What an utter disappointment... Such an utter waste of talent and money, and 3 hours of my life. Started slow, got worse and ended in protracted pain and agony - for the viewer.. What an embarrassment for the BBC. What were they thinking? Forgive us Mr. Wells. The sooner this is buried and forgotten the better. Nuff said.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Journey Into Fear
(1943)
What was THAT?!
9 October 2013
This movie has plot holes you could fly a jumbo jet through. And it has absurdities that will drive you crazy. To say that this movie is totally incoherent would be an understatement. I was just lucky that I'd read the book before so I kind of knew what was supposed to be going on. I also didn't understand the reason for most of the changes from the book: Why would an American in Istanbul travel to the Georgian port of Batumi in Eastern Black Sea, part of the USSR, to get back to the US?! Why is his wife with him in Istanbul? She disappears in the beginning and reappears in the end. Why he's not delivered his coat and suitcase from the hotel before the boat leaves? Etc. etc. These changes don't make any sense, either plot-wise (tighter) or production-wise (cheaper). Silly.
Cotten plays like a robot. Except for him, there is some promising casting but the actors have neither the time nor the lines to do anything with their characters.
Maybe somebody shot a proper full-length version of this movie and then a mad joker cut out the crucial 1/3. Then somebody edited it while trying to land a plane in a hurricane. I don't know. It certainly has not aged well at all. If you're looking for another "The Mask of Dimitrios," this isn't it. This accident of a movie reminds me of some shorts from the 1920s. Pity.
PS: I saw the version with the horrible voice-over and the terrible ending..
Cotten plays like a robot. Except for him, there is some promising casting but the actors have neither the time nor the lines to do anything with their characters.
Maybe somebody shot a proper full-length version of this movie and then a mad joker cut out the crucial 1/3. Then somebody edited it while trying to land a plane in a hurricane. I don't know. It certainly has not aged well at all. If you're looking for another "The Mask of Dimitrios," this isn't it. This accident of a movie reminds me of some shorts from the 1920s. Pity.
PS: I saw the version with the horrible voice-over and the terrible ending..
A historical travesty
25 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is disappointing on so many levels, I don't know where to start.. The dialogue is cringe inducing. Characters are one dimensional. Historical accuracy is shaky, even on the simplest-to-get-right-thanks- to-google things like the Polish flag of the time or basic Ottoman court etiquette (you NEVER turn your back on the Sultan).. The battle scenes (this is, after all, a movie about a battle) are so amateurish, the end result is that the victory looks unconvincing. Acting is touch-and-go, but with the script they had, I can't put much blame on the actors.
There is also a not so subtle marketing effort trying to ride on the coattails of post 9/11 emotions. These "triggers" are carefully planted throughout the movie, no doubt with a calculation for profit: The too obvious title (September Eleven 1683 - but history books agree that the battle was decided on September 12th!), the Ottomans being called "Muslims" at every opportunity, the "defend your Christian faith" and "churches will become mosques" one-liners, the subplot about the irrational Turkish guy (with a uniquely Arabic name, of course) who betrays his old Christian friends for the sake of "jihad", Istanbul depicted as an Arab style oasis full of date palms, Karamustafa wearing his turban the Baudouin way, etc. etc.
SPOILER One last beef: Toward the end, a lone Ottoman rider who the Poles believe to be Karamustafa himself is shown charging against the Polish hussars. Instead of sending out a knight to fight him or better yet, capture him alive, the Polish commanders including King Sobieski just shoot the guy dead with their pistols. This Indiana Jones style defense makes a travesty of the chivalric customs of the period and I found it offensive to Sobieski's memory, let alone logic and history. END OF SPOILER
In conclusion this movie takes up a very interesting historical event and strangles it. It is so bad, it makes the Turkish-made 2012 movie "Conquest 1453" look like a classic in comparison! A missed opportunity.. I give it 2 stars instead of 1 for casting the ultra-charismatic Hal Yamanouchi as the Tatar commander.
There is also a not so subtle marketing effort trying to ride on the coattails of post 9/11 emotions. These "triggers" are carefully planted throughout the movie, no doubt with a calculation for profit: The too obvious title (September Eleven 1683 - but history books agree that the battle was decided on September 12th!), the Ottomans being called "Muslims" at every opportunity, the "defend your Christian faith" and "churches will become mosques" one-liners, the subplot about the irrational Turkish guy (with a uniquely Arabic name, of course) who betrays his old Christian friends for the sake of "jihad", Istanbul depicted as an Arab style oasis full of date palms, Karamustafa wearing his turban the Baudouin way, etc. etc.
SPOILER One last beef: Toward the end, a lone Ottoman rider who the Poles believe to be Karamustafa himself is shown charging against the Polish hussars. Instead of sending out a knight to fight him or better yet, capture him alive, the Polish commanders including King Sobieski just shoot the guy dead with their pistols. This Indiana Jones style defense makes a travesty of the chivalric customs of the period and I found it offensive to Sobieski's memory, let alone logic and history. END OF SPOILER
In conclusion this movie takes up a very interesting historical event and strangles it. It is so bad, it makes the Turkish-made 2012 movie "Conquest 1453" look like a classic in comparison! A missed opportunity.. I give it 2 stars instead of 1 for casting the ultra-charismatic Hal Yamanouchi as the Tatar commander.
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