Post by ronnierocketago on Jul 23, 2009 4:18:12 GMT
PURSUIT (1972) - ***
Most people remember the late Michael Crichton as the writer of those formulaic cautionary tech-thriller novels that got translated into several hit movies, but did you know that he was also a director? Much like Clive Barker, Crichton was an author-turned-filmmaker who adapted quite a few of his own literary works for cinema, and literally fulfilling the Auteur Theory. Sure he never helmed anything as awesome or memorable like HELLRAISER, but Crichton at his best was a competent efficient director, especially with the thrills. I highly suggest you go Netflix his tremendously fun Sean Connery caper THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY and the medical conspiracy thriller COMA, based off Robin Cook's best-seller.
Crichton of course started out his writing career while at Harvard Medical School, so he penned a whole slew of books through pseudonyms. THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN was the first under his real identity, which did gangbusters on shelves and quickly got made into a quite decent Robert Wise picture in 1971. A year later Crichton had three movies produced from his pen names: Blake Edwards' THE CAREY TREATMENT, the teen drug comedy DEALING: OR THE BERKELEY-TO-BOSTON FORTY-BRICK LOST-BAG BLUES*, and today's review, his directorial debut.
Quite honestly, I never heard of PURSUIT until I found the DVD for $3 at the Big Lots bargain bin, and obviously I bought it because of Crichton. I don't fully understand the story behind PURSUIT, but I read somewhere that basically somebody wanted to buy the film rights to his book BINARY (published under "John Lange") and Crichton with his own Hollywood ambitions agreed on the condition that he would direct it. Hey this same trick worked for James Cameron's TERMINATOR, which every studio wanted but only Orion Pictures agreed to let him direct. Similarly with ROCKY and Sylvester Stallone's unnegotiable stance on casting himself.
PURSUIT was one of those titles released under the legendary popular ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK series. You know low budget TV films usually sensational and B-genre in nature (all under 75 minutes), which also gave us the macho-tearjerker classic BRIAN'S SONG, some fun junk (TRILOGY OF TERROR), numerous backdoor pilots (THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER), and oh yeah mother fucking DUEL, the feature debut by a certain Steven Spielberg. Most of these productions in fact were even distributed to overseas theatres.
Apparently this was around the same time when Crichton started his association with Spielberg when he visited the ANDROMEDA set at Unviersal Studios, and the then-nobody TV director gave him a tour. Crichton was also kicking around a hospital melodrama script EMERGENCY WARD that nobody bought. Of course Spielberg later shot Crichton's JURASSIC PARK, and they both would reformat EMERGENCY WARD (now E.W.) for television...as E.R. None of that is terribly relevant to this review, but so what?
We open with some ultra-right wingers (led by E.G. Marshall) hijacking an Army transport, snatching the two precursor chemicals that form the nerve agent ZN. The gas is contained in two tanks with plastic explosives placed inbetween, so that when they're detonated, the two "binary" gases would form ZN. The target is San Diego, where a national political party convention is being held and will be attended by the U.S. President.
Since both BINARY and PURSUIT both came out in 1972, this is President Richard Nixon we're talking about. This might be a stretch why such an ideologue extrememist would go after Tricky Dick, so I guess he was really pissed about Nixon going to China. Or that he wasn't napalming enough Vietnamese. I would have hated Marshall's recation if Hubert Humphrey had been elected instead. I doubt I need to inform you that the FBI is onto Marshall, and agent Ben Gazzara tries to hunt down and disarm the weapon in time. Then again, a good chemical attack might be a helpful bath for a dump like San Diego.
I was about tempted to criticize the short running time for why no discerning characters or even the basic psychologicalemotionalisms are ever fleshed out beyond their bare simple archetpyes: The hero, his obstacle supervisor, the villain, his henchmen, etc. But DUEL's original version has the same length, and that didn't stop Spielberg from giving us those giant engaging personalities of the Truck and Dennis Weaver which dominate his canvas. Plus DUEL didn't have an idiotic moment like PURSUIT has when Marshall during interrogation by the Feds just bolts up and escapes through the door. Why was no agent guarding that room's only exit? Shit why didn't anyone lock the goddamn thing? Jeez, I hope they got demoted down to Harbor Patrol.
I suppose it's not totally fair to compare a bowl of pretzels like PURSUIT to a vintage import wine like DUEL. Yet you know what? Pretzels and PURSUIT are a delicious lightweight snack.
You might feel subsequently dirty about munching down on them (especially when you realized you grabbed them from the same pub bowl touched by hundreds of unwashed hands fresh from the toilets), but not after licking the salt (and piss) around your mouth.
A nice filmatic touch by Crichton is immediately after the whackos get the gas, a digital countdown clock pops on-screen, T-minus 15 hours. Yeah this was 24 before 24 and the iconic ominous ticker which haunts Kiefer Sutherland This doomsday marker appears in numerous sequences to successfully heighten the suspense for otherwise routine bland scenes. Take that scene when the they finally reach the penthouse suite, the site of the gas strapped to a bomb, but an agent left the "sniffer" bomb detector in the car...and they only have 5 minutes left. I hope he didn't forget his keys.
No it's not an original tool, but I liked Crichton having that sort of ambition for such a jobber project, and it works. Crichton also dishes out a great finale set-piece, the suite a seemingly unbeatable deathtrap thought out in every possible way by Marshall. The door is laced with plastic explosives, the suite filled up with one of the fatal binary mixture, the bomb triggered by seismic vibrations...so how does Gazzara prevail? I aint telling. Only in a movie could a baddie can over-plan and over-anticipate in miniscule detail with precise accuracy without any character pointing out how fucking ridiculous this all is. And not be a bad thing. Just ask THE DARK KNIGHT.
Gazzara is competent if unremarkable as the lead, as does the rest of the cast. Gazzara has a lengthy acting career, his highlights being the defendent in Preminger's ANATOMY OF A MURDER and probably better known as the villain in the cheeseball Patrick Swayze classic ROADHOUSE. The sole stand-out is the brief appearance of a young Martin Sheen as a computer hacker. Yes, a computer hacker in 1972! And I thought WARGAMES was as antique as that archetype could be found. In fact that is the earliest mention I've heard in a movie of "hacking" and "on-line" (back when the Internet was only a fresh Defense Department toy known only outside to tech nerds) I'm aware of save for maybe COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT. So that's cool.
What's also cool is the score composed by the eighteen-time Oscar nominee Jerry Goldsmith, giving us a cool soundtrack of jazz, classic trademark badass 70s "action/excitement" beats (yes!), all worthy of a better movie. Goldsmith would work with director Crichton again for three more times (or four if you count THE 13TH WARRIOR, which Crichton took over and re-shot several minutes from John McTiernan).
Unlike the incredibly powerful DUEL, Crichton's PURSUIT never really escapes it's television circumstances and origins. At times it feels like an extended episode of MANNIX or HAWAII FIVE-O, which I suppose isn't necessarily a bad thing. But you don't make way or time for them either. I mean I liked those shows. MAGNUM P.I. though pussywhips both of them. BTW, you all heard about CBS reviving FIVE-O? Fuck'em, Dano.
PURSUIT is what it is and nothing more than a decent mix between matinee police procedural and disposable thriller. I was never bored or regretted watching it, which for most television movies is an achievement. Better three bucks spent than VIRUS. So for directorial debuts by authors go quality-wise, I would say PURSUIT ranks between HELLRAISER and Frank Miller's THE SPIRIT. And remember, Miller had the cast, money, scale, and time behind him. Crichton didn't.
Most people remember the late Michael Crichton as the writer of those formulaic cautionary tech-thriller novels that got translated into several hit movies, but did you know that he was also a director? Much like Clive Barker, Crichton was an author-turned-filmmaker who adapted quite a few of his own literary works for cinema, and literally fulfilling the Auteur Theory. Sure he never helmed anything as awesome or memorable like HELLRAISER, but Crichton at his best was a competent efficient director, especially with the thrills. I highly suggest you go Netflix his tremendously fun Sean Connery caper THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY and the medical conspiracy thriller COMA, based off Robin Cook's best-seller.
Crichton of course started out his writing career while at Harvard Medical School, so he penned a whole slew of books through pseudonyms. THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN was the first under his real identity, which did gangbusters on shelves and quickly got made into a quite decent Robert Wise picture in 1971. A year later Crichton had three movies produced from his pen names: Blake Edwards' THE CAREY TREATMENT, the teen drug comedy DEALING: OR THE BERKELEY-TO-BOSTON FORTY-BRICK LOST-BAG BLUES*, and today's review, his directorial debut.
Quite honestly, I never heard of PURSUIT until I found the DVD for $3 at the Big Lots bargain bin, and obviously I bought it because of Crichton. I don't fully understand the story behind PURSUIT, but I read somewhere that basically somebody wanted to buy the film rights to his book BINARY (published under "John Lange") and Crichton with his own Hollywood ambitions agreed on the condition that he would direct it. Hey this same trick worked for James Cameron's TERMINATOR, which every studio wanted but only Orion Pictures agreed to let him direct. Similarly with ROCKY and Sylvester Stallone's unnegotiable stance on casting himself.
PURSUIT was one of those titles released under the legendary popular ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK series. You know low budget TV films usually sensational and B-genre in nature (all under 75 minutes), which also gave us the macho-tearjerker classic BRIAN'S SONG, some fun junk (TRILOGY OF TERROR), numerous backdoor pilots (THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER), and oh yeah mother fucking DUEL, the feature debut by a certain Steven Spielberg. Most of these productions in fact were even distributed to overseas theatres.
Apparently this was around the same time when Crichton started his association with Spielberg when he visited the ANDROMEDA set at Unviersal Studios, and the then-nobody TV director gave him a tour. Crichton was also kicking around a hospital melodrama script EMERGENCY WARD that nobody bought. Of course Spielberg later shot Crichton's JURASSIC PARK, and they both would reformat EMERGENCY WARD (now E.W.) for television...as E.R. None of that is terribly relevant to this review, but so what?
We open with some ultra-right wingers (led by E.G. Marshall) hijacking an Army transport, snatching the two precursor chemicals that form the nerve agent ZN. The gas is contained in two tanks with plastic explosives placed inbetween, so that when they're detonated, the two "binary" gases would form ZN. The target is San Diego, where a national political party convention is being held and will be attended by the U.S. President.
Since both BINARY and PURSUIT both came out in 1972, this is President Richard Nixon we're talking about. This might be a stretch why such an ideologue extrememist would go after Tricky Dick, so I guess he was really pissed about Nixon going to China. Or that he wasn't napalming enough Vietnamese. I would have hated Marshall's recation if Hubert Humphrey had been elected instead. I doubt I need to inform you that the FBI is onto Marshall, and agent Ben Gazzara tries to hunt down and disarm the weapon in time. Then again, a good chemical attack might be a helpful bath for a dump like San Diego.
I was about tempted to criticize the short running time for why no discerning characters or even the basic psychologicalemotionalisms are ever fleshed out beyond their bare simple archetpyes: The hero, his obstacle supervisor, the villain, his henchmen, etc. But DUEL's original version has the same length, and that didn't stop Spielberg from giving us those giant engaging personalities of the Truck and Dennis Weaver which dominate his canvas. Plus DUEL didn't have an idiotic moment like PURSUIT has when Marshall during interrogation by the Feds just bolts up and escapes through the door. Why was no agent guarding that room's only exit? Shit why didn't anyone lock the goddamn thing? Jeez, I hope they got demoted down to Harbor Patrol.
I suppose it's not totally fair to compare a bowl of pretzels like PURSUIT to a vintage import wine like DUEL. Yet you know what? Pretzels and PURSUIT are a delicious lightweight snack.
You might feel subsequently dirty about munching down on them (especially when you realized you grabbed them from the same pub bowl touched by hundreds of unwashed hands fresh from the toilets), but not after licking the salt (and piss) around your mouth.
A nice filmatic touch by Crichton is immediately after the whackos get the gas, a digital countdown clock pops on-screen, T-minus 15 hours. Yeah this was 24 before 24 and the iconic ominous ticker which haunts Kiefer Sutherland This doomsday marker appears in numerous sequences to successfully heighten the suspense for otherwise routine bland scenes. Take that scene when the they finally reach the penthouse suite, the site of the gas strapped to a bomb, but an agent left the "sniffer" bomb detector in the car...and they only have 5 minutes left. I hope he didn't forget his keys.
No it's not an original tool, but I liked Crichton having that sort of ambition for such a jobber project, and it works. Crichton also dishes out a great finale set-piece, the suite a seemingly unbeatable deathtrap thought out in every possible way by Marshall. The door is laced with plastic explosives, the suite filled up with one of the fatal binary mixture, the bomb triggered by seismic vibrations...so how does Gazzara prevail? I aint telling. Only in a movie could a baddie can over-plan and over-anticipate in miniscule detail with precise accuracy without any character pointing out how fucking ridiculous this all is. And not be a bad thing. Just ask THE DARK KNIGHT.
Gazzara is competent if unremarkable as the lead, as does the rest of the cast. Gazzara has a lengthy acting career, his highlights being the defendent in Preminger's ANATOMY OF A MURDER and probably better known as the villain in the cheeseball Patrick Swayze classic ROADHOUSE. The sole stand-out is the brief appearance of a young Martin Sheen as a computer hacker. Yes, a computer hacker in 1972! And I thought WARGAMES was as antique as that archetype could be found. In fact that is the earliest mention I've heard in a movie of "hacking" and "on-line" (back when the Internet was only a fresh Defense Department toy known only outside to tech nerds) I'm aware of save for maybe COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT. So that's cool.
What's also cool is the score composed by the eighteen-time Oscar nominee Jerry Goldsmith, giving us a cool soundtrack of jazz, classic trademark badass 70s "action/excitement" beats (yes!), all worthy of a better movie. Goldsmith would work with director Crichton again for three more times (or four if you count THE 13TH WARRIOR, which Crichton took over and re-shot several minutes from John McTiernan).
Unlike the incredibly powerful DUEL, Crichton's PURSUIT never really escapes it's television circumstances and origins. At times it feels like an extended episode of MANNIX or HAWAII FIVE-O, which I suppose isn't necessarily a bad thing. But you don't make way or time for them either. I mean I liked those shows. MAGNUM P.I. though pussywhips both of them. BTW, you all heard about CBS reviving FIVE-O? Fuck'em, Dano.
PURSUIT is what it is and nothing more than a decent mix between matinee police procedural and disposable thriller. I was never bored or regretted watching it, which for most television movies is an achievement. Better three bucks spent than VIRUS. So for directorial debuts by authors go quality-wise, I would say PURSUIT ranks between HELLRAISER and Frank Miller's THE SPIRIT. And remember, Miller had the cast, money, scale, and time behind him. Crichton didn't.