The Park Is Mine (1985)

Sorry, this movie sucks

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

In New York, a Vietnam vet takes over Central Park after one of his fellow veterans commits suicide. The dead man left him a note detailing caches of weaponry he has hidden throughout the park, which he explains he intended to use to hijack the area in an attempt to make the city denizens aware of the plight of the veterans and downtrodden generally.This made for cable movie stars Tommy Lee Jones. It's sort of like a collision between Taxi Driver (1976) and First Blood (1982), with a side helping of The Prince of Central Park (1977) thrown in for good measure. It sort of begins quite well with a set-up which suggests that things could get quite interesting but unfortunately in the second half it essentially turns into a tedious action movie with exploding helicopters. The basic premise behind Jones's plan also made little sense to me, yet his fellow New York citizens were clearly right behind the concept of an armed madman taking over their beloved park with automatic guns and hidden bombs as a means of socking it to The Man. The villains were one dimensional corporate types and Yaphet Kotto similarly played a predictably clichéd sympathetic policeman. It's not a total write-off by any means, as there is some entertainment here but it is strictly mid-level thrills and spills at best. It also is notable I guess for having a soundtrack by electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream, although I can't say I honestly noticed the score being especially memorable either.

**SPOILERS** Like most Vietnam Vets Mike, Eric Peterson, was lost in the shuffle when he came back from the war with severe mental and emotional problems. Mike was totally ignored by both the Veterens Administration and his family members feeling that he was just too unstable and ill-tempered to have anything to do with. Seeing no way out of the hell he found himself in and no one to turn to Mike did the only thing that he felt that could do to take him out of his miseries; jump to his death from the top of the fleabag hotel he was staying in.Sending a letter to his fellow Vietnam Vet and good friend the also very troubled Mitch, Tommy Lee Jones, Mike wanted him to finish the job that he started out to do. Take over New Yorks Central Park for 72 hours, over the Veterans Day Weekend, and hold it all all cost. This bizarre action would throw light on not only the forgotten and ignored veterans in the city and country but all the other unfortunates who slipped through the cracks and were left out in the cold by an ungrateful and unfeeling nation. Mitch took up with where Mike left off arming himself to the teeth with and arsenal of weapons, that Mike hid all throughout the park, and ammunition that would equipped a fully armed and supplied infantry battalion. By the time the 72 hours were up Central Park New York City or for that matter the entire country would never be the same again and neither would Mitch. A bit overdone, one man holding off the entire NYPD of over 30,000 men & women, but still powerful film that has to do with a person who was driven to do the impossible, as well as insane, and in the end succeed against overwhelming odds. Where at the same time not really knowing, or even caring, if he lived or died throughout the ordeal that he not only put himself but the entire city of New York through.Tommy Lee Jones is perfect, and in fighting trim, as Mitch the man with the plan who takes on all comers in his determined attempt to hold off the entire New York Police Department, as well as a number of hired anti-guerrilla foreign mercenaries, to call attention to the sad and sorry plight of his fellow Vietmnam Vets like his late friend Mike. Not wanting to hurt anyone Mitch used for the most part magazines of blanks and non-lethal explosives to hold off the NYPD and unites of the New York State National Guard. It's when the man in charge of capturing him the politically conscious Deputy Mayor Dix, Peter Dvorsky, orders the police to shoot to kill and even brought into the park armed and kill crazy mercenaries Mitch had no choice but but was himself forced to shoot to kill and ask questions later.There's also photo journalist Valery Weaver, Helen Shavers, who ends up getting trapped inside the park, trying to get the big story, and becoming Mitchs hostage and later biggest supporter. Valary ends up filming Mitch's every action and statements to show the outside world just what he's really all about. Valerys involvement with the troubled Vietnam Vet almost has her killed by he two mercenaries who were sent into the besieged park by Deputy Dix to kill him. We also have Mitch's old lady Rachel, Gale Garnett, who refused to have anything to do with her husband and didn't even let Mitch see their infant son. Rachel feels now, after what Mitch pulled off, if she only paid some attention to him all this would have never happened. And last but certainly not least there's NYPD Captain Eubanks, Yaphet Kotto, who despite his boss' double-dealings and double-crossing of the fugitive Mitch refused to go alone with them. Risking suspension or even termination of his job. Capt. Eubanks in the end is the person who got Mitch, after the 72 hours were up, to turn himself in with a minimum of violence and destruction.The end of the movie has Central Park light up like a Christmas Tree with Mitch setting off all the explosives that he had still left to let those who tried to stop him, as well as most of the people in the city who were pulling for him, see that he got his message through even though it may well have cost him his freedom. Mitch showed in what he did that for the 72 hours had New York's Central Park totally and completely under his control and no one, not even the entire NYC police force, could take it from him.

The idea is absurd - a Vietnam veteran who feels that Vietnam vets have been poorly treated by the country they served decides to single-handedly take control of New Yorks Central Park by force of arms as a social protest.But the vet is dyeing of cancer (courtesy of agent orange exposure during the war) and commits suicide before he can complete his plan. So instead, he leaves a long letter to his war buddy Mitch (Tommy Lee Jones), asking him to complete the plan in his place.At first, Mitch thinks the plan is as crazy as... well, as it is. But after a series of disappointing encounters with his ex-wife, his landlord, and some snotty NYPD cops, he gets angry enough to complete the plan and take over Central Park, keeping everyone out with explosive booby traps and gunfire (blanks at first) for 48 hours until Veteran's Day.The city administration is understandably upset by this action, and after a police assault to capture Mitch fails, they hire a pair of mercenaries to simply kill him.Complicating matters is an overly ambitious TV reporter (Helen Shaver) who sneaks into the park on her own to try for an interview, and a Swat team leader (Yaphet Koto) who sympathizes with Mitch but wants him out of the park as much as the administration.This movie has it all - action, suspense, drama, a few unsuspected twists, and an ending that leaves you feeling both happy and sad at the same time.Originally made for HBO in 1985, this excellent action flick has unfortunately never been released on DVD. But with so much TV being released on DVD these days, I have hope that one day soon I will be able to add The Park Is Mine to my DVD collection.

I saw this on HBO in the mid '80s and I loved it. Tommy Lee Jones was so cool and I had no problem buying the premise. It was kind of like Assault on Precinct 13 or The Warriors in its cartoonish depiction of violence. I remember especially the part where he's in full military garb and grease paint on his face with an arsenal of weapons around his body and he tells a woman to leave the park because its filled with "thugs and perverts and weirdos." Check it out if you can, it won't change your life, but it's good.