Elijah Wood

Performer for Our Time

Huck Finn
(1993)

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Huck Finn (1993)
Synopsis

Edward C. Patterson, site owner
Annie Graham, copy editor

True to what has been dubbed—The Great American Novel, the Disney version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn opens with the famous narrative voiced over by Huck (Elijah Wood) telling us that the story is mainly true with a few stretchers. (Although it omits any reference to Tom Sawyer). The mood is set. We are in a novel, which Mark Twain will tell you is a "lie told by liars." The opening credits end with a woodcut of an angry Huckleberry Finn morphed into the real one, who is by the river engaged in a fistfight. "Is that all yer got?" he says as he’s pummeled. Finally, Huck gets the upper hand on his opponent while his friends yell, "Go for the Glory, Huck!" He says: "Personally, I don’t see much glory in punching an ignorant lard ass. But I gots to." At this, he spies the impression of his father’s boot print on the riverbank. Papp’s imprint has a curious cross on it to ward off the devil. With this, Huck runs off.

At Miss Watson’s slave quarters, Huck visits with Jim (for advice). Jim is telling fortunes when Huck interrupts to have his future told. "I can’t tell the future for white folk," Jim says. "Hell’s bells, Jim!" Finally convinced, Jim consults a hairball of an ox and tells Huck he sees him "drifting like the river." Of course, Jim knows that Papp (when he’s around) gets drunk and beats Huck, so he advises Huck to skedaddle for a while. In true Mark Twain vernacular, Huck declares "Tomorrow morning they’ll be talking about me in the past tense."

Huck is living with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, who are trying to "civilize" him. He tells them a stretcher about how he got his shiner and how he lost his new school clothes. But he’s bent on leaving as soon as possible. However, he decides to spend some time with his friends and in that delay his father (Papp) ambushes him at Miss Watson’s and carts him away to the Finn household, an old log cabin by the river. Here Huck learns that his father is after the $600 trust set up for Huck by his mother. And since it can’t be touched until Huck’s of age, Papp means to get at the money by some other means. "I’m your next of kin." Huck barely survives a beating holding his drunken father off with a rifle. When his father leaves the next morning, Huck stages his own murder and escapes to Jackson’s Island. "Now that I was dead, I could do anything I wanted."

On the island he finds Jim. (They scare each other). "Hell’s Bells, Jim. I almost puked up my livers." Jim tells Huck about how everyone is carrying on about his death. "I faked it all, Jim." They lark about until Jim tells Huck that he’s a runaway, because Miss Watson was going to sell him and separate him from his family. Huck is horrified that Jim has run away. Jim wants to go to Cairo (Kay-roe) where he can get on a steamboat to freedom, save up and buy or steal his family. Although negative at first, Huck agrees to help Jim.

Huck gets supplies dressed as a girl. He learns that Jim is being blamed for Huck’s murder and that a posse is going to hunt him on Jackson’s Island. The Scrawny Shanty Lady almost catches Huck in his disguise. Huck and Jim canoe down river in the knick of time. During a storm they board a River Pirate vessel, which is sinking in the storm. Here Jim spots Papp—dead. Afraid Huck will abandon him, he does not tell him. Huck winds up in the middle of the pirates as they argue, when the ship sinks. Huck and Jim steal a raft from the ship’s bow, probably the most famous raft in English literature (besides maybe Kon-ti-ki).

While on the river, Huck and Jim discuss some people’s differences. This leads Jim to plant the seeds of anti-slavery in Huck’s mind. Huck resists. "That’s the way it is. And that’s the way it’s always been." Jim states: "But it ain’t right, Huck. Don’t you see that to be true? Slavery ain’t right. All men should be free." Huck replies: "I’ve never heard such talk in my life," then in voice over: "Right then, I knew what I was doing was wicked. And I could feel the hand of God about to swing at me." Huck decides to turn Jim in.

Huck paddles ashore to check their bearings, but calls to some bounty hunters. But in the long run, Huck can’t betray Jim. They have become friends. "There he goes—True Blue Huck Finn." And Huck voices over: "Always so troublesome doing right and so darn easy doing wrong." During a fog on the river, Jim settles the matter by saying, "Just because you’re taught that something’s right and everyone believes it’s right, it don’t make it right." A steamboat strikes the raft. Huck swims ashore thinking he has lost Jim. Huck is taken captive by the Grangerfords, one of two feuding families (the other being the Shepherdsons). The Grangerford women take Huck in and he befriends young Billy. (Of course, Huck comes up with a stretcher tale and a new name, George Jackson). Jim is caught and claimed as a slave. On the Grangerford plantation, Huck sees slavery first hand. He also is enjoying himself. So, when Jim asks for them to "get out of here," Huck feels Jim is being selfish and doesn’t budge. Jim is whipped and this sets off a flood of contradictory emotions within Huck. He sees Jim’s whip marks and, in the film’s seminal scene, tearfully apologizes. (Huck Finn with gushy emotions?) "Okay, alright. Enough of this slop." He decides that they should leave.

When he returns to the plantation, Huck discovers that the feud has kicked in full force. A Grangerford daughter has married a Shepherdson son. In the battle, young Billy is killed and Huck faces death for the first time. He and Jim repair the raft and set back on the river toward freedom. "Other places feel cramped. But the river don’t. You always feel warm and safe and free on the river."

They discover they have overshot Cairo by forty miles and decide to take a steamboat upstream. However at that moment two of Twain’s most rascally rascals enter the tale—the King of Bilgewater and the Duke, two grifters, actors, snake-oil peddlers and general scoundrels and thieves. They escape onto the raft with Jim and Huck. When they find a "Wanted" poster with Jim (for the murder of Huck, ironically), they blackmail Huck into helping them bilk the orphaned daughters of John Wilks from their inheritance. They pose as the deceased’s long lost British brothers, complete with their English Valet Adolphus (Huck) and a Swahili Prince (guess who?). The three Wilks daughters believe them (well, the youngest is skeptical) and soon the King and Duke have cornered the market on the inheritance gold and the property. Meanwhile, Jim is caught and locked up for murder. Huck wants out of the scheme. He steals the gold and hides it in the coffin. The King auctions off the entire estate and the coffin is buried. Huck reveals everything to the oldest Wilks sister (Mary Jane), but he asks her to wait on his plan before she springs on the scoundrels.

Meanwhile, the real brothers Wilks show up. They have a difficult time proving who they are; and it all comes down to a tattoo on the corpse. So, the townsfolk dig up the deceased and find the gold. While the King and Duke are tarred and feathered, Huck slips the keys from the sheriff’s belt and frees Jim. They flee to the river being pursued. Huck is shot and Jim, just yards from freedom returns to carry Huck to safety. The mob try to lynch Jim, but the oldest Wilks daughter shows up and orders his release, just as Huck Finn passes out from blood loss.

Huck recovers waking to the faces of Mary Jane Wilks and the Widow Douglas. Miss Watson has died and has freed Jim in her will. Huck will be adopted by the good Widow and be "civilized." But Huck Finn (like Mark Twain before him) hears the Steamboat whistle. "I don’t think I can stand it, ‘cause I’ve been there before." FREEDOM.