Another gem of a film. I really like this one - very underrated in both Polanksi and Ford's filmographies. It was one of several fascinatingly complex roles Ford took on in the 1980s. Too bad these films weren't commercial sucesses as he stopped taking chances in the '90s and onwards.
Agreed. I recently revisited on Blu-ray and it's really a top-shelf thriller. Great score by Morricone and Ford does very well playing a more vulnerable, everyman character, a variation on the Hitchcock - Stewart partnership in something like THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.
Yes, I suppose it is pretty downbeat, but never strikes me as unusually so, or that surprising, although I suppose it could be construed as such when one considers the film is top-lined by just about the biggest Hollywood star at the time. It's an odd hybrid of commercial thriller and something somewhat artier because of its French setting and direction by Polanski. So, yes, it's not surprising it wasn't a big success...I didn't know it was a bomb.
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Another gem of a film. I really like this one - very underrated in both Polanksi and Ford's filmographies. It was one of several fascinatingly complex roles Ford took on in the 1980s. Too bad these films weren't commercial sucesses as he stopped taking chances in the '90s and onwards.
Agreed. I recently revisited on Blu-ray and it's really a top-shelf thriller. Great score by Morricone and Ford does very well playing a more vulnerable, everyman character, a variation on the Hitchcock - Stewart partnership in something like THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.
Not to mention a fantastic downbeat ending. No wonder if bombed at the North American box office!
Yes, I suppose it is pretty downbeat, but never strikes me as unusually so, or that surprising, although I suppose it could be construed as such when one considers the film is top-lined by just about the biggest Hollywood star at the time. It's an odd hybrid of commercial thriller and something somewhat artier because of its French setting and direction by Polanski. So, yes, it's not surprising it wasn't a big success...I didn't know it was a bomb.
Yeah, it didn't even make back it's $20 million budget. Ouch. Not good considering what a huge movie star Ford was at the time.
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