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29 out of 38 people found the following review useful: Ahead of its time - brilliant, entertaining, insightful, 17 May 2004 Author: Nick Faust (vidfaust1@me.com) from Evansville, Indiana
When this movie originally came out, five years after CONVOY (a muddled, but in many ways spectacular entertainment), many critics moaned that Peckinpah had yet again displayed his diminished talent. A Ludlum spy thriller, pulp material, given the Peckinpah stamp was not to be taken seriously, period. What nonsense. To begin with, all of Peckinpah's films spring from pulp, and all of them, even the least successful ones, buck and spin with the way Sam applies his vision to the genre conventions he's messing with. In simple terms, a Peckinpah movie always illustrates the world according to Sam; like a novelist writing in first person, Sam's point of view is the movie's. And that's why they endure today. In THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND, Peckinpah focuses Ludlum's cold war spy antics into a exploration of urban paranoia and governmental abuse. Video as a means to manipulate perception is one of the themes he exploits here, but that's not his main thrust. A group of affluent characters come together for a weekend that turns into a surreal nightmare. The trappings of success that surround this group are not in any way secure enough to withstand the violent, reckless games played on them by a rouge CIA agent (played by John Hurt) who's motive is personal revenge. And that motive, the revenge that fuels his need, in actual fact, has absolutely nothing to do with the affluent group he's playing with. Like the gods in Greek tragedy, the Hurt character uses the Osterman Weekend and its players as pawns, stepping stones, as a way to get at his real goal, the head of the CIA. This notion obviously strikes a chord in Peckinpah; the vision is certainly domestic, but the idea is epic: in the privacy of our homes a kind of virus colors our perceptions and poisons friendships, creates anarchy, and causes death. And the virus - where does it come from? Our own back yard - the CIA. The film is charged with a constant underlying tension that holds and holds until all hell breaks loose and the affluent house becomes a battle ground. Visually, the movie is stunning. But then, so was CONVOY, but this time Peckinpah has harnessed what he shows and what he wants to say in a simple, tightly wound spy thriller package, Watching the movie today, it's hard to believe that some of the notions that seemed more like the paranoiac mechanics of a potboiler in 1983 have actually come true and don't seem quite as far fetched. By all accounts, Sam Peckinpah was a terribly difficult man, but he was also a visionary film maker who's work gets better and better as the years pass. THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND is not the bad film critics at the time bitched about, and it's not the sad conclusion to a career that started out brimming with possibility. It's a splendid, brilliant - better than brilliant - work of American art by a true American artist: a giant. The world according to Sam is a world that will be looked at a hundred years from now; it will inspire debate, continual analysis, and be ranked with the major artist of the entire 20th century. By 1983,Peckinpah's health may have diminished, but as a film maker he was still powerful and strong as hell.
23 out of 30 people found the following review useful: Peckinpah's last, 12 July 2001 Author: virek213 from San Gabriel, Ca., USA
After the utterly ridiculous good-ol'-boy trucker film CONVOY in 1978, Sam Peckinpah languished for five years before returning in 1983 with what would prove to be his final film--THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND, based on Robert Ludlum's maddeningly complex 1972 spy novel.Despite the fact that it is often cold and sometimes confusing, this film's weakest moments are far superior to even the strongest moments of CONVOY. Rutger Hauer stars as a hard-hitting TV talk show host with a habit of skewering people inside the U.S. government. As this film opens, he is about to have a reunion with five friends of his from the good old days of 1960s radical college politics.But then a CIA operative (John Hurt) drops a bombshell on him: Those friends of his (Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper, Helen Shaver, Cassie Yates, Chris Sarandon) are supposedly traitors working for the Soviets in a scheme involving germ warfare sabotage. The result is that Hurt, with Hauer's reluctant acceptance, sets up surveillance equipment throughout Hauer's property to document further evidence of his friends' betrayal. When those people start coming unglued, however, more is at stake than just national security or the Cold War. So are peoples' lives!Though Peckinpah was clearly on his last run while making it, THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND shows that he still could deliver the goods when it came to setting up great action sequences. The final shootout between Hurt's CIA underlings and Hauer and Nelson is edited in such a way as to resemble THE WILD BUNCH, while its actual filming suggests still another Peckinpah masterpiece, STRAW DOGS. Lalo Schifrin's score brilliantly accentuates things. Peckinpah, in depicting the head of the CIA (Burt Lancaster) as the heavy, also clearly makes a statement against America's heavy-handed approach toward Communism in the Reagan era.All in all, despite its slight confusion, THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND works for those willing to give it a go.
13 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Peckinpah's last film...and it's bad...but at least t's better than Convoy, 22 December 2005 Author: McStallen from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This movie has a fine cast, a lot of suspense, and some very well-done scenes. But overall, it sucks.Asnumerous viewers have already pointed out, it starts off fine but then gradually declines, and then really gets bad in the last half-hour or so. Far too much time is spent on the weekend antics (sex, drugs and mystery surrounding some angry and guarded people), and then the plot abruptly shifts and we learn of new motives and identities for many of the characters. There wasn't a good to lead-in to any of that, and then there's not a lot of time left to rectify everything, so Peckipah quickly throws a bunch of scenes together and we are left with a very unsatisfying, messy ending.As the action speeds up, the title character ("Osterman" played by Craig T. Nelson of "Coach" fame) seems to transform from dark mystery figure to action-comedy actor, and he starts spouting lame one-liners that are very out of place.Rutger Hauer is a bit out of place here as well. He's a good actor and he puts in a good effort, but I think he's just too much of an action-actor and too physically imposing to fit the role of smarmy expose TV-reporter.Peckinpah has a habit of really repeating the same themes over-and-over again- whether it is the decline of the Wild West, the fusion of the north Mexican culture with that of the American Southwest, or climaxes featuring bloody altercations between a group of intoxicated tough-guys. Since this is based on a Robert Ludlum book, the themes are absent and it at least helps create a little more mystery.If you like Peckinpah, you should see it, because this was his last film. It's interesting from that stand-point, but it's not a very good film.Oh and "Convoy" is a fun film- but it's really bad too.
12 out of 15 people found the following review useful: The films of Sam Peckinpah. The last hurrah., 29 August 2005 Author: Captain_Couth (sirjosephu@aol.com) from Sacramento, CA
The Osterman Weekend (1983) was Sam Peckinpah's last film. Years of drug abuse (alcohol, pills etc..) took a devastating toll on the legendary film maker. Desperate for work, he took an uncredited second unit directing job with his buddy Don Siegal's swan song JINXED. He finally got the chance to direct a movie when he was given the job to try and adapt the complex and layered espionage spy thriller The Osterman Weekend. Not pleased with trying to bring to life a novel he really didn't care for, he did the job (albiet with mixed results).Tanner (Rutger Hauer) is a talking head newsman. He has an eclectic group of friends (Chris Sarandon, Dennis Hopper and Crag T. Nelson). One day, Tanner is approached by a rogue C.I.A. named Fassett (John Hurt) agent to "keep an eye" on Osterman (Craig T, Nelson) because of his ties with certain "red" double agents. But Tanner knows Osterman and doesn't believe that he would be a traitor to his country. After a couple of attempts on his life, Tanner doesn't know who to trust. Is Osterman the traitor that Fassett claims to be? Who's telling the truth?Not the way I wanted to see Sam Peckinpah end his career but hey, you play with the hand life deals you. People have complained about how confusing the movie is (have you read the book?). Considering with what he had to work with, I say that he did a fairly decent job.Recommended for Sam Peckinpah fans.
15 out of 21 people found the following review useful: for all it's faults, a worthy swansong from a great talent., 25 March 2002 Author: MIKEHILL38 from manchester, england
as a devoted fan of sam peckinpah, i absolutely adore this movie which i admit has obviously sufferred along with much of his earlier work from interference regards the powers that be. sam was constantly at odds with his producers who he always claimed had butchered his efforts and it's sad but at least a blessing that only after his demise; some of his prestige work is now available in versions which are closer to what he originally intended. after a five year hiatus, he was given the opportunity to make his first feature film following the bad publicity regards 'convoy' and it's this undeniably flawed, confusing but powerful film which sadly turned out to be his last. expertly scripted by a brilliant scottish screenwriter named alan sharp who also penned 'rob roy', 'night moves', 'billy two hats' and 'ulzana's raid'; this is a marvellously watchable if far fetched tale of 'cloak & dagger' conspiracies involving a host of impressive acting. recommended.
8 out of 10 people found the following review useful: complicated revenge story, 12 July 2007 Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY
I was not sure what to expect from this when I watched it, but what I felt after seeing it was not that I'd just seen a great film. This was Sam Peckinpah's last, and while I'm not any fan of his I know he had done far better. John Hurt plays a CIA operative (I guess) and his wife is killed by order of the head honcho, as played by Burt Lancaster. Some time later, Hurt has devised a way to get back at his old boss via a TV talk show host, of sorts, as played by Rutger Hauer, who has a get-together at his place every year for some friends of his. However, these friends of his have now been presented to him as possible Soviet spies, and he's been shown taped footage (that of course, only allows him to see seemingly incriminating conversations) to prove that. So now he's housing some Soviet spies for the weekend and things turn tense and get out of hand, and so on. Meg Foster, who plays Hauer's wife, gets away with her son & their crossbows and comes back later for some target practice with the real thing. The rest of the guests pile into an RV and are heading for the hills but they won't get far. And then Hurt manages to kidnap Hauer's wife, son, & dog, in order to finally get what he really wants, to expose his old boss. It's not a bad story, I guess, but it's very confusing and complicated and completely lost me a few times, because (I'm guessing here) there are things that the film seems to assume that you know, as in, you've read the book by Robert Ludlum, which I hadn't. Of course, this was also Peckinpah's last film & if you know anything about him, he had his problems, and maybe this is the end result of some of that too, who knows. I wouldn't call this terrible, but it's certainly not very well executed and could have been far better in the right hands. 5 out of 10.
8 out of 12 people found the following review useful: A Good, But Complicated Plot of Revenge, in Times of Cold War, 15 April 2005 Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Near to the seventh annual meeting to celebrate their graduation and friendship, the successful anchor of a television network John Tanner (Rutger Hauer) is convinced by CIA director Maxwell Danforth (Burt Lancaster) and his agent Lawrence Fassett (John Hurt) that his best friends belong to a Soviet Union organization called Omega. The CIA installs cameras and microphones everywhere in his house to monitor Bernard Osterman (Craid T. Nelson), Richard Tremayne (Dennis Hopper) and Joseph Cardone (Chris Sarandon). A complicated and very evil plot is disclosed along the weekend. Yesterday I saw "The Osterman Weekend" maybe for the fourth time, but now on DVD, and I still like it. However, with the end of the Cold War and the present state-art of communication, this story has become dated, and lost a great part of its impact. However, in 1983, it was ahead of time, criticizing the media through television. The Double Commemorative Edition DVD features a second disc, with the documentary "From Alpha to Omega: The Making of 'The Osterman Weekend' (2004)". This documentary was released in 2004, and presents a complete dossier about this movie. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Casal Osterman" ("The Osterman Couple")
6 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Unusual, nasty, and somewhat heart-stopping Cold War thriller., 10 June 2002 Author: mhasheider from Sauk City, Wisconsin
Unusual and somewhat heart-stopping Cold War thriller about a maverick CIA operative, Lawrence Fassett (John Hurt) who makes a weekend get-together that a laid-back talk show host, John Tanner (Rutger Hauer) and his family who are holding for his three friends (Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper, and Chris Sarandon) and their wives a living h---."The Osterman Weekend", based on the novel by the late Robert Ludlum, which is adapted here by Alan Sharp, and marks the last film directed by Sam Peckinpah. Besides "The Wild Bunch", considered to be Peckinpah's best movie, "The Osterman Weekend" doesn't come close, but the film have some terrific moments that make your heart stop beating and the fine score composed by Lalo Schifrin (TV's Mission Impossible, Kelly's Heroes).Hauer, who is playing a good guy for a change fairs quite well and deserves a little more credit, however; Nelson and especially Hurt quietly succeed in the stealing the show here. And what makes Fassett (Hurt) even more interesting is that he won't lose his cool in getting revenge for his wife's murder. The problem with the movie isn't the performances, it's the trouble of keeping the tension and let go to scary heights.
14 out of 25 people found the following review useful: Not the movie I wanted to see, 26 January 2006 Author: marknovack from Belgium
I watched this movie twice over one weekend. "Twice" you ask and then gave it a 2? Well, the first time I watched it with the sideways look that a dog might give its master when thoroughly confused. The second time was only because I could not believe that it was as bad and unintelligible as I thought it had been. As it turned out, I was right the first time.This is a movie for those who have read the book and want to complete the Osterman cycle...book and movie. Then the movie would, perhaps, make sense. As a stand alone film, it seems to hope to rely on its vagueness and strangeness to make the viewer believe he is watching a genius at work, but alas, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar".
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Editors can be good!, 19 March 2006 Author: pljewkes from Boston, MA
Someone should have convinced director Sam Peckinpah that some editors can be a good thing for a film. THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND could have used one. It's so malformed, it's nearly incomprehensible. Peckinpah's last film is fast paced, but extremely muddled.Rutger Hauer plays a talk show host who realizes his friends are all "enemies of the state" and he's roped into to eliminating them by shadowy government operative John Hurt. Burt Lancaster is in there somewhere too, but it's not clear who he is or what he's up to. As the friends, Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper and Chris Sarandon are fine but the film doesn't spend a second developing these characters. Hauer is surprisingly good in a rare non-villain role and Meg Foster and her creepy eyes are in it too!
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