Wisdom is a 1986 American romantic crime film written and directed by its star Emilio Estevez in his filmmaking debut. The film also stars Demi Moore, along with Tom Skerritt and Veronica Cartwright as Estevez's parents. The ending credits song is "Home Again" by Oingo Boingo and the score by Danny Elfman.
The film is dedicated to the memory of Henry Proach, who was a good friend of Estevez, and who appears briefly in the picture.
Plot
John Wisdom is a young man just out of college. On the night of his high school graduation, he had gotten drunk and stolen a car.
With a grand theft auto conviction he is branded a felon and as a result can not hold down a decent job. Seeing no future for himself, Wisdom takes a left turn: he decides to become a criminal "for the people", evocative of Robin Hood.
After seeing news reports about impoverished farmers and working class people being sent to the bank to pay ownership debts, Wisdom goes on a bank robbing spree with his girlfriend, Karen Simmons. He planned to do it alone, but she insists giving him a ride on the first job, so inadvertently becomes his accomplice.
They don't steal money, but rather erase loan and mortgage records, buying time for the poor to pay their debts. At a small motel, the owner recognises them. Not able to keep it to himself, he and half a dozen people come to thank them, bearing gifts. Among them is a new vehicle.
With the FBI after them, things take a turn for the worse. At the motel they'd been staying at they shoot it up, only to find Wisdom and Karen have already gone.
Unfortunately, a panicky Karen kills a local sheriff who recognises her in a convenience store. She and Wisdom make a run for the Canada–United States border, but when Karen is shot by a police helicopter, Wisdom leaves her in the care of some high school students and their teacher.
Wisdom resumes his flight on foot on the school grounds, first unloading his gun before he is surrounded by police and federal agents at the football field. As he appears to be reaching for his gun, he is riddled with gunfire and dies.
John wakes up where the film started, in his parents' bathroom. He emerges from the bathtub and proceeds to get ready for his job interview. His entire story has apparently been a daydream.
Cast
Emilio Estevez as John Wisdom
Demi Moore as Karen Simmons
Tom Skerritt as Lloyd Wisdom
Veronica Cartwright as Samantha Wisdom
William Allen Young as Agent Williamson
Richard Minchenberg as Agent Cooper
Ernie Brown as Bill, Motel manager
Charlie Sheen as City Burger manager
Brenda Medcalf as Girl on bike
Production
Estevez says the idea for the film "started as just the title. I thought it would be great visually. Just 'Wisdom' across the screen."
He wrote the first draft in three weeks. Wisdom became the surname of the lead character. Estevez says Wisdom is "without a place in society... He becomes a criminal because he feels it's the only thing society has left him to do."
Estevez added at the film was basically "about two people – their relationship and their discoveries. Those discoveries leave Wisdom not only wanted dead or alive in five states, but also a modern-day folk hero."
In October 1985 David Begelman's Gladden Entertainment announced it had signed a deal with the 23 year old Estevez to write, produce and direct Wisdom. Estevez had previously written That Was Then This is Now. Begelman had been in charge of Columbia, and MGM, during which time he gave Walter Hill, Barry Levinson and Richard Benjamin their first directing jobs.
Comparisons were made with Orson Welles who was 24 when he wrote, produced and directed Citizen Kane. Estevez said "if they promote Wisdom as this most phenomenal thing that hasn't happened since Orson Welles, I'm going to get hit."
"I have a kind of nihilistic point of view", he added. "I'm into making films that are realistic and not fluff. When you deal in reality, you're dealing with a lot of serious problems. We could be sitting here and now and being vaporized by nuclear weapons by accidentally. That's reality... Life does not end happily ever after."
The female lead went to Demi Moore who was then Estevez's fiancée. (The two met while making St Elmo's Fire.)
"I'm not going to sit here and say it was the most positive professional move for me when I made that picture", she said later. "Of course, doing it was based on my feelings for him and my desire to share it with him. It was very special. I was around from the day Emilio wrote the first page. I would read every page, and we would talk. The attachment to the project was real."