Philadelphia Clan

A wily, labyrinthine political satire that is saved from being over the top by the brilliant performances of its cast. The movie takes the paranoid storytelling style of the Cold War thriller, but applies it to American domestic politics instead. It is very much like "Three Days of the Condor" in that respect. However, "Winter Kills" has a much more sophisticated point of view on American politics than the latter film, and does a great job of showing how the interconnected corruptions of family, culture, technology and politics all intersect in the most surprising, and horrifying ways. The movie was way ahead of its time in this respect, and is just as relevant to day as it was when it was made - perhaps more so.

"Winter Kills" is based on a novel by Richard Condon ("The Manchurian Candidate") about a man who confesses to having killed the President on his death bed. The President's brother (Jeff Bridges) witnesses the confession and stumbles upon a conspiracy plot involving more murder and silencing.

This movie somehow slipped under the radar years ago. Whereas "Manchurian Candidate" got the attention it rightfully deserved, "Winter Kills" was killed by its controversy and production faults.

It was allegedly filmed in 1975 and only released in 1979, although I can't find any evidence to back this up. What I do know is that it was given an X rating in the UK, and when a movie in the UK gets an X rating, you know something's wrong.

I'm not sure why it received such a harsh rating but evidently that had something to do with its box office failure. I suppose its themes (clear allusion to the JFK assassination) were too heavy - not to mention the violence was rather explicit.

Seen today, this movie is an underrated gem. John Huston delivers a great performance as Bridges' father, while Bridges is equally great. The music in the film is eerie and tense - without it, I doubt the film would be quite as good as it is.

It was directed by William Richert (who played the gay Bob Pigeon in "My Own Private Idaho") and he does a fine job. The movie builds its suspense well; the only segment I didn't like too much was when Bridges goes to visit his father for the first time. I felt it went on too long and was out of place.

Other than that, this is a very good film and a sadly underrated conspiracy theory movie that never got its chance to make a mark.

Lamentably uneven film roughly paralleling the Kennedy killing. By the finish, it's hard to tell if the intent is to parody an assassination conspiracy or to offer up food for thought. Of course, the two can be combined, but if so, the results here are sloppy, more head-scratching than suggestive. Much time is spent with Nick (Bridges) chasing shadows, that amount to conspiracies behind conspiracies.

Okay, shadows can make for fascinating progression, not knowing who's involved and who isn't. This sense of dislocation was probably best conveyed in 1974's chilling The Parallax View. But here, such suggestive moments are undercut by exaggerations, such as the incredible shooting of the three men in the car, or the ragged development of who Yvette actually is. To me, the only explanation for the frequent piling on of events is that someone was reaching for an element of parody, despite the seemingly dead serious parts.

Now I can well understand why the production here wanted to raise questions about the Lone Assassin official theory. It certainly hasn't withstood the test of time, as even a few key frames of the Zapruder film show. Moreover, 1978's House Committee on Assassinations found upon reviewing the evidence that Kennedy "was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy". But then the whole matter was dropped without follow-up. Ironically, I can also understand why officials don't want to pursue the matter. After all, who knows where it might lead or what crises an honest investigation might produce.

Anyway, Bridges turns in a riveting and energetic turn as the beleaguered president's brother. If spoof was the movie's intent, Bridges should have been informed since he plays it absolutely straight throughout. Also, veteran director and actor Huston towers as the shady and mysterious patriarch of the clan. Note too, how many veteran Hollywood names settle for brief appearances in an independent production, even super-star Elizabeth Taylor. Perhaps they too were unhappy with the Warren Commission Report and wanted to help boost critics who were gathering steam at that time. Of course, the movie debunkings would culminate in 1991's JFK.

Though this 90-minutes has its moments, entertaining and suggestive, it's too uneven and inconsistent to really register as either parody or expose.

What a mess. It starts out interesting enough but the longer it goes on the more annoying the whole thing gets. It's basically the same joke over and over. The movie sets up situations to pull you in and you take it serious for a minute only to have the rug pulled out from under you with the cinematic equivalent of the "pull my finger" gag. It gets old. John Huston is having fun and that makes all his scenes at least watchable. I was begging for it to be over before the halfway mark. I'm reviewing the directors cut by the way, in case that matters. I'm not remotely interested now in learning anything about this film's backstory.

Condon wrote a magazine article about this movie production around 1980 that makes it ten times as strange as the story itself. Among other details:

The movie was financed with money from cocaine dealers.

When the production went over budget, the executive producer brought in additional "financiers", then was able to keep the crews working for two weeks - in New York - with no pay. Jeff Bridges and Tony Perkins both offered their salaries as collateral.

After the film was finished, the studio was purchased by a bigger studio which then ultimately declined to release it. At one point, at a test preview at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, passers by were being offered $1 to watch the movie.

A few months later, the executive producer was found in a New York hotel room, handcuffed to a bed, with two bullets in his head.