John Frankenheimer serves
another perfect thriller with “Seconds” after “Manchurian Candidate” and “Train.”
This is a “Twilight Zone”-like sci-fi-horror about that foolish notion we all
wonder: What if I zagged left not right? Moved there not here? You get it. What
if’s never end. This is the hell-pit answer. John Randolph is banker Arthur -–
bored empty nester pissed at the capitalist lie he swallowed from birth –- who finds
himself with a crazy proposition: He can fake his death and get a new identity
in the form of Rock Hudson. Newly renamed, Antiochus joins a hippie commune. Sex. Freedom. Is liberalism as much a mirage as white-shirt conservatism?
Beautifully played with a barrage of warped lenses – the cinematography is by James
Wong Howe of “Sweet Smell of Success” fame -- this movie is a true deep shocker that left me breathless long after the credits. As a man with a new body
and voice who cannot shake old gestures and hesitations, Randolph and Hudson pop
brilliant, actors who could have shared a Best Actor Oscar. Frankenheimer is my
favorite director and this is another hit in a series of paranoid-heavy movies
that crack men’s psyches open, baring dark truths. A+
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Seconds (1966)
Labels:
1966,
A+,
capitalism,
drama,
horror,
John Frankenheimer,
John Randolph,
liberal,
life,
paranoid,
Rock Hudson,
sci-fi,
Seconds,
surgery
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