Runtime: 106 minutes
Directed by: Douglas Trumbull
Starring: Christopher Walken, Louise Fletcher, Natalie Wood, Cliff Robertson, Jordan Christopher
From: MGM/UA
This is another example of a film where the torturous production is more well-known than the actual film. Natalie Wood passed away due to still mysterious circumstances (did she argue with husband Robert Wagner then that resulted in her failed attempt to get in a dinghy and her being drunk & on medication led to drowning? Who knows for certain) and because MGM/UA was in dire straits at the time they shut down production, only for Lloyd's of London to foot the rest of the bill so another studio couldn't buy the movie and possibly have a hit on their hands... well, this wasn't a hit but in modern times this is a curio and that is just based on the merits of this motion picture.
The plot: a device that can record the thoughts and feelings of a person OF COURSE has interest from the military. Christopher Walken is the quirky scientist who leads the project... picking him was a natural choice. Louise Fletcher is the gal he works with and she chain-smokes in practically every scene she's in, including those where she's surrounded by all that snazzy early 80's technology, and Natalie Wood is his estranged wife who he awkwardly also has to work with.
The movie does not always work; sure, all the issues during filming was a factor but the story itself is also at fault; the balls that are various plots in the film aren't always juggled successfully. In fact the story loses its way at times. Yet overall I'll rate this as being “fine”. Even if the story meanders at times or perhaps isn't as exciting as it should be, the main cast all does a nice job; I know not everyone cared for Walken playing the character like you'd expect him too but it wasn't too much an issue for me. Plus, I was amused by all that early 80's technology; there was even an early 80's version of texting.
The way filming went drove director Douglas Trumbull out of Hollywood and it was only recently that he returned. It's a shame as he worked on the effects on such films as 2001, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Blade Runner. Instead, he used the 60 frames per second Showscan that he wanted to use for parts of this film on those motion effects rides that used to be out there back in the day. As special cameras were needed to show the movie that way, I am not surprised MGM/UA balked. Instead, this is still one of those movies with changing aspect ratios-I know some here at Letterboxd are huge fans of that-but the images that you see for the device are at 70mm Super Panavision while the rest of the movie is like at 1.7:1 as that was filmed on 35mm.
Some of the images you see in the movie are tremendous; James Horner did the score and he did a real nice job there. Such elements help this film out through its various struggles and helped me give it a decent rating.
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