Elijah Wood

Performer for Our Time

THE WAR
(1994)

Cast

Synopsis

EJW's Performance

Review

Trivia & Notes

Main Page

Top Page

Dancaster Home Page

Elijah Wood plays "Stu Simmons"

by Edward C. Patterson

Elijah had played and would play lost boys who need to find their way through character development. Even Frodo Baggins (an adult) falls to some degree into this category. But Stu Simmons is not lost. We meet him as he sits in the core of a tree, a tree that is as much a symbol of life as the River in his previous film, The Adventures of Huck Finn. But here, we have a Southern KID, complete with convincing drawl, who lives from hand to mouth. In many respects, Elijah initially gives us an empty vessel in Stu Simmons—a vessel that Stephen Simmons fills.

We first get the sense of Elijah’s approach when he wakes his father in the house and his father tries to strangle him before he realizes its his son. We get Elijah’s agony look, which Frodo would bear proudly in the coming years and also, what I call the what-the-fuck look; one of surprise that is part of Elijah’s eye-repertoire. Elijah Wood knows full well that acting is not line delivery. He could have been successful as a silent movie actor. As early as the film The Witness, he could deliver wordless scripts through his eyes and face. He continues to do that, i.e. Sin City.

The Drug Store scene allows Elijah to fight (he does more fighting in this movie than in most any other) and also gets pounded. He knows how to be energetically defeated, bloody lip, swollen eye and pissed off look. We will see it again and again from The Faculty to Hooligans. We also see how Elijah can be gracious to other actors. With his eyes he helps transfer other actor's lines or underscores them. Very little of Kevin Costner’s Vietnam homily has Kevin Costner in frame. It’s either flashback or Elijah Wood. Elijah is the vessel, after all, being filled. There is also a father and son relationship between the Simmons that transcends love. There’s trust and a desire for Stu to follow his father’s advice.

At the quarry, Elijah shows us the angry side of the character—but anger for a cause. At every turn, Elijah shows us that Stu has values—he honors dares, promises and tries to perceive what his father says is hope. Yet, he never lets us forget that he is a KID. His infectious laugh in the second quarry scene and his impish looks do that. Why? Elijah knows that in order to have a kid grow up and take responsibility, you need to have a KID in the first place. He also shows the character's fallibility to translate his father’s wishes. Managing anger becomes cleverness and backfires turning the Lipnickis into dreadful enemies.

"Lipstick and rouge," the set-up line for a later echo, is the lens that Stephen wants his son to use. "As long as we have hope, there’s always a chance." Elijah crafts Stu to see it that way, but stumbles. His father is an honorable gentleman in a time and place where "son-of-a-bitch" requires an apology. The confrontation scene between Mr. Lipnicki and Stephen (Kevin Costner’s crowning moment in the film) is a perfect example of Elijah Wood’s Stu Simmons as a vessel going into overload. KID and logic clash. Yet, he cannot fault his father too openly. That’s not in his character. Many a youth actor would have just been bratty and snotty or snide. Not Elijah. He is a controlled performer; and that shows most after Stephen is injured, hospitalized and dies. But between Elijah’s BIG moment and the Fair Scene lies the high drama of the Water Tower dare. Elijah, in these middle films, does a lot with water (Huck Finn’s river and Flipper’s ocean). What this scene shows is how dumb one can be when applying such antics as flaunting death to protect the ownership of an old fort in a tree. However, the script gets to repeat itself to show the homily of applying the same skills to something more worthwhile when Stu saves Billy’s life.

Elijah Wood’s reaction to his father’s death is nothing short of brilliant. He starts with denial, wends into anger, builds the scene into a tirade against God, pours out the tears, rips into passion and ends with a burst of energy, which segues to the next scene, where we see him in sullen, dulled pain. I cannot think of any actor who could bring this range of emotions off and tear out a viewer’s heart, as Stu, the vessel, explodes.

"Why did they take him off, Ma. Because it cost to much?" (the life support).

"I understand, everybody just gave up on him!" (guilt)

When Lidia explains that Stephen is an angel now, Elijah builds the scene— "I sure hope he does a better job than when he was alive." (anger at who) then - "What the hell kinda loused up angel is that!" (Elijah anger).

But, he saves the best for last. When his mother says that his father has gone home, Elijah turns on the water works, followed by intense passion. "We’re his home, Ma. The stupid Lord can have him later. Why? Why does God take everything? Bad enough our home and our things. Why did he have to take my daddy? What did I do so wrong that he’d have to take my daddy . . . He could have took anybody—Charles Manson; super old people that have already been rotten a hundred years. My daddy was only 34 years old. I needed him more than you God. I needed him more. I want him back Ma."

This is the high point of the movie and Elijah Wood’s acting career to date (1994). It is so powerful that the rest of the movie verges on anti-climax, the fault of script and director, not actor. We move to The War sections much like The Lord of the Flies, with Stu being a bit like Ralph, the intelligent warrior. It’s an ensemble bit held together by Elijah Wood’s frames. And just so you don't think I am totally biased, he actually makes a small acting mistake in this scene. When Lidia tells him that she has taken the materials for the fort from the Lipnicki junkyard, Elijah begins his reaction one beat too early, before he had the info to actually deliver his line. (Whoops). Or was he doing it on purpose to keep the pace. Minor matter (maybe).

Another classic Elijah Wood moment comes when he stares at his father’s Bronze Star held in his hand, horrified at how the War has progressed. We will see that stance and look again, when he plays Jack Dawkins with the Judas Guinea in his hand in Oliver Twist and as Frodo Baggins holding the Ring at the River Anduin.

The second Water Tower scene is much like the perils of Pauline; but Elijah gets to act again with purpose as he tries to bring Billy Lipnicki back to life punctuating each chest punch with parts of his father’s homily of hope. Billy’s angel lines are touching and serve to bring the theme back to Stephen as an "angel." It allows Elijah to complete the character’s journey with the lines, "If dad’s watching, he can go now."

Elijah allows Stu Simmons to become the man of the house. When they take possession of the house, he says, "Lipstick and rouge, Mom," the only time he refers to her as Mom instead of Ma, a slight movement toward adulthood and, of course, the adoption of his father’s exact words.

The War is a credit to Elijah Wood, a work that his fans hold close in their hearts as his performance showed the fullest range of his physical and mental abilities to deliver his craft. No one can forget the iconic moment, when the dirty faced, angry Elijah Wood looks to heaven and chokes "I needed him more than you God. I needed him more." Anyone viewing this movie in its first release should have realized that this young actor had delivered the goods and earned his Top Billing. This reviewer believes it was one of the performances that catapulted him forward into select roles much to director’s delight. This 13-year-old actor would in the near future command another Top Billing—in cinematic history’s largest grossing film series—The Lord of the Rings.