Three for the Road

Three for the Road is a 1987 road trip-themed comedy film directed by Bill L. Norton and starring Charlie Sheen, Alan Ruck, Kerri Green, Sally Kellerman and Blair Tefkin.

For the unrelated 1975 family drama series, see Three for the Road (TV series). For the 2007 Japanese film, see Three for the Road (2007 film).
Three for the Road
Directed byBill L. Norton
Produced byMort Engelberg
Herb Jaffe
Written byRichard Martini (screenplay/story)
Tim Metcalfe
Miguel Tejada-Flores
StarringCharlie Sheen
Alan Ruck
Kerri Green
Sally Kellerman
Blair Tefkin
Music byBarry Goldberg
CinematographyStephen L. Posey
Edited byChristopher Greenbury
Distributed byNew Century-Vista
Release date
  • April 10, 1987 (1987-04-10)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,539,000[1]

Plot

The film centers around Paul Tracy (Sheen), aide to a United States Senator (Raymond J. Barry). Paul has political aspirations of his own. He is asked to transport Robin (Green), the Senator's delinquent daughter, to an institution for girls. He asks his aspiring writer roommate T.S. (Ruck) to come along for the trip. Robin is initially drugged by her father and put nearly unconscious into the back of their car, but as soon as she wakes up she tries everything and anything to escape.

Eventually a romance develops between Robin and Paul, and he begins to take her claims of her father's abuse more seriously. Along the way they pick up Missy (Tefkin), a southern belle who has her eye on T.S. They make a detour to locate Robin's estranged mother Blanche (Kellerman), hoping that Robin can live with her. Blanche refuses, clearly out of fear of the repercussions of her powerful ex-husband.

Robin eventually ends up in the institution, but her friends devise a ruse to break her free. This is quelched by the unexpected arrival of the senator, but at the last minute Blanche arrives and threatens to expose his dastardly deeds, including the rape of a babysitter. Thus Robin goes to live with her mother, free to explore the romantic possibilities with Paul.

Reception

The film was a critical and commercial dud, grossing approximately $1,500,000 in the United States. The film effectively ended the mainstream acting careers of Green and Ruck, who had been rising Hollywood stars whose past projects were huge successes (Ruck in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Green in Lucas and The Goonies.) Ruck would continue acting in smaller roles until cast in the TV show Spin City (opposite Sheen in later seasons); Green, who had played the romantic lead to Sheen in Lucas, did not appear in a mainstream film again.

Writer Richard Martini has asserted that the screenplay was dramatically altered from his original. Instead of being a rebellious troublemaker, the character of Robin was shunned by her conservative Republican Senator father because she was an outspoken liberal activist who stages protests. When she finally finds her birth mother she discovers that she was a drug addict who never wanted a child. Martini paid a visit to the set and met Sheen who said "Forget it – the reason I did this movie was I loved your script, but they've re-written it and it sucks now." Martini was then not invited to a screening and instead saw the film in a 3,000 seat theater with only 8 people in attendance. Martini discusses these experiences on both his own website[2] and in an entry at the IMDb.[3]

The theme song "We Got Our Love" is performed by actress/singer Holly Robinson. A soundtrack was issued (on vinyl only), but due to the failure of the film it too bombed.

Home video

After the film's theatrical run, it was released on video cassette by Vista Home Video and later in 1991 by Avid Home Entertainment in the EP Mode. To this day, the film has never been released on DVD and Lions Gate Home Entertainment has yet to announce plans to release the film onto DVD.

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References
  1. "Three for the Road (1987) - Box Office Mojo". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  2. "Rich Martini - The Official Site". Geocities.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  3. "Reviews & Ratings for Three for the Road". IMDb.com. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
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