Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"I am the man with the power to create catastrophe", 24 Mar 2008
By the time Richard Burton made this film, he was almost coming to the end of his long career. What we have here is a wonderful English/French/Italian made thriller, and one that i remember fondly from my teenage years.
Those expecting the clashing of swords, mythical monsters, and the hideous Medusa herself will be suprised to find no such creatures - the Medusa is symbolic of the power she has to turn the victim into stone from her gaze. Like Medusa, Burton's character has the power to create catastrophe, simply by willing it to happen.
The opening of the film shows Burton's character watching TV, and the unfolding of a doomed space mission. From behind him he is attacked viciously and left for dead. The film then begins, and what unfolds is a series of disasters and in between, an attempted murder investigation. The film, without confusing the viewer, jumps back and forth between before and after the attack, to when Burton was a troubled boy with uncaring parents to blame, and a truly sadistic nanny, brilliantly cast to resemble Medusa in her looks, even though she is on screen for only a few seconds. Burton begins to tell of his power to his psychiatrist, played by the late Lee Remick (The Omen), who later tells the investigative officer what she has learned, as Burton lays in a coma.
The film is rarely shown on television, so this DVD release will be welcomed by fans, and those who may have heard of it and want to see it. The story is suprisingly good with some twists and turns - a nicely balanced collection of accounts and events, disasters and death. There is nothing outstanding about this film, nore is there anything wrong with this film. Still, this remains one of Richard Burton's final films, but not his final film, and one that remains to be seen and absorbed until the final scene. It will leave you with a chill - the power of cinema is not always in the visuals, but often spoken in words.
Wonderful.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best horror films of all time, 20 Aug 2007
...except, of course, you're never quite sure that it really IS a horror film until quite late on. This film, atmospheric and brooding, yet livened up by dark humour throughout, is in some ways similar to Magic with Anthony Hopkins and The Omen (the original, not the remake). All date from the early seventies and all have a slow build-up of tension as you, the audience, are invited to swallow an unlikely but scary proposition ('does the ventriloquist's dummy REALLY talk to him?'; 'is Gregory Peck's kid REALLY the Devil?' and here: 'could Richard Burton REALLY be causing all those disasters?'. The alternative, of course, is that Hopkins, Peck and here Burton are all bonkers. To convince the audience that they're not, maintaining the tension and not letting it become laughable is a tough trick to pull off and all three films manage it superbly.
Fans of The League of Gentlemen may spot that the conclusion to their film (The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse) is based on the conclusion to this one. Both are perfect.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant film, 13 Aug 2008
Inspector Brunel(Lino Ventura) is investigating the attempted murder of novelist John Morlar(Richard Burton). Whilst Morlar lies in a coma in hospital, Brunel begins to discover frightening fragments of Morlar's life, with the help of the novelists Psychiatrist, played by Lee Remick. It seems that through the will of his mind alone, Morlar has the ability to cause disaster and destruction around him.
This film is part disaster movie, part horror film and part whodunnit, and excels in every department. It has quite a long running time, but engages the viewer throughout. The performances are uniformingly excellent, from Ventura's cynical, weary policeman to Burton's performance of wild eyed conviction as the mysterious Morlar.
The DVD is of excellent quality too, and looks simply sumptious. Highly recommended
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