage for me in the U.S. movie. The hero of "Ulee's Gold" does not do action using flesh any longer. However, in one point of protecting one's family, for the first time in [ which Peter Fonda performs / of the man passing middle age / solitary fighting ] was the existing once action hero itself with which the Vietnam return darkens.
Sylvester Stallone Although the heroes of the U.S. action film regained "strength" again by the appearance of Arnold Schwarzenegger I want to limit to memory what the 70s "a weak action hero" were. Supposing the Republican Party type heroes are Stallone and Schwarzenegger, Peter Fonda may be able to say that he was the Democratic Party (United States) hero.

Love this movie!!

Reviewed by Rhett A. Butler, 2009-06-10

Wonderful film. Have seen it several times and bought it as a gift for
a friend because she loves honey and I thought she would get a kick out of watching a good movie that had beekeeping in the background. The film is full of emotion but delivered with quiet charm. Heartwarming!!

this is not your 60's Peter Fonda

Reviewed by R. Bagula, 2009-05-12

Peter Fonda here is more like his Dad than his famous Easy Rider 60's role.
His character is a hard working bee keeper who, when his TV broke, never bought anther one.
When the drug addict daughter -law comes home
you see a marked change in this family in a few short weeks.
I see this movie as Peter Fonda seeking redemption
for his past mistakes.
I liked the movie, but I think the truth is somewhere between the extremes of roles.