Blue Sky (1994) – Nostalgia Central

Set in 1962, Blue Sky is a powerful portrait of a family imploding.

Carly Marshall (Jessica Lange), a Southern-bred manic-depressive who can hardly tell her own life from Brigitte Bardot’s, is the wife of US Army officer Major Hank Marshall.

Hank (Tommy Lee Jones) is a scientist who studies the lethal effects of nuclear testing for the US military. The film’s sub-plot concerns Hank’s uneasiness about above-ground nuclear testing, but the primary focus of the film is on Carly.

As the movie opens, Carly is sunbathing topless on a beach in Hawaii. She then does a flamenco for a group of visiting soldiers, modelling her behaviour (as well as her tight strapless dresses) on that of movie stars like Marilyn Monroe.

It doesn’t take much for her to scandalise the army community, and soon the family – including Carly and Hank’s two adolescent daughters, Alex and Becky – have been transferred to Fort Matthews, a remote military base in Alabama, full of barren lawns, dreary homes and drab, Army-green trim.

When Carly sees the shabby, claustrophobic house that awaits them, she falls apart. She screams, smashes furniture, then tears away in the family’s Chevrolet station wagon. While Hank goes after her, the younger daughter, Becky (Anna Klemp), says, “It’s starting again.”

The older daughter, Alex (Amy Locane), is at a more irreverent age. “He’s blind and she’s crazy,” she says of her parents, and when she tells her father that her mother needs help, he calls her Miss Freud and insists he can handle things.

Hank is a tough, controlled military man whose competence masks the strain of caring for his wife.

At a dance on the base, Hank refuses to dance with Carly, so she takes to the floor with his manipulative commanding officer, Colonel Vince Johnson (Powers Boothe), and they all but seduce each other on the dance floor.

Hank’s response is to drag Carly away and desperately toss her into a swimming pool. He is a patient, frustrated man coming to the end of his rope.

Meanwhile, at the age of starting to test her own sexuality, Alex starts to date the Johnsons’ son, Glenn, who falls for Alex.

For a long while, the plot about a secret nuclear test project called “Blue Sky” doesn’t seem to mesh with the family story, but at the end, this subplot comes to the fore.

Hank – who has a habit of speaking his mind to his superiors in a way that is not always appreciated – is put in a mental hospital and drugged to keep him quiet. Carly has to find a way to save him, which she does with typical dramatic flair.

The film was completed in 1991, but was shelved for three years due to Orion Pictures’ bankruptcy.

Director Tony Richardson died of AIDS in 1991, shortly after the film was completed.

Jessica Lange won the ‘Best Actress’ Academy Award for her portrayal of Carly Marshall.

Carly Marshall
Jessica Lange
Major Hank Marshall
Tommy Lee Jones
Colonel Vince Johnson
Powers Boothe
Vera Johnson
Carrie Snodgress
Alex Marshall
Amy Locane
Glenn Johnson
Chris O’Donnell
Ray Stevens
Mitchell Ryan
Colonel Mike Anwalt
Dale Dye
Ned Owens
Tim Scott
Lydia
Annie Ross
Becky Marshall
Anna Klemp
Lt. Col. Robert Jennings
Michael McClendon
General Derrick
Dion Anderson
Jimmy
Richard Jones
Doctor Vankay
Gary Bullock
Dottie Owens
Angela Paton

Director
Tony Richardson