Runtime: 97 confounding minutes
Directed by: William Richert
Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Huston, and MANY others, albeit usually in small roles
From: AVCO Embassy
A movie watched because it’s leaving the Criterion Channel at the end of the month, the cast is astounding, and about time I checked out a movie I’ve known about for years. Thus, what a massive letdown this was that I didn’t find this “funny” movie really all the funny or even entertaining. “Off-putting” and “weird” are terms that I’d use, as unpopular as this opinion will be for many.
As suspected, it was “inspired” by the JFK assassination-my opinion on that case will not be discussed in public-there’s a rabbit hole I don’t want to go down nor a hornet’s nest I want to kick. Jeff Bridges is the brother of Not JFK, who was gunned down in Philadelphia on February 22, 1960 (if I’d known, the movie would have been reviewed last weekend). He learns from Joe Spinell-on his deathbed-that a second shooter killed Not JFK. Considering the cast and that the film was purported to be a comedic satire, my two main takeaways shouldn’t have been “Wow, was this weird & off-putting” and “You know, Belinda Bauer is a pretty gal.” That second point sounds like I’m a degenerate considering she had a scene of loud sex w/ Bridges then went full frontal nudity at one point. However, if you’re a degenerate who ever wanted to see an old John Huston wear a pair of bright red briefs… you’re in luck!
It's a shame I didn’t enjoy the bizarre story and didn’t laugh at most of the “humor” in a movie w/ (among others) Bridges, Bauer, Spinell, Huston, Toshiro Mifune-albeit for one scene, and what a pointless scene it was-Tomas Milian, Eli Wallach, Ralph Meeker, Sterling Hayden, and even Elizabeth Taylor for a minute. I’m glad most of you got more or even far more out of this farce than I did. To be fair, there’s an interesting score from Maurice Jarre & as the cinematography was from Vilmos Zsigmond so it looked great & featured a few stunning landscape shots.
The movie can be rented from Amazon or viewed on Tubi-as of course Tubi has the film. Hopefully any future viewer can better connect w/ Winter Kills than I did. There were some amusing moments-you probably won’t agree that a great moment was seeing Bridges drive a bright yellow Ford Pinto-so I can’t give the film a rotten rating-I was just disappointed overall. It’s the sort of movie where the troubled making-of sounds more interesting than the finished product and is worthy of a deep dive by me. Among other details, they ran out of money more than once, and the producers were drug dealers where one was murdered and the other went to prison for 40 years! Most evidently weren’t paid their full salary; Ms. Taylor was the smart one who asked for her $100,000 up-front for her cameo.
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