Lawrence Bourne III, is a spoiled rich kid who just graduated from Yale Class of 1962 with a $28,000 gambling debt. After his father, Lawrence Bourne Jr., refuses to pay his son's debt, Lawrence escapes his angry creditors by trading places with his college roommate Kent and jumping on a Peace Corps flight to Thailand. On the plane, he meets Washington State University graduate Tom Tuttle from Tacoma and the beautiful, down-to-earth Beth Wexler, the latter of whom rejects his advances upon realizing why he's really there. In Thailand, Lawrence is assigned by John Reynolds to build a bridge for the local villagers. On day 1, Tuttle gets into an argument with the villagers over what wood to use; the only one to speak English is At Toon. Tuttle then gets captured by communist forces who brainwash him into doing their bidding, while Reynolds makes passes at Beth. Lawrence befriends At Toon, teaching him and several other villagers various gambling card games, but they are met by the powerful drug lord Chung Mee, who forces them to have the bridge ready soon if they want to live. Lawrence eventually wins Beth over but she is captured by Reynolds, who is working with Chung Mee. At Toon, who had witnessed the events, explains to Lawrence what happened. They rescue Beth, who urges them to destroy the bridge; Lawrence reluctantly agrees after professing his love for her. They get the villagers on board with the plan and get Tuttle back to reality, plotting to leave dynamite in the center of the bridge so that the entire structure will capsize. Their plan works fine until Lawrence is confronted by Reynolds, who threatens to kill him. Lawrence sweet-talks Reynolds long enough to enact the plan, jumping into the river as the bridge explodes. Beth saves Lawrence by performing CPR, and they kiss once Lawrence wakes. Some time later, Lawrence and Beth are married in the Thailand village. Lawrence writes to his parents saying he finally did something right for the right reasons.
Cast
Tom Hanks as Lawrence Bourne III
John Candy as Tom Tuttle From Tacoma
Rita Wilson as Beth Wexler
Tim Thomerson as John Reynolds
Gedde Watanabe as At Toon
George Plimpton as Lawrence Bourne, Jr.
Ernest Harada as Chung Mee
Allan Arbus as Albert Bardenaro
Xander Berkeley as Kent Sutcliffe
Production
The film was in the works for six years before it was made. Volunteers was filmed in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. The filmmakers built a Thai village based on the Karen people of Burma's Golden Triangle, building the world's "longest suspension bridge" which was more than long. A cast of over 100 people from all over the world, including Thai families, spent two and a half months filming. Meyer states that the director of the Peace Corps, Sargent Shriver, read the script and complained that it "was like spitting on the American flag," and demanded changes. The changes were never made, but by the time the film was released, Shriver was no longer director, and Peace Corps officials were willing to endorse the movie. This film marked the reunion of Hanks and Candy, who starred in Splash. It is also the film where Hanks reconnected with his future wife, Rita Wilson, whom he had first met when they worked on an episode of Bosom Buddies. The scene in which Wilson and Hanks enjoy Coca-Cola was criticized as product placement, as TriStar was a unit of Columbia Pictures, then owned by The Coca-Cola Company. Co-writer Levine denies this, stating that the scene appeared in the first draft of the film written in 1980, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was to be the studio. The film spoofs a number of David Lean epics, including Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai, with the Washington State University Fight Song used in place of the "Colonel Bogey March".
Reception
Box office
The film debuted No. 2 at the box office, earning $5,184,360 over its opening weekend. It ultimately grossed a domestic total of $19,875,740.
Critical response
Volunteers received generally mixed reviews from critics. The film holds a 58% positive "Rotten" score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Walter Goodman of The New York Times praised the "steady directorial hand" of Nicholas Meyer and the "stylishly droll performance" of Tom Hanks, about whom Goodman added, "He is a center of confidence amid the frantic goings-on, turning peril into opportunity with an accent and aplomb that are the birthright of an eighth-generation Bourne." Conversely, Variety called it "a very broad and mostly flat comedy" and wrote, "Toplined Tom Hanks gets in a few good zingers as an upperclass snob doing time in Thailand, but promising premise and opening shortly descend into unduly protracted tedium." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune similarly stated that the film had "two lame performances by its leading actors, the vastly overrated Tom Hanks... and the consistently disappointing John Candy." He elaborated:
