Caravan to Vaccarès

An atrocious waste of time. The story plods along so slowly, I expected the clothing trends to change as the movie went on. Woodenly acted, poorly directed, even Charlotte Rampling with her limited but "70s-pretty-faced" range can't help that, especially after the only interesting thing about her character gets sidelined thirty minutes in. An absolute disgrace to the novel, the south of France, the Romani, and movie-making generally.

I gleaned all that from the first 54 minutes. I couldn't bear another.

I only gave it three stars because of the countryside, the Fiat X-19, and the absolutely abhorrent continuity in the first ten minutes re the gun used. Three stars for putting a silencer on a revolver, it turning into an automatic later in the scene (with a non-suppressed report when fired), then back to a revolver the scene following. That was the entertainment.

Seriously, you're better off watching a 1970's Film Studies end-of-year project.

It's a shame that such a lame plot should be hung on such picturesque locations, with some documentary style reportage shoved in for extra length. A shorter film may have held the tension a little more, and a more charismatic lead may not have mangled his lines so much. The female lead also, was not allowed to do enough resulting in a pretty but boring affair. It builds towards the end but the lead actor's own redemption is too little too late and should have been revealed earlier in the film. Not awful, just a pity. Unexciting but nice enough to grace TV schedules of the early hours.

It's not exactly encouraging at the outset; plot development, dialogue, and scene writing alike all feel very thin, and one simply has to accept it at face value or immediately give up outright. David Birney spends a lot of scenes looking like a deer in the headlights, and some supporting cast members similarly don't come off well; in fairness, there are no few times when I can only question Geoffrey Reeve's choices as director. I recognize plenty of swell ideas in every regard, which I assume follow from Alistair MacLean's novel, but even the adapted screenplay has issues with narrative flow, nevermind particular instances of editing or sequencing. There is a complete, cohesive story being told, but the simple fact of the matter is that with the way 'Caravan to Vaccarès' is made, sometimes it really doesn't feel like it.

It all looks good, at least. There are many stunts and effects throughout, and they come off well; the filming locations and production design are excellent. The costume design, hair, and makeup are easy on the eyes; Stanley Myers' score isn't anything special, but it's enjoyable, and lends flavor. The narrative is actually fairly compelling, despite its weak cinematic treatment and the extraordinary leaps of faith it often requires as a viewer. Then again, even the heartiest suspension of disbelief can't withstand some of the storytelling decisions made here, and the Just So sensibilities that characterized the writing from the start collide with distinct dubious moments to place significant, low upper limits on one's engagement and entertainment. It would have taken astonishingly little to realize this as a satirical Euro-spy comedy, but no, it's an earnest action-adventure thriller. This poses a problem.

I don't think 'Caravan to Vaccarès' is altogether bad. It is, however, sadly middling, and even its best ideas just don't amount to much of anything. Insofar as it's enjoyable, it's a title one is able to enjoy very passively, without actively watching. There are worse ways to spend one's time, sure, but even if you're a major fan of someone involved, nor is there any specific reason to watch; Charlotte Rampling and Michel Lonsdale are rather wasted. Oh well. Check it out if you want, I won't stop you. Just don't get your hopes up.

The last time I saw this was in high school on the last day of term when you were allowed to watch a movie in class. We were looking forward to watching something like the Karate Kid when one of our classmates, Murphy, excitedly whipped out this tape THAT HE HAD BROUGHT IN SPECIALLY - this film, Caravan to Tedium. To our utter dismay our Geography teacher put it on and the class spent a double period thoroughly disenjoying themselves watching this Alastair Maclean snoozefest - all except Murphy that is, who was lapping it up big time. When our class wasn't collectively daydreaming about shoving Murphy's face into a vat of pig excrement we endured PG rated thrills and Wednesday afternoon level excitement as Charlotte Rampling and David 'personality' Birney run around dodging bullets while attempting to achieve something tiresome. I watched it again today, so the question is, was it better 34 years later? No, not really. Murphy if you're out there, this unfortunate event may have happened in 1986 but you're still a bell end for instigating it.

The existing reviews for this are useful and I'd agree with pretty much everything that people are saying. As someone who finds Alistair MacLean books and films a guilty pleasure, the decision to film on location and work in a little-documented actual festival gives the film a certain atmospheric appeal. However the subsequent commitment to using this footage appeared to hamper the creative team's ability to tell a coherent story. The frequent use of cutaways and montage such as the bullfight with the killing of De Croyter's daughter, suggests that the availability of the documentary footage drove the film's structure and so effectively killed opportunities to create suspense with more carefully constructed shots. Perhaps more unfortunate is that the Director constructing the shots was the hapless Geoffrey Reeve who managed to increasingly mess up three MacLeans. In addition to Vaccares, he directed the flawed, though undoubtedly watchable, 'Puppet On A Chain', noting however that the memorable boat chase was shot by Don Sharp. Then after 'Vaccares' he helmed the appalling 'The Way to Dusty Death' which confirmed that he was totally out of his depth as a Director in the industry. Writer, Paul Wheeler should also carry some responsibility for the eventual cinematic carnage. Maybe Reeve's TV work was better but he and the writer really didn't haven't a clue how to build suspense and handle this sort of material and as a result, a decade of exciting Alistair MacLean branded entertainments started to lose credibility with audiences. Starting here.