A curiously, distractingly anachronistic paranoia thriller, with a muddied message about mass surveillance, social conditioning via television, simulacra and simulation, etc but one that’s mostly undone by telegraphing its ‘shocking’ twist practically from the get-go. John Hurt is quite good despite only having vibes rather than characterisation to work with. Rutger Hauer, however, is sorely miscast as the ostensible hero of the tale, just a year after being so iconic as the tragic villain in Blade Runner but looking like a shag-carpet, decade-out-of-date version of himself here. That out-of-timeness extends to one of the strangest car chase sequences I’ve seen in film, where director Sam Peckinpah leans on an aesthetic that worked for The Wild Bunch (slo-mo, close-ups, shots repeated from multiple angles) but not in the hyperkinetic, post-Mad Max world of 1983. ★★½
Cross-posted from Letterboxd