Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageW USA (1970)
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Adapted from Robert Stone's novel A Hall of Mirrors, this is a sophisticated political satire set in New Orleans, with Newman as a DJ on a right wing station (it's being used to propagandise a neo-Fascist movement) whose tough cynicism finally shatters his relationship with a timid girl he picks up (Woodward). The film is intelligent and well directed, but what makes it exceptional is Anthony Perkins' extraordinary performance as the neurotic liberal Rainey, which builds - after a few rather shaky scenes - into an agonisingly real force in the narrative. Someone had the astonishingly appropriate idea of taking Norman Bates out of Psycho and turning him into a torn and anguished liberal/revolutionary: it's less a character study than a kind of visible expression of the raw liberal conscience, a twitching, convulsive mass of uncertainty and pain. Newman's visual, verbal and structural dialogue with Perkins throughout the film is so impressive that it makes this one of the more important political statements to have come out of Hollywood in the early '70s.Author: DP
Cast & crew
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Producer: Paul Newman, John Foreman
Cast: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Perkins, Laurence Harvey, Pat Hingle, Cloris Leachman, Don Gordon, Moses Gunn, Bruce Cabot full cast
Duration: 117 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing
What do you think?
Post your review now