The Ninth Configuration

Film

Thrillers

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<strong>Rating: </strong>5/5
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Time Out says

It's easy to see why Exorcist author William Peter Blatty's debut effort as a director stayed on the shelf for a year. This unfathomable yarn about an ace US Army psychiatrist, at work in an isolated military nuthouse populated by a gallery of service fruitcakes (from cowardly astronauts and Congressional Medal winners to Vietnam war malingerers) has the same tortured Christian iconography as Blatty's bestseller, but is altogether more pretentious on the level of reflection about the Problem of Evil and the question Is God Dead (or is he just living in sin?). A kind of Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Catch-22, or maybe Fuller's Shock Corridor set as an episode from The Twilight Zone. Sounds interesting enough, but isn't.

Author: RM

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Release details

UK release:

1979

Duration:

118 mins

Cast and crew

Director:

William Peter Blatty

Cast:

Jason Miller, Ed Flanders, Neville Brand, George DiCenzo, Moses Gunn, Robert Loggia, Joe Spinell, Alejandro Rey, Scott Wilson, Stacy Keach, Tom Atkins

Music:

Barry DeVorzon

Producer:

William Peter Blatty

Screenwriter:

William Peter Blatty

Cinematography:

Gerry Fisher

Editor:

T Battle Davis, Peter Lee-Thompson, Roberto Silvi

Production Designer:

Bill Malley, J Dennis Washington

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Comments & ratings

Rated as: 5/5 (1 rating)

  • As a psychologist who has worked with combat veterans for 18 yrs, I use this most touching rendering of the suffering that such men go through on a daily basis as a result of their war experiences. The question of where God was when hundreds and thousands of men died horrifically in front of them is the ultimate existential crisis which, thank God, most people will never have to know, The producers style highlighted core issues with these men in such a way as to make one question humility, courage, human frailty and other essential issues in life that we have forgotten to even think about. It's one of the best movies I have seen.

    denise Wed Sep 16 2009
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  • Sorry but you missed the mark on this one. A masterpiece of filmmaking.

    Josh Thu Jul 30 2009
    Rated as: 5/5
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