La secta secreta

When a British officer gets wind of a gang of murderous highwaymen he joins their ranks with the intention of shutting down the organization. Spys and counterspys in both camps offset each other until a final battle settles who will remain in charge. Hard to believe that during all the time the officer was with the thugs they never noticed how foreign he appeared or that the stain he used never washed off. Entertaining with plenty of action and great scenery.

Although it displays the usually reliable Merchant-Ivory production banner this tale of high adventure and skullduggery in British India is only a routine B movie with exotic pretensions. The background is historically factual, drawn around the ritual murders committed by a secret religious cult of so-called 'Thuggees' (from which the word 'thug' was later derived). But the far-fetched story of a British soldier infiltrating their ranks and losing himself in a netherworld of violence and vices is, at best, contrived, even by the lowest standards of romantic fiction. The idea might have looked better on paper, before its artistic and commercial potential was crippled by a lackluster, coincidence-filled script and a star performance that drains the hero of any charisma. Director Nicholas Meyer tries to convey the allure of an ancient culture, but the film doesn't have enough style to camouflage its slapdash lack of substance, and the token gestures to period flavor and atmosphere don't extend beyond the costume design and some cut-rate esoteric mysticism. When, for example, hero Pierce Brosnan is seduced by a mysterious native girl, their shadows on the wall show him embraced by the six-armed Thuggee goddess Kali… (cue the ominous tabla music)

It may seem a trite point to many that this historical drama is surprisingly authentic, but I find it very refreshing after seeing so many films throw details to the wind. There are very few movies, if any dealing with Britian's famous "Honorable East India Company", but the costuming on this movie was researched very well indeed. I think this fact alone holds a lot of the appeal as a 'History' buff's movie. I couldn't imagine Pierce Brosnan's tiger hunting scene to be much more accurate, as every detail seems excellent to me, especially the uniforms of the HEIC. I think that the movie captures the mystic of India very well and is generally based on true historic events. Whatever people think of Pierce Brosnans' acting ability, this movie has very good entertainment value, apart from showing a unique side of the history of India. My close associate shot a documentary in very remote parts of India, and many of this movie's scenes look similar today, though I doubt he experienced anything quite like the 'death by elephant' scene in today's India !

This is a highly entertaining historical film that had the great misfortune to be released during the height of Schwarzenegger/Van Damme/"Lethal Weapon" era. It is a film about cultures in collision and the people who are crushed by that collision.

Pierce Brosnan, in one of his best roles, plays Captain Savage, an honorable British soldier in India who is dissatisfied with the "do nothing" policies of his superiors. One day, he and his fiancée see a gathering on a riverbank. They learn that a young woman is preparing to burn herself alive in the authentic practice of "suttee"...her husband has been missing for a year and custom demands she immolate herself. Savage's girl is horrified and begs for him to think of a way out. He disguises himself as a native man and hopes the widow will see a brief glimpse of him and believe it is her husband. The suttee can thus be postponed. The scheme works, but a mob then chases Savage to ask why he has not appeared earlier. He frantically avoids the mob, but then sees a horrible sight. A band of wealthy Hindu travelers is suddenly strangled, robbed and buried. Savage has seen the secret cult of Thuggee at work! He appeals to the base commander (also the father of his intended) to apprehend the Thugs but bureaucracy prevents him from doing so. Savage becomes obsessed with uncovering the Thugs and hits upon a scheme where he will "go native" and infiltrate the Thugs himself. That way he can get incontrovertible proof of their existence. He enlists the reluctant help of a captured Thug (superbly played by Saeed Jaffrey) and goes undercover.

Savage finds himself immersed in the strange and deadly world of the Thugs. As time goes by, he is forced to participate in the ritual murders to keep his cover. His identity is starting to give way. Will his sanity last long enough to reveal the secrets of "The Deceivers"? There's a huge amount of tension in the movie. Its attention to historical and cultural detail is excellent. Doing some research on the Thugs, I discovered the exact words of their "Sugar of Kali" ritual are used in the movie. Most confusing for Savage is the fact that, when not killing innocents, the Thugs appear to be normal and even kind people. The interesting contrast is that the former Thug feels his own loyalty to his people weakening as he sees Savage losing his way.

The ending is bittersweet and not sugarcoated at all. I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes tense historical drama as well as those who want a glimpse inside a forbidden, exotic culture.

Pierce Brosnan looks a bit too European (and hairy-chested) to be completely convincing as a Kali-worshipper, but he gives an intrepid performance as an Englishman undercover with the Thugees, a sort of Donnie Brasco of the 1800s. The movie itself has some harrowing moments as we watch the thugs ply their killing trade, and the inevitable one-against- many showdown, coming when Pierce's ruse is revealed, is suitably tense. A lot of the drama, however is rather flat and unmemorable and the movie lags in the middle.

There is a nice period look here, though, similar to that of the Sharpe TV series, and fans of that one might find this an interesting diversion.