A grand old school production with a huge star cast, directed by NICHOLAS ROEG. the film begins like ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA or POINT BLACK - grand eye catching spectacular visuals, moving back and forth in time with scenes of extreme violence and sex. GENE HACKMAN plays a gold prospector in the arctics. after discovering a trove of gold, he retires to a remote island where he drinks alcohol everyday with his wife. but the world will not leave him in peace. his daughter (THERESA RUSSELL) is in love with a romantic idealistic guy (RUTGER HAUVER). HACKMAN suspects they are out to get his money. then two businessmen (JOE PESCI! and MICKEY ROURKE) are trying to move in on the island and build a casino. they think of HACKMAN as a dinosaur who should be destroyed so that a new rich can emerge.
despite the grand visuals, sets and the huge star cast, the film was tough to get through. the scenes lack power. maybe the actors took the bored rich vibe too seriously and dulled things down. the dialogs are pretty trite. the film falls apart completely when it turns into a courtroom drama. i think some of the themes of ROEG's WALKABOUT can be found in EUREKA as well. the story of the feuding white people in this film is juxtaposed with scenes of african rituals and orgies. the wannabe rich people take part in an interracial orgy with the native africans on the island (a scene praised by DANNY BOYLE). but they runaway midway in fear. just like the two kids in WALKABOUT who sneer at the aboriginal boy. the dialogs underscore the man versus nature theme.
JOE PESCI was pretty cool as a ruthless businessman. MICKEY ROURKE was rather strange in a subdued role. he hardly has any dialogs and RUTGET HAUER is allowed to steal the show. THERESA RUSSEL shows off her beautiful body. i am not always a fan of GENE HACKMAN. his performance in this film did not really move me at all.
(5/10)
despite the grand visuals, sets and the huge star cast, the film was tough to get through. the scenes lack power. maybe the actors took the bored rich vibe too seriously and dulled things down. the dialogs are pretty trite. the film falls apart completely when it turns into a courtroom drama. i think some of the themes of ROEG's WALKABOUT can be found in EUREKA as well. the story of the feuding white people in this film is juxtaposed with scenes of african rituals and orgies. the wannabe rich people take part in an interracial orgy with the native africans on the island (a scene praised by DANNY BOYLE). but they runaway midway in fear. just like the two kids in WALKABOUT who sneer at the aboriginal boy. the dialogs underscore the man versus nature theme.
JOE PESCI was pretty cool as a ruthless businessman. MICKEY ROURKE was rather strange in a subdued role. he hardly has any dialogs and RUTGET HAUER is allowed to steal the show. THERESA RUSSEL shows off her beautiful body. i am not always a fan of GENE HACKMAN. his performance in this film did not really move me at all.
(5/10)