Reviews

This came before Mr. Robot and it seems to have had a big influence on the development of that show. Granted Mr. Robot is a bigger better production, but in this move are all the seeds of the future Mr. Robot...

Seems like the man never made a bad movie. The characters are believable, the acting is good, and the topic interesting. In some ways a typical Lumet movie, in the choice of the topic and the way it is treated, and definitively not his greatest movie, yet still a worthy movie that will make you think and relate to the lives of others.

Good cast, badly directed. Overall a disappointment.

Poor acting, shoe string budget, terrible subject - Werwolf were of little significance in post war germany. Action scenes not really credible. Sole interesting line was the forbidden romance, and even that was poisoned.

Not the best Fuller movie.

A great performance by Constance Towers carries a special but somewhat uneven script. Definitively a movie ahead of its time, although it does fall into melodrama at times, which shows why Sam Fuller has such a rep as a maverick.

The script of this movie is a masterpiece ! The movie itself is well executed, without much flair, and the acting is solid throughout, although better cinematography and better lead actors would have given the script the vehicle it deserves.

This is a story about parents and their relationship to children, perhaps had I watched this movie when I was in my 20's it might have bored me to death as the crux of the script is a question of morality and the image we have of our parents.

Amazing performances! Bibi Anderson is astonishing, truly astonishing in this movie. Orson Wells could have hardly have done anything more with his screen time; von Sydow as always efficient. George Sanders as the homosexual, believable when not in drag. Will never forget who Richard Boone is after this.

A great anti-espionage movie, a brutal exploration of the amorality of the men who run the show. Definitely underrated, although not flawless...

Mr. Allen is a genius of modern cinematography, yet a man with flaws. Perhaps it is actually those flaws who have made his early movies possible and so attractive. While there is much in this documentary that is interesting, unfortunately this documentary is partial to the point that it doesn't paint a truthful picture of this great genius full of dark shadows. Ms. Farrow and the movies she acted in are barely discussed!

Worth it for a movie rat, but this is not a complete portrait of one of the cinema's greats.

Sidney Lumet's lowest rated movie is actually a mature work by one of the greats, unfortunately it is a movie about ethics, and not flawless in dealing with such an noncommercial theme. It is about a main character that discovers the nature of the game he is playing, and the consequences of his professionalism. A hired gun realizes that the game is not a game, it is power. While not Lumet's masterpiece (see Network), it is still a worthy movie, brutally underrated.

Dont get fooled by the incesant action, stylized violence and gore. This movie is trying to say a lot more about not just the role of the artist in a society but even going as deep as the nature of supernatural good and evil.

Some comments in light of previous descriptions of the movie.

This movie is definitively about state violence. Even if to a viewer that has no foreknowledge of the police state that was instituted in Italy (with the help of the CIA as the movie alludes to) in order to keep the Communist Party from taking power (the PCI had the biggest following of any parties at that time), the fact remains that the movie is not much more surreal than the socio-political reality facing the film-maker.

Murders and "suicides" (while in police custody) of left-wing political activists and of anarchists are a fact that Elio Petri was painfully aware of. He made a documentary called "Streghi dello stato" "witches of the state" where Jean Maria Volonte and others expose such "suicides". Elio Petri was politically aware and through out his work there is criticism of the right wing of Italian politics (see TODO MORO).

I think that the movie is most powerful once you are aware of the fact that you can be victimized at the hands of an institution, esp. at the hands of an institution that exists only to maintain political order. Once the politicization of the priorities of those institutions that have the legitimate use of violence occurs, than meaningless violence towards the innocent will be allowed if punishing it would impair the political functions of the state machinery. Flora Balkan is perhaps a symbol for the masses, their love of violence and power, their love for the undoing of their freedoms.

A very fine movie that requires some effort, but that is always actual - thanks to an interesting narration of human nature. The movie does have it's flaws and i the action is not as invigorated as one expects it to be after the first 15 minutes, neither is the camera work at the level it has to be for this movie to be the greatest ever but it is still a hell of a great movie.

Whether or not you agree with this movie's negative portrayal of state violence and of that primal attraction that violence has (explored in a marvelously Mediterranean style in this movie) for so many could make the difference in how much you are puzzled by the movie. If you see it a a satire of power and violence - it might work.