How a 1985 Comedy Built the World's Longest Wooden Suspension Bridge for Cinema
In short: Before CGI, filmmakers built massive, functional structures to ground their stories. For the 1985 comedy Volunteers, the production team constructed a 250-yard wooden bridge in Mexico to mimic a Thai village. The film, which reunited Tom Hanks and John Candy, remains a curious relic of mid-eighties studio-backed satire.
Directed by Nicholas Meyer, Volunteers follows Lawrence Bourne III, a Yale graduate played by Tom Hanks, who flees gambling debts by joining the Peace Corps. The film serves as a spoof of David Lean epics, specifically referencing The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. Its production was an ambitious undertaking that spent six years in development before filming in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. To capture the aesthetic of the Karen people of Burma's Golden Triangle, the crew constructed a wooden suspension bridge measuring over 250 yards, or 230 meters, which was billed as the world's longest at the time.
The production involved a global cast of over 100 people, including local Thai families, who spent two and a half months on location. Despite the scale of the set, the film faced early institutional friction. Sargent Shriver, then director of the Peace Corps, famously criticized the script as being akin to spitting on the American flag. Although he demanded changes, the filmmakers proceeded without them. By the time of the 1985 release, leadership had shifted, and the organization was ultimately willing to endorse the project.
Critical reception was polarized. Walter Goodman of The New York Times lauded the film for Meyer’s steady direction and Hanks’s droll performance, noting his ability to maintain confidence amidst the frantic narrative. Conversely, Variety dismissed the film as a flat comedy that squandered its premise. The movie debuted at number two at the box office, earning over $5 million in its opening weekend and eventually grossing nearly $20 million domestically. Today, it is perhaps best remembered for marking the professional reunion of Hanks and John Candy, and for the off-screen connection between Hanks and his future wife, Rita Wilson, whom he had previously met on the set of Bosom Buddies.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Volunteers (1985 film)
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