Mark Harmon’s ‘Stealing Home’ Is Worth Revisiting

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  • Harmon’s Movie Career Flopped With ‘Stealing Home’
  • ‘NCIS’ Has Overshadowed the Rest of Harmon’s Career

Initially, Mark Harmon achieved some fame on the medical drama TV show “St. Elsewhere.” During this time, his character, Dr. Robert Caldwell, was among the first to portray a death from AIDS on television. Harmon departed “St. Elsewhere” in 1986 after being named People’s Sexiest Man Alive and receiving rave reviews for his haunting performance as serial killer Ted Bundy in the TV movie “The Deliberate Stranger.

In 1987, Harmon kick-started his feature film journey with the comedy flick “Summer School,” which had a decent run at the box office. Following this, in 1988, Harmon shared screen space with Sean Connery in the crime thriller “The Presidio.” Interestingly, this movie foreshadowed his later fame as he portrayed a former military cop transformed into a San Francisco police detective, investigating a murder at the Presidio Army base – a role reminiscent of his character on NCIS. Post “The Presidio,” Harmon took up a project dear to him – the 1988 romantic drama film “Stealing Home.” In this movie, he portrayed a down-on-his-luck minor league baseball player who returns home upon learning that his childhood love had taken her own life.

35 years after its initial release, the heartfelt production known as Stealing Home was met with harsh criticism by critics and a lack of interest from audiences. However, over time, it has developed a cult following. Modern viewers have been drawn to the film’s nostalgic themes and Harmon’s moving performance, offering a captivating glimpse into his successful career that followed.

Mark Harmon Reveals a Sentimental Side in ‘Stealing Home’

Instead of the quiet and steadfast character Leroy Jethro Gibbs, portrayed by Mark Harmon over 19 seasons on NCIS, Harmon’s character in Stealing Home, Billy Wyatt, is initially presented as a struggling minor league baseball player in his mid to late 30s. He maintains his nomadic baseball lifestyle to evade the responsibilities of adulthood and confronting his past.

Or more concisely:
Whereas Leroy Jethro Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon for 19 seasons on NCIS, is a stoic character, Billy Wyatt in Stealing Home, also portrayed by Harmon, starts as a troubled minor league baseball player who uses his transient lifestyle to avoid adult obligations and face his past.

In the movie, Billy’s troubled past catches up with him right from the start. Living in a motel room with a cocktail waitress, Billy receives a devastating call from his long-lost mother. She informs him that his old friend and love, Katie Chandler, has tragically taken her own life. Upon hearing this news, Billy boards a bus to return to his small town in Pennsylvania, where he learns another shocking truth – Katie’s will designated Billy as the one responsible for scattering her ashes, since she believed only he would know how to handle them properly.

The movie showcases flashbacks in which Jodie Foster’s character, named Katie, portrays an easygoing, older sister-like figure to teenage Billy. In these scenes, she comforts him after the unexpected death of his father and inspires him to pursue his passion for baseball. As the story unfolds in the present day, Billy is seen carrying Katie’s ashes for most of the film, pondering where to scatter them. This becomes a puzzle that viewers tend to solve earlier than Billy himself, who only comes to this realization towards the end of the movie.

In “Stealing Home,” the film’s impact is strongest when it encapsulates emotions universally experienced, particularly the way Billy’s adulthood is fragmented by recollections of yesteryears. This is vividly portrayed through the strange sensation Billy experiences, as if he was a hopeful teenager just moments ago, but finds himself mired in adult misery, shocked and disillusioned by the seemingly swift and ruthless march of life that seems to have overlooked him.

Harmon’s Movie Career Flopped With ‘Stealing Home’

Mark Harmon’s journey towards becoming a leading figure in feature films started off positively with the 1987 release of “Summer School,” which earned over $35 million at the domestic box office, despite receiving unfavorable critiques from critics. Unfortunately, the poor box-office performance of Harmon’s subsequent movie, “The Presidio,” which made roughly $20 million domestically, signaled the approaching end of his feature film ambitions and his return to television.

10 weeks following the release of The Presidio, Stealing Home earned less than $8 million at the U.S. box office. Currently, it has a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a 78% score from audiences, indicating mixed reception. The film was particularly panned by Roger Ebert, who called it an agonizing viewing experience in his one-star review of Stealing Home. In his critique, Ebert stated that the movie was excruciating to watch.

I absolutely hated the movie ‘Stealing Home’ from start to finish. After watching it, I found myself questioning if any film could possibly be that poorly made.

‘NCIS’ Has Overshadowed the Rest of Harmon’s Career

In the late 1980s, Mark Harmon aspired to kickstart a movie career, similar to several popular 1980s TV stars such as Bruce Willis, Don Johnson, and Tom Selleck. However, unlike Selleck whose film career stalled due to the nature of the projects he received, critics claimed that Harmon’s unsuccessful transition was because his magnetic television personality didn’t translate well onto the big screen.

In the 1990s, both Harmon and Selleck made a comeback to television acting, though their returns were met with varying degrees of success. Just as the character of Frank Reagan on “Blue Bloods” significantly boosted Selleck’s reputation, Harmon’s career-changing portrayal of Leroy Jethro Gibbs on “NCIS” seems to have overshadowed all his previous work, as if an entirely different actor had taken his place. Stealing Home can currently be found on Plex.

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2025-01-13 06:01