Escanaba in Da Moonlight

We watch this all year long!!! It's an absolute favorite in our house. #ProudYooper #ProudNative

A classic! It’s a funny movie that puts into perspective the ridiculous rituals us hunters might do during deer camp, with a humorous spin of course too! It’s our camps yearly ritual to watch this before deer season over a hot bowl of venison chili!

An amazing story that captures the daily life of a midwesterner during hunting season. With a heartfelt plot and the most sophisticated humor this is one of the best comedic film of all time.

Escanaba in da Moonlight is inane in places, crass in others, relies on sometimes crude humor, has disconnected story lines and still manages to deliver an amazingly awesome movie. I may be a bit biased as a born Yooper who spent significant time in Escanaba growing up, but that may drive home what really counts in Escanaba! No matter how insane the antics of the movie we find out that family, perseverance, and in their own way honor count most. Rueben has a brother, father, and wife who all support and encourage him despite previous failures. They are will to sacrifice some of their own comfort, success, and even pride to support Rueben in finding his own path to success. And in the end that support handed down through generations leads to the inevitable outcome of success. And that is a theme that one need not be a Yooper to appreciate or understand. So despite one to many fart jokes and some oddball deviations into UFOs, strange versions of spirituality, and some inside jokes that familiarity with UP culture helps to understand, this is becomes by the time the final credits roll by an amazing movie. Ultimately we have a middle aged man on his own path of self discovery who in the end finds himself and realizes that what really counts he had all along. Albert, Remnar, and Wolf Moon Dance are all there in support and enjoy Rueben's triumphs. So this qualifies as mostly good clean fun with a refreshing moral for those who stick with it to the end and thus earns five stars. The two different versions of our internal humanity displayed between crass humor and honorable behavior in the end works so give it a chance if you have not seen this one before.

...that is Escanaba in da Moonlight. It is a story about a misfit searching for his place in a narrowly defined world. Set in Michigan's UP, a. k. a. the Superior State by secession minded residents, it is not commentary about the ethics of hunting or vegetarianism or any other political or lifestyle choice. Many pacifists and vegetarians loved the original play on which this film is based.In a community whose hunting traditions run deep, Rueben Soady is buckless. He's 43 and has yet to make his right of passage; he's shunned by the entire town. Even his own friends and family don't want to hunt anywhere near him. In spite of it all he wants to fit in. This is the film's basis for universal appeal and why the play on which it was based on was so popular.The driver's license has been called America's right of passage. At best it's a threshold to begin an adolescent quest, not complete it. Adolescence extends to the late 30s or longer for many. We call it finding ourselves-and our place in our community. The whole process is a mystery to Rueben Soady. Where will the flash of insight come from? UFOs? Is success influenced by spirits? He is clueless. He is desperate, so desperate that he's willing to subject himself to the humiliation of eating moose balls, wearing porcupine "urine" (the sensors are brutal), and breathing the foulest flatulence if that is what it takes to make the passage. Let's see if we can get out of the two-seater here. Rueben is desperate and willing, but needs the support of his family and friends. As cruel as it may be to be shunned by the community, the support of family and friends is even more affirming. Rueben must overcome a significant challenge to complete his passage and earn his place in the community. Is he up to it?This is a story about real people who we may or may not know, to whom we may or may not relate, but we can certainly care about them, and hopefully we will learn from them. Have fun while you watch! You may even want to own it as a cult flick, but there's more to it than potty humor. These are metaphors for the all the bizare stuff we each endure in our individual quests. When we laugh at Rueben, we laugh at ourselves. We know the truth. We have lived it.Jeff Daniels has chosen to entertain us with a comedy and uses caricatures to tell his story. Caricatures portray distortions and often offend the thin-skinned, but an insightful caricature is an exaggerated truth. This is Jeff Daniels' film. He uses his brand of comedy and it is hilarious.One last thing, being adapted from a well-honed play, there's not much to offer as additional features for the DVD.

This movie will make sense to anyone from Michigan. The story is about a man from Michigan's Upper Peninsula who's gone his entire life having never bagged a buck (shot a deer), which has branded him a total loser in the eyes of his community. Deer season rolls around and he sets out with his father, brother, and a family friend to the family's hunting shack in the woods to make another attempt to bag a buck. In all of its folklorish, superstitious glory, the hunters experience a series of bizarre events. I found this movie to be hilarious, although I'll admit that if you don't understand the importance of deer season in Michigan, it might not make as much sense.

Hubbys favorite movie

Very funny storyline. I suspect I missed a lot of the in jokes as plot related to a specific area of the U.S.A but still enjoyable.

This is a classic,. Not sure where I first heard about it but I love it. My grownup kids like it too and rave about it to their friends saying you just have to watch this movie. It's great.

Sucks