Grand Canyon (1991) on Netflix
After a Lakers game, Mack's car breaks down in a rough part of Los Angeles, and tow truck driver Simon talks his would-be muggers down. Mack sets out to befriend him.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.8/1017,581 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes77%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mack is an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles. Driving home from a Lakers game, he breaks down in a neighborhood where men come at his car intending to rob him, until Simon, a tow truck driver, arrives and talks them out of it. The two men have little in common, yet Mack decides to make a friend of him. Claire, Mack's wife, finds an abandoned baby while out running and sets her mind on adopting the child. Davis, Mack's closest friend, makes violent action pictures and is shot in the leg by a man who wants his watch; he promises to spend the rest of his career removing violence from the movies.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Grand Canyon (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Los Angeles Lakers game footage in the film was shot before anybody knew Lakers guard Earvin "Magic" Johnson was HIV+. Reviewing it for The Washington Post, Rita Kempley pointed to the scene as proof that the filmmaker and his team had truly caught society on the verge.
- Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan explained that the film came out of the idea that "we have accepted the fact that our city is not our own": that for people from South Central going into Beverly Hills and West L.A. the police are on the lookout, and they feel unwelcome and under threat, and vice-versa.
- Phil Collins' 1993 song "Both Sides of the Story" references the scene in Grand Canyon where the young mugger tells Simon, played by Danny Glover, that he carries a gun to make sure people respect and fear him.
