Reach the Rock

Reach the Rock is a 1998 American comedy drama film directed by William Ryan and starring William Sadler and Alessandro Nivola, and was the final film to be written and produced by John Hughes.

Reach the Rock
VHS cover
Directed by	William Ryan
Written by	John Hughes
Produced by	John Hughes
Starring	William Sadler Alessandro Nivola Bruce Norris Brooke Langton
Cinematography	John J. Campbell
Edited by	Gerald B. Greenberg
Music by	John McEntire
Production company	Gramercy Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	October 16, 1998 (1998-10-16) (United States)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$4,960

Premise

A small-town troublemaker (Alessandro Nivola), directionless and alienated, ends up spending a night in a jail cell, where he and the police chief (William Sadler) engage in a battle of wills and wit.

Cast

• William Sadler^[1] as Quinn
• Alessandro Nivola^[2] as Robin
• Bruce Norris as Ernie
• Brooke Langton as Lise^[3]
• Norman Reedus as Danny
• Karen Sillas as Donna
• Richard Hamilton as Ed

Production

Writer/producer John Hughes came up with the premise for Reach the Rock basing the character of Robin off "base kids" and "farm kids" he knew in his youth displaced by the transition of "rural communities" to "bedroom communities" who while tough were also social outcasts among the wealthier residents of Chicago's North Shore.^[4] Hughes compared the character of Robin to John Bender from The Breakfast Club calling him the natural evolution of Bender had he stayed with Molly Ringwald's character, Claire, and never moved on.^[4]

Hughes originally offered the Reach the Rock script to director Chris Columbus at the same time he offered him Home Alone. Columbus opted to direct the latter.^[5]

William Ryan, an assistant working under Hughes, would be given the script by Hughes to direct and although Ryan never directed again he did go on to run Hughes Entertainment.^[6]

The soundtrack featured a compilation of Chicago-based post-rock artists, among them Tortoise and associated acts Bundy K. Brown, The Sea and Cake and John McEntire. It was released on Hefty Records, a label owned and operated by Hughes's son, John Hughes III. The film gets its title from a song by the band Havana 3am.^[7] Reach the Rock would mark the final writing credit for Hughes in which he was the sole author.^[7]

Filming took place in Chicago's Northwest Side as well as West Chicago from July through September 1996.^[8][9]

Richard Lightstone who worked on the film as a sound engineer stated the film was made out of contractual obligation Universal Studios who per the stipulations of a contract with Hughes were owed a film made by him.^[10] Hughes only visited the set once and mainly left William Ryan in charge of the production.^[10]

Release

Universal Pictures gave Reach the Rock an extremely limited theatrical run in the United States on October 16, 1998 where the film only played in three theaters in three cities for a one week engagement grossing only $4,960.^[9][4] The film was given a home video release on July 27, 1999.^[9]

Reception

The film received generally negative reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 38% based on reviews from 8 critics, with an average rating of 4.5/10.^[11] Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 1 out of 4 stars. He compared it negatively to Hughes' Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and complained that the movie was "very sad" and felt like it was playing "in slow motion."^[12]