Thursday, April 5, 2018

Rogue Male - 1976

Two continuations here.  We got Swingin Seventies boxset as well as 1976 movie marathon.  Double hitter, and if I watched baseball instead of movies, I'd know what that actually means.

I was in a weird mood after I watched Darren Aronofsky's latest film mother!  That movie, hehe, will put you in a fucking strange mood, that's no spoiler warning.  After it ended, I was left in an emotional void of not knowing what "to do".  Also, a little insider news for you guys at home.  I like to challenge myself in new and different ways.  I'm going to go 2 weeks without watching any movies, TV, internet, everything the whole deal.  So I decided to kick in one last Swingin Seventies.

Rogue Male begins and tosses you right into some rifle cross-hairs aimed at the Fuhrer himself Adolf Hitler.  The shot misses.  Behind the gun is Peter O'Toole as Sir Robert Hunter.  He's a British dude, far out of his league and out of his rights to be taking shots at Hitler.  This is before England and Germany were officially at war during WWII, so he's likely to be held responsible for a murder attempt.  His only choice is to flee.

What we have after the setup is an intriguing, well done thriller suspense film.  No, really it is.  I liked this movie.  It does have a tendency towards the typical British stuffiness feel, very Hu-haa and Hrum Hrum.  There's even jokes about wardrobe like 20 times.  But it keeps it interesting enough with constant police evasions, tactical escape, and great acting.

Peter O'Toole is fantastic as Sir Robert Hunter.  We don't know much about him, except that he's got a few close friends, and he used to be high up in British society.  He took this shot at Hitler pretty much only because he "didn't like him" and that suits the film.  Robert is on the run for literally the entire film, holed up in ship cargo containers, and buried under the roots of a tree.  He's a dedicated hero, someone with uncompromising values, even though we as an audience don't know what he's doing and why.  It's an interesting choice, but it works.

The movie is shot well, looks good, and the acting is solid.  I bet with a cleaned up job and if you brought back the original aspect ratio, this would be a movie worth a nice solid DVD release.  And it was made for TV!  The fuck!  These things just don't happen anymore, actual good movies with actual actors made for TV.

Ummm, yeah I dunno.  I feel like I should keep talking, but suffice to say I did like this movie.  It kept me entertained, it never felt like it didn't make sense, and the 100 minutes went by pretty quick.  I give it a full four stars.

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