Tom and Huck


Tom and Huck is a 1995 American adventure comedy-drama film based on Mark Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, Mike McShane, Eric Schweig and Amy Wright. The film was directed by Peter Hewitt and produced/co-written by Stephen Sommers. The movie was released in North America on December 22, 1995.
In the film, mischievous young Tom Sawyer witnesses a murder by a vicious half-Native American criminal known as "Injun Joe". Tom befriends Huck Finn, a boy with no future and no family, and is forced to choose between honoring a friendship or honoring an oath, when the town drunk is accused of the murder.

Plot

One dark stormy night, Injun Joe goes to meet Doctor Jonas Robinson for some shady business. Tom Sawyer is then seen running away from home. He and his friends ride down the Mississippi River on a raft, but hit a sharp rock, which throws Tom into the water. His friends find him washed up on the shore, and Tom finds it was Huck Finn who carried him to safety. Huck learns of an unusual way to remove warts - by taking a dead cat to the graveyard at night. There they witness Injun Joe and Muff Potter, the town drunk, digging up the grave of Vic "One-Eyed" Murrell for Doctor Robinson. A treasure map is discovered and Doc assaults Muff and Injun Joe in an attempt to take it for himself. Doc manages to knock out Muff, and Injun Joe fights back by fatally stabbing Doc with Muff's knife.
The next morning, Muff is charged for the murder. Tom and Huck had signed an oath saying that if either of them came forward about it, they would drop dead and rot. The boys embark on a search for Injun Joe's treasure map, so they can declare Muff innocent and still keep their oath. The only problem is, the map is in Injun Joe's pocket. After Injun Joe finds the last treasure, he burns the map, leaving no evidence to claim Muff innocent. Joe then discovers that Tom was a witness to the crime. He finds Tom and threatens he will kill him if he ever tells anyone about the murder. However, at the time, the entire community believed that he was dead, and the friendship between Tom and Huck starts to decline because of the fact that their only evidence to prove Muff innocent, while preserving their oath, is destroyed.
At Muff Potter's trial, Tom decides that his friendship with Muff is more important than his oath with Huck and tells the truth. The court finds Muff innocent of all charges and goes after Injun Joe. As a result, Injun Joe decides to hold up his end of the bargain by killing Tom. When Injun Joe returns to the tavern, he sees accomplice Emmett gathering shovels and accuses him of cheating him by claiming the treasure for himself and Joe kills Emmett with a toss of his dagger. Huck becomes angry with Tom for breaking their oath and leaves town.
During a festival the next day, a group of children, including Tom and his love interest Becky Thatcher, enter the caves, where Tom and Becky become lost. They eventually stumble upon Injun Joe in McDougal's Cave. He traps them, but Tom and Becky manage to escape. When they find the treasure, Tom tells Becky to go get her father and bring him back.
Just then, Injun Joe finds Tom, and again tries to kill him. But Huck returns to help save Tom, and battles Injun Joe. But Injun Joe easily overpowers Huck; just as he is about to kill him, Tom holds the treasure chest over a chasm. Injun Joe then tries to get the chest from Tom, only to fall into the chasm to his death. The boys reconcile, and are declared heroes by the people. Tom is praised on the front page of the newspaper, and Widow Douglas decides to adopt Huck Finn.

Cast

Box office

The film debuted at No. 9. In its second week it rose to No. 8. The U.S. and Canada box office for Tom and Huck was $23,920,048.

Critical

The film received mixed to negative reviews, with a 'rotten' 25% on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.