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DVD The Adventurers
Despite the tumultuous events in this sleek, handsome 1970 adaptation of Harold Robbins' bestselling novel, The Adventurers is arresting entertainment from the constantly inventive director of the original Alfie, Lewis Gilbert. Smoldering Yugoslavian actor Bekim Fehmiu stars as Dax Xenos, son of a revolutionary hero in an unnamed South American nation. As a child (played by Loris Loddi), Dax witnessed the murder of his mother and sisters by government goons, and he helped insurgent leader Rojo (Alan Badel) execute those responsible. As Dax grows up, his destiny is inexorably tied to the fate of his country and the whims of an increasingly despotic Rojo. But before he realizes that, the hunky gadabout chases women and races in the streets of Rome, spends some time as a gigolo (romancing a wealthy, heartbreakingly sympathetic Olivia de Havilland), marries and separates from a lovely heiress (Candice Bergen), and becomes a pawn in a terrible plot by Rojo to consolidate his power. The outstanding cast in this nearly three-hour film includes Fernando Rey, Charles Aznavour, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Ernest Borgnine. Gilbert's production is endlessly imaginative and exciting. Long before crowd scenes in movies could be computer-generated, directors such as Gilbert really did have to assemble thousands of extras for moments as spectacular as the battle sequences in The Adventurers. --Tom Keogh
A large scale film that just didn't hit the 'let's go see it' list. Good mix of drama, local color, some saucy but dated romantic scenes, plenty of action (plenty of nice vintage WWII armor), backstabbing, shoot 'em ups and Ernest Borgnine as 'Fat Cat' is extra special. Worth watching.
People do not understand this movie - it is really quite good
Most people who saw this movie did not understand it, and when it was first released in 1970 the sex and violence were so far over the top for the period that most critics couldn't see the top. The movie, like a lot of the actresses it featured, was topless. Today it is par for the course. The gorgeous photography, however, is far better than what one sees in most modern films.
The story is a roman a clef. The fictional South American country Corteguay is not either of its quasi-namesakes Paraguay or Uruguay but Colombia, where much of the principal photography was done. Dax Xenos is not really Dax Xenos but Porfirio Rubirosa, who was not from Corteguay or Colombia but the Dominican Republic, which is not a South American country but a Carribean country. (Harold Robbins admitted this, so there is no doubt.) Rubirosa was not the playboy son of a diplomat. He WAS a diplomat, who discovered early on that he could use his diplomatic skills to become a wealthy man by becoming a playboy and marrying wealthy women. The most engrossing fiction is based loosely on reality.
That said, what makes the movie work is its theme. In movies, the character who changes is the main character, regardless of what the billing says, and the only character in this movie who changes is Dax. He starts out a cynical playboy, out to charm his way into the beds and bank accounts of wealthy ladies, and ends up a saint, struggling valiantly to change the world for the better. Alas, for the world will not change, and protects its scumbag identity by killing the irritating Dax, so things can go on being as corrupt as ever. The theme is therefore that the world will not change and perhaps even cannot change. But individuals can. Whatever his failings in early life, before Dax is murdered he thoroughly redeems himself. There is hope, the author is saying, for the individual, but not for the larger context in which he lives. The story therefore combines hard nosed realism with a cautious optimism, and the result will win over the most cynical among us. I know because "the most cynical among us" is the way I would describe myself and the story makes sense to me.
If you understand this, the whole middle of the movie, which follows Dax and his friends as they acquire the wealth and power they need to fulfill their respective destinies, makes sense and is thoroughly enjoyable. This part of the film is necessary to make sense of the movie's ending, in which Dax confronts the corruption that has plagued his beleaguered homeland.
If there are sex and violence and drugs in the movie that is because there are sex and violence and drugs in the real world in which characters like this live. As one of the characters in the movie says, his people did not get to where they were by being philanthropists. He could have added that they did not get to where they were by being burdened with unnecessary impediments like scruples. Welcome to the world of the upper class.
Oh, yes, and the book is not better than the movie. The movie in this case is better than the book. Much better. The book needed an editor in the worst way. The movie had one. It is too long for some tastes, but it works well as home entertainment because you can watch as much as you want in one sitting. Then come back for more later. I have probably watched it twenty times. I will probably watch it twenty more.
The best movie by far made from a Robbins novel, only rivaled by The Betsy. Highly recommended.
Curious and Disjointed
For the price this DVD is well worth the effort,great photography and print makes it standout over more recent releases but thats where it ends. I saw the movie on its initial release all those years ago and quite frankly it remains dreary. The book was never great,but the movie could have been tighter and pacy with a better script. A pity though,as it seems wasted in time. However if you want to wallow away a few hours on a wet Sunday afternoon,this might do the trick
Prime Cut is a strangely likeable if decidedly oddball thriller from 1972. A happy collision of gangster genre grit (validated by Lee Marvin's granite-faced lead performance) with a strain of shameless (though shrewd) exploitation not unfamiliar to screenwriter Robert Dillon (X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes), plus the kinetic, semi-documentary wit of director Michael Ritchie (The Candidate) makes Prime Cut both a straightforward noir and a satire of itself. Marvin plays Nick, an aging enforcer for the Chicago mob, sent to Kansas City to deal with a ruthless cattle baron (Gene Hackman) who owes a half-million to Windy City racketeers. Hackman's character (inexplicably named Mary Ann), dismissive of old-guard crime chieftains, has set up his own heartland empire... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lee Marvin - Gene Hackman - Sissy Spacek Director(s): Michael Ritchie DVD Release Date: Released the 14 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This restoration of Sam Peckinpah's 1965 western Major Dundee is nothing short of magnificent, a noble attempt at restoring a famously wrecked masterpiece. When Peckinpah went over budget and over schedule during the Mexico shoot, unshot scenes were canceled and the footage rudely cut by the studio. The director disowned the results. In 2005, surviving footage was patched back in, and a new musical soundtrack commissioned to replace the score Peckinpah hated. This raises some legitimate questions about interpreting a director's intentions, and about messing with film history, but Major Dundee--The Extended Version is such a rousing, mysterious experience, one feels grateful.
Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a vainglorious officer busted to the decidedly inglorious job... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlton Heston - Richard Harris Director(s): Sam Peckinpah DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This vastly underrated Arthur Penn film from the mid-1970s ranks as one of the era's nastiest and most fascinating pieces of business, a detective story that shuttles back and forth between Hollywood and the Florida Keys, with a plot nearly as complex as Chinatown. Gene Hackman stars as a tired, aging private eye who, as a favor to a friend, agrees to track down a runaway teen. But the case turns out to be something much larger: a smuggling ring of Mayan antiquities. The human impulses get darker and darker and Hackman's character gets pulled in deeper and deeper, even as his own life is falling apart. Ultimately, in one of his best and most unsung performances, Hackman winds up hurting the people he is trying to help. A great cast includes Susan Clark, Jennifer Warren, a young... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Hackman - Jennifer Warren Director(s): Arthur Penn DVD Release Date: Released the 12 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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John Wayne personally produced many of his '50s films, which is why some of them have languished in corporate limbo following his death. The High and the Mighty was one of his most popular vehicles (no pun intended). This long, necessarily sedentary drama aboard an endangered airliner is a CinemaScope bridge between 1932's Grand Hotel and 1970s disaster movies. Despite Wayne's iconic presence as a pilot--now copilot--who survived the plane crash that wiped out his family, it's an ensemble movie with an impressive cast: Robert Stack sharing the cockpit, Oscar® nominees Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, Paul Kelly, John Qualen, Regis Toomey, the ubiquitous Paul Fix, and director William A. Wellman's good-luck character actor Douglas Fowley.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Claire Trevor - Laraine Day Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Poor Charlotte Hollis. She's been shunned by the community for decades, ever since the fateful night in 1927 when her lover was hacked apart with an axe. Her antebellum southern mansion is slated for the bulldozer, as it stands in the way of highway construction. Charlotte's only hope lies in her cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), coming down from up north to help settle things. Miriam, however, has other designs. Together with her boyfriend Drew (Joseph Cotten), she embarks on a scheme to systematically drive Charlotte out of her mind (not a great leap) and get her mitts on the family fortune. From there, things only get more complicated. Charlotte puts the "gothic" in southern gothic, as a great showcase for completely bizarre, overwrought, and out-of-control performances from... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bette Davis - Olivia de Havilland - Joseph Cotten Director(s): Robert Aldrich DVD Release Date: Released the 09 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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