FANDANGO

US, 1985, 86 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Costner, Judd Nelson, Sam Robards.
Directed by Kevin Reynolds.

Fandango is an odd piece of Americana, a film that is well-liked or strongly disliked. It portrays five young men finishing their education in 1971, going on a spree before they fact up to induction for the Vietnam War.

Kevin Costner, in an early role, shows a great deal of vitality. Judd Nelson tends to play against type as a rather more quiet, bespectacled student. The group travels through Texas, in quest of a bottle of champagne buried in the mountains, and has a range of experiences on their American odyssey. The film was written and directed by Kevin Reynolds for Steven Spielberg's Amblin company. Reynolds was to direct Costner in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves and Waterworld.

1. A film about American youth? The '80s looking back to the '70s? The Vietnam War?

2. College life, the open road, Texas locations, the skydiving and parachuting? The finale in the mountains? The wedding? The musical score and range of songs?

3. The title, the film giving the dictionary meaning, the dance, the movements? As applied to the behaviour of the group?

4. The graduation, the raucous celebration, Phil's parents arriving? The bonds between the men over the years and their education? Letting off steam? The beginning of the odyssey?

5. The nature of the odyssey, the sequences of the car on the open road, going to the mountains for the buried bottle? Their experiences on the way, the car, with each other, clashes, friendships? The visit to the site for the filming of Giant? The difficulties of the open road and the towns? The parachute jumping school? In the mountains? The wedding? How did the odyssey change them?

6. The sketch of Gardner, Kevin Costner's vitality? The leader of the group? Raucous, his manner and style, appearance? Driving the car? Clashes with setting the direction, his comment on each of his friends? Phil? Taking over, At the film site, In the town, in the car with the girls? Organising the parachute jump, pressuring Phil? The anxiety when the parachute mistake was realised? Potting the message on the ground? F1nding the bottle, saluting the friends? Their continued trek, arranging the wedding for Kenneth, his attachment to Kenneth's girlfriend, the dance? Her letting him go? Looking to the future?

7. Phil as quiet, his relationship with the rest of the group, on the journey, his car, their taking it over, his exasperation, his fights with Kenneth? Taunting him about walking out on the marriage, cowardice? At the film site,
in the town? The challenge for him to freefall and parachute? Accepting the challenge. in the plane, the freefall, his fear, the discovery of the parachute mistake, pulling the cord, his achievement? In the mountains, at the wedding? His sense of achievement, farewells and hopes? Dorman and his size, participation in the activities, at the wedding? Lester and his being out of it, a passenger during the journey?

8. Truman and his old lady, in the middle of Texas, the parachute and flights? The mistake? His raucous talk, putting the message on the ground with the laundry, realising the mistake?

9. The woman in Gardner's dream, the significance of the dream and moving through the desert? The two young girls in the car, under age? Kenneth's fiancee, her presence at the wedding, her beauty, the dance with Gardner?

10. The atmosphere of the late '60s and early '70s, education, protest, the questions of the '60s, the Vietnam War, the prospect of serving in Vietnam, the possibility of deserting and going to Mexico? The choices for these.
young men?