Top 10 of 1973

An extraordinary eerie and strange movie. A policeman is send to a remote island to investigate the disapperance of a young girl, only the become entangled into the web of a paganistic cult.

The movie has the feel of a 70ies camp movie, using many excuses (Paganism) to show naked women strolling and dancing around, leaning against graves or dancing around a bonfire (reminded me of the 1922 movie Haxan). While I was a bit put off by that in the beginning, it made sense in terms of the narrative later on and fitted well into the setting. The cast is solid, and apart from Christopher Lee, recruited out of the B-Ranks. Actually, Christopher Lee agreed to take part in this movie for free.

While the movie does not have lots of twists (except in the end), yet the brooding eariness and especially the growing uncomfortability of the police officer and the challenges to his Christian beliefs are a very interesting thing to observe. Christoper Lee pulls off hsi classic Lord of Terror thing here, which I found a bit of a heartless and formal performance.

The movie is entertaining and gritty and I highly recommend it.

A note on the movie's underlying anthropological assumptions. While I can understand how the portrayal of the islanders as ruthless pagans works for this movie, I strongly object any notions of taking this circumstance for real. Paganistic beliefs are far more rational and sensible than Christianity and people should not forget that.

Henrik

I thought the movie was just average, although the cast promised to delvier a good movie. Joseph Cotton has just a brief appereance and you can see the late Edward G. Robinson in his last appereance. He was dying of cancer, which makes it rather unpleasant to witness his "death" scene in this movie I must say. Did you know that Charlton Heston was really crying during the shoot?

Well, back to the point. The movie is a standard dystopia - a greedy capitalistic industry being the devil's seed polluting the earth while a lonesome flatfoot tries to save it. A classic future-western i'd say. Heston's performance is wooden, but that was his acting-style alright. The supporting cast is weak, expect the two legendary actors mentioned above of course. But without a profilic villain, the good vs. evil plot just did not carry.

The movie lacks some of the visual and score genius some similar movies of the around that time possessed (e.g. Blade Runner, Silent Running etc.)

It's funny though how most movies that are set in the future can be traced back to the century they were produced. In this picture for example, the aparments, clothes and the music is in-your-face 70ish. It's not easy to make a futuristic movie that does not look totally retro after ten years, but it's possible (Alien, Tron, Blade Runner, Star Wars)

Another strange thing that I noticed, is that all the women in the movie are referred to as furniture and live in apartments pleasing the tennants ? Is that some kind of utopian male sex fantasy of the author (the book's author I mean). If anyone knows something about this, please explain.

All in All the movie is average and nothing too fancy.

The DVD of this movie bears the advertiing "hookline" : Experience the Raw Power of the Master (Scorcese). And this pretty much what you get. The story is not as entangled as his later works, but the setting, the dialogues and the direction are already showing his significant trademarks and his extraordinary skill. The story, as I already mentioned, is very personal and not related to a more complex structure of crime or else (like in The Departed). The actor's are great and one can see why Scorcese chose to make De Niro his flagship actor, whose talent is oozing out of this movie like liquor from a bottle.

A solid ride through Little Italy, which may seem cliche by today's standards, but bear in mind that this is the movie which basically started all the cliches in the first place, a true pioneer's effort.

If you are into Scorcese, De Nito / Keitel, mafia & crime or simply New York movies (although the majority of the movie was shot in LA), you should not miss this one.

H.