I Am the Cheese | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Directed by | Robert Jiras |
Written by | Robert Jiras David Lange Robert Cormier (Novel) |
Produced by | David Lange |
Starring | Robert MacNaughton Cynthia Nixon Robert Wagner |
Edited by | Nicholas C. Smith |
Music by | Jonathan Tunick |
Distributed by | Almi Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
I Am the Cheese is a 1983 American film adaptation of Robert Cormier's 1977 novel of the same name, about a young man's journey to find the truth behind his family. [1] [2] The film was directed by Robert Jiras and filmed in Vermont. [3] [4]
Fifteen year old Adam Farmer (Robert MacNaughton) seeks to unearth the many secrets locked in his subconscious. Adam's journey through his mind is paralleled with a bike trip to Rutterburg, Vermont, with a package for his father. As he travels through several small towns, he starts to remember past events from his life.
Adam's trip is prompted by a call from his girlfriend, Amy (Cynthia Nixon), who says her father met a reporter from Adam's alleged hometown of Rawlings, Pennsylvania, and the reporter had never heard of anyone named Farmer living there. Suspicious, Adam begins spying on his parents and finds two birth certificates with his name on them, but with different birthdates - February 14 (Valentine's Day) and July 14 (Bastille Day). Adam confronts his father, who admits some shocking truths.
Adam's real name is Paul Delmonte and the family was forced to relocate in a Witness Protection-type program after his father testified in state and federal trials against corrupt government officials. In reality, Adam is not biking to Vermont; he is riding in circles around the psychiatric facility where he has been held for the past three years, and the people he meets along the way are patients and workers at the facility. His "journey" is a quest to discover the whereabouts of his parents, who mysteriously disappeared (in truth, they were "terminated" by the adversaries they sought to elude). The memories Adam recounts are documented in "psychiatric sessions," which are, in fact, interviews to determine whether or not he knows more about his father's involvement with the government than he's telling. Adam's final interview ends with two possible outcomes, neither of which bode well for the boy: "Terminating" him or continuing to question him until he dies.
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, activist, and theater director. For her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City (1998–2004), she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and reprised the role in the films Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010), as well as the television show And Just Like That... (2021–present).
In the biblical Book of Genesis, Cain and Abel are the first two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain, the firstborn, was a farmer, and his brother Abel was a shepherd. The brothers made sacrifices to God, but God favored Abel's sacrifice instead of Cain's. Cain then murdered Abel, whereupon God punished Cain by condemning him to a life of wandering. Cain then dwelt in the land of Nod, where he built a city and fathered the line of descendants beginning with Enoch.
Marshfield is a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,583 at the 2020 census.
Robert Edmund Cormier was an American writer and journalist, known for his deeply pessimistic novels, many of which were written for young adults. Recurring themes include abuse, mental illness, violence, revenge, betrayal, and conspiracy. In most of his novels, the protagonists do not win.
James Naughton is an American actor and director. He is best known as Michael Bower on Who's the Boss? (1984-1992) and was also notable for his earlier role as the astronaut Pete Burke in the 1974 single-season television adaptation of Planet of the Apes.
I Am the Cheese is a young adult novel by the American writer Robert Cormier, published in 1977.
Ivan Le Lorraine Albright was an American painter, sculptor and print-maker most renowned for his self-portraits, character studies, and still lifes. Due to his technique and dark subject matter, he is often categorized among the Magic Realists and is sometimes referred to as the "master of the macabre".
"The Farmer in the Dell" is a singing game, nursery rhyme, folksong, and children's song. It probably originated in Germany and was brought to America by immigrants. From there, it spread to many other nations and is popular in a number of languages. It is Roud Folk Song Index number 6306.
Tanner on Tanner is a 2004 4-part comedy miniseries. It is the sequel to the 1988 Robert Altman-directed and Garry Trudeau-written miniseries about a failed presidential candidate, Tanner '88. The sequel focuses mostly on Alex Tanner, a struggling filmmaker and the daughter of onetime presidential candidate Jack Tanner.
Blast from the Past is a 1999 American romantic comedy science fiction film directed and co-produced by Hugh Wilson, based on a story by Wilson –who co-wrote the screenplay with Bill Kelly– and starring Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, and Dave Foley. The film focuses on Adam Webber, who was born and brought up in a Cold War-era fallout shelter built by his survivalist, anti-Communist father. After 35 years Adam emerges into the modern world, where his innocence and old-fashioned views put him at comedic odds with others.
WDEV is a commercial AM radio station in Waterbury, Vermont, United States. Programming is simulcast on WDEV-FM licensed to Warren, Vermont. The stations' studios and offices are located near U.S. Route 2 in Waterbury. WDEV also operates two translator stations, W243AT, licensed to Barre, Vermont, and W252CU, licensed to Montpelier, Vermont. WDEV can also be heard on a privately owned translator, W270BR, licensed to Island Pond, Vermont. The stations are owned by Radio Vermont, Inc., and air a full service radio format, including news, talk, sports and different genres of music.
Robert MacNaughton is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Elliott's brother Michael in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, for which he won a 1982 Young Artist Award as Best Young Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Macnaughton also played the lead role of Adam Farmer in the 1983 film I Am the Cheese, based on the young adult novel by Robert Cormier.
They Won't Forget is a 1937 American drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris, and Lana Turner, in her feature debut. It was based on a novel by Ward Greene called Death in the Deep South, which was in turn a fictionalized account of a real-life case: the trial and subsequent lynching of Leo Frank after the murder of Mary Phagan in 1913.
The Coolidge Homestead, also known as Calvin Coolidge Homestead District or President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site, was the childhood home of the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge and the place where he first took the presidential oath of office. Located in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, Coolidge lived there from age four in 1876 to 1887, when he departed for Black River Academy for education. He is buried in Plymouth Notch Cemetery not far from the home.
Lawrence Warren Pierce was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Lady Cynthia Blanche Mosley, nicknamed "Cimmie", was a British aristocrat, politician and the first wife of the British Fascist politician Sir Oswald Mosley.
Henry Peter Tewksbury was an American film and television director.
The 1998 United States Senate election in Vermont was held November 3, 1998. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy won reelection to a fifth term.
DeVaughn Walter Nixon is an American actor. He is known for his roles in The Bodyguard, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Sugar Hill, and television series such as Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Mackenzie Falls, and Marvel's Runaways.