The Ice Harvest

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The Ice Harvest

Directed by	Harold Ramis
Produced by	Albert Berger
Written by	Scott Phillips (novel), Richard Russo, Robert Benton
Starring	John Cusack Billy Bob Thornton Connie Nielsen Oliver Platt Randy Quaid
Distributed by	Focus Features
Release date(s)	23 November 2005 (USA)
Running time	89 min
Language	English
Budget	~ US$16,000,000
IMDb profile

The Ice Harvest is a 2005 neo-noir/comedy-drama film directed by Harold Ramis and written by Richard Russo and Robert Benton, based on the novel of the same name by Scott Phillips. It is distributed by Focus Features. The DVD was released on February 28, 2006.

1 Summary
2 Cast
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Summary

The film begins on Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas. Charlie Arglist, (Cusack) a mob lawyer, has just stolen a duffel bag full of money from his employer with the help of Vincent "Vic" Cavanaugh (Thornton). All they have to do is act casually and unsuspiciously until they leave town. Vic takes the money while Charlie spends the night visiting his client's strip clubs and evading suspicion. Early on, he meets up with Renata (Nielsen), a strip club owner after whom he has secretly lusted. She hints at spending the night with him if he can produce a certain photo of a local politician's indiscretion for blackmail. Things begin to go sour when a henchman of Charlie's boss comes looking for him and Vic. The body count mounts as the ice beneath Charlie's "perfect crime" begins to slowly crack.

[edit] Cast

John Cusack as Charlie Arglist
Billy Bob Thornton as Vic Cavanaugh
Connie Nielsen as Renata Crest
Randy Quaid as Bill Guerrard
Oliver Platt as Pete Van Heuten
Mike Starr as Roy Gellis
Ned Bellamy as Sidney

[edit] Trivia

The film repeatedly mentions Wichita Falls, a city in Texas, with the line "As Wichita falls... so falls Wichita Falls". This line appears to have little to do with Wichita, Kansas. This line was not in the book, but was written by one of the screenwriters.
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls is the title of a CD by jazz artists Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays. The CD was recorded September 1980, at Talent Studio, Oslo, Norway, and released by ECM Records in 1981.
The dark ending of the novel was entirely replaced (although it appears as an "alternative ending" on the DVD release).
The film was shot in the Chicago area.
The book took place in 1979 but the film took place in present day.
Director Harold Ramis admitted on the DVD they did no significant research on the story's location.
The name "Arglist" is German for "deceitfulness" or "guilefulness".