In spite of having to size down the material, large chunks of characterisation and development ending up on the cutting room floor, as a film this works quite well. Yes, it leaves out the gradual descent, the vignettes of small-town-life or the ominous presence of the Marsden house as the infamous spot any community has and tries to ignore. But it’s doing a good job of delivering the story beats and does its own thing with the finale.
As an adaptation it’s not ‘definite’ (few King adaptations are), but it’s entertaining, and for those who may come to King through this there’s a wealth of undiscovered territory to be explored if they pick up the book. Recommended.
Oh dear, is this a pedestrian affair. This film tells the true story of Operation Creek, a secret attack on a covert German radio station aboard a merchant vessel in some Goa harbour. They transmitted vital information to a network of German submarines operating in the Indian Ocean and were instrumental in the sinking of a great number of Allied merchant ships.
The film largely follows actual events such as they happened in late 1942 and up until March 1943. Some of the backstory of the German spies feeding the information to their radio station was changed to make it a bit more spy vs spy and add an element of Bond into the mix. But the main storyline of the British Raj old geezers taking up Schmeisser SMGs to trade their gin-tonic war with some crucial action only they as civilians could undertake remains intact.
There’s plenty of adventurous derring do in this tale, no doubt about it. But the whole story is told overlong, winding, even downright boring. The cast is too big, the names are too big for characters who feel flat and leave us in effect largely cold. Storywise this should have been told a lot trimmer.
For a production that uses actual locations extensively, there’s comparatively little to actually see here, much less to marvel about. Yes, this is India, not some backlot. But it might as well have been. Production values seem very hit-and-miss and the action itself is staged positively dull. The majority of close quarters fighting goes to Moore and rarely was he put in scene less convincingly. Only the one fight Peck had to deliver - dealing with two types half his age - was even worse.
The whole film suffers from an unfocused plot that cannot concentrate on a few important characters. Instead, it tries to portray the whole operation as a kind of tribute, tries to be documentary and entertainment. And hits neither tone.
I remember seeing the poster at my favourite cinema and definitely wishing to see it after enjoying THE WILD GEESE so much.
But the movie was gone after one or two weeks. Many decades later, in 2019, I saw it was on offer as a digital copy for 3,99 Euros, so I bought it. And watched it. And had the same experience as you.
I still like the poster, though. The power of good marketing.
I did actually see this - part of it - in some butchered-to-death version back in the 90s or early 00s on RTL, if memory serves. Didn’t get the entire film, so I thought it unfair to judge. But had I spent my pocket money on this in 1980 I’d have been deeply disappointed. Which happened rarely in the cinema in those days.
It was aired at the BBC in the nineties if I remember correctly, but I already saw it on vcr when I rented it in the eighties, because… well… it had my movie hero Roger in it, but like all movies where he was one of a bigger cast his part was always a little dissapointing and he always seem to miss the final climax (Escape to Athena, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves) where he isn’t anywere to see (this probalby is not good English sorry about that, but you know what I mean).
I appreciated and respected Casualties of War. (Trying to think of a better way to express that. “Liked” or “enjoyed” aren’t really appropriate for such a violent film.)
IMO, other than in the Back to the Future trilogy, Michael J. Fox never got a fair shake as an actor. He was typecast in the Alex P. Keaton mold and had to fight for roles that would challenge others’ perception of him.
When I read Stephen King’s “Apt Pupil” (part of the Different Seasons novella collection), I thought Fox would have been brilliant in a film adaptation. I also always wished he could’ve played James Cagney in a biopic. 'Twas not to be.
I remember that Simmel tv vehicle ‘Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein’ being savagely vilified for its off narration explaining what’s happening on screen. Turns out ZDF was just 50 years ahead of its time.
The Fountain of Youth? No desire to get there. Going through all that crap again?
(it’s the same as the eternal life thing. Honestly, would anyone be capable to stand more than, say, 127 years of all this rubbish? Always good to know that it’s going to end one day)
If you’re still trying to achieve this, don’t forget: “Only the penitent man may pass!”
Researching for a possible haunted hause project I saw a rather popular film for the first time, somehow thinking it would be a boring and frankly bad movie.
I was pleasantly surprised.
The Amityville Horror (1979)
Director Stuart Rosenberg who a year later would direct the great prison drama “Brubaker” tells this story very effectively because he focuses on the characters and makes us care about them so everything which happens to them builds to an emotional climax. As Stephen King said about the film, this is about the economic downfall of a family, with no help in sight. Rosenberg even shows that the Catholic Church rather stays out of it instead of offering help, despite clearly having a supernatural threat manifest itself. The secular, former psychotherapist turned priest who experiences the threat is chastised and abandoned, even when he continues to physically deteriorate. The courage to put that storyline into a blockbuster made by a big studio was possible in 1979 - but I’m sure today nobody would want to go there.
James Brolin and Margot Kidder (before she became “Lois Lane”) are magnificent as the couple who only recently married and bring their children from former relationships under one roof. Lalo Schifrin´s score (Oscar nominated) is hauntingly chilling (and became a template for Elliot Goldenthal´s wonderful score for “Pet Sematery”).
Interestingly, the threat of a possessed (and also economically ruined) father killing his family with an axe was depicted here one year before Kubrick did the same in “The Shining”, and the tree crashing through a window of the children’s bedroom was also a fresh idea here, predating the still marvelous “Poltergeist” in 1982.
Still, “The Amityville Horror” seems to be snickered at these days, and I don’t see why. It is an absolutely well-made film which holds and escalates the tension for its two hour running time, even the dated visual effects do not detract from it.
In fact, the economically depressed family is a trope which these days should regain importance in contemporary horror.
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