L'expérience interdite

When I first watched Flatliners, I was amazed. It had all the necessary features of a good movie: the cast was superb, the plot was superb, and in the case of thrillers, there was genuine "thrills" throughout.

Keifer Sutherland offered a marvelous performance as the male lead in the piece, portraying a scientist who believes he can find the answers to life and death by killing himself and then coming back to life, essentially "stealing" death's secrets away. Kevin Bacon offers an excellent performance as the more morally decent counterpart to Keifer, while Julia Roberts offers her most convincing role. William Baldwin portrays a student who excels in class and, apparently, intercourse. And Oliver Platt, in another outstanding performance, portrays the voice of reason for the group and the most innocent.

The story is relatively simple, yet original, and the acting is refreshing-- definitely a stand out film for the genre, and one that has set the standard for measuring other thrillers for me.

8/10.

Countless TV displays and the memorable appearances from 4 of today's mega-stars(plus Hope Davis's screen debut) keep Flatliners still in prudence. The plot is about a non-academic research of five medicine undergrads pursuing one's crazy idea on discovering the secret of death, and learn what's after death, then come back to life again. Yet the storyline hasn't been designed as fascinating as the idea of the plot.

There are popular stereotypes to develop a regular teen-slasher script in Flatliners. There is Nelson who creates the idea of decoding death, pretty but introverted Rachel, David who cuts the Gordian knot on luckily not to be dismissed from the school, ladies' man Joe and finally the smart guy Randy("I did not come to medical school to murder my class mates no matter how deranged they might be"). They join hands altogether in an experiment where Nelson's heart will be stopped and rerythmed. Then they decide to continue this experiment in strict confidence at night times in the campus. Not long after Nelson's experience everyone starts a race over having the wildest and the longest death experience, risking their lives one by one. Yet, soon they realize their daily life becomes affected from those experiences they had. The visits to the afterlife brings back their delinquent feelings from their childhood memories. Depolarizing their deep subconscious watchfulness, they begin having somatic delusions and visual hallucinations.

When the point comes where the explanation of subconscious, director Joel Schumacher skips that every humankind has a subconscious personality which they are not aware of. This inner personality keeps one from altering into identity loss. If you lose or if you depolarize this subconscious personality you certainly lose your identity instead of refreshing childhood memories. I wanted to add this as a movie mistake, which already has been mentioned via movie critics in the earlier 90s'. Obviously here in this movie Schumacher made the actors have it least affected. Then why do they hesitate continuing on the experiment after learning their lesson, as if death is designed indiscoverable by God? David had been introduced as an Atheist, now he turned out to believe in God when he recalled a flashback from his childhood. After witnessing this 180 degreed change in David, it's clear to see that Schumacher's film was so conservative and lily-livered; that's ultimately why it's never classified as a work of science fiction. Alas! It had a good potential. It even tried to tell the unconscious maturation from having a death experience, beginning to believe that death is so simply natural and it's only a part of a human's life.

More than what's in the movie, it was also memorable to recall what's with the movie. Jan de Bont as the cinematographer, who had worked almost every time with Schumacher, creates an dreamy atmosphere like it's being an Gothic horror movie. The blue color schemes all over the walls reflecting into the actors' faces deliver first class of lighting, that suits perfectly with the film. The close-up shots of the gargoyle statues in the campus buildings, Catholic frescoes in the walls, stop-motion cameras, and the dynamic camera speeds were all belong to Bont's skills.

Flatliners became a cult movie in time with its sociological pen-portrait of the X-generation juvenile especially via its futuristic editing style with storyboard connection sequences like being part of a video music clip so much aesthetically. Those were the times where fast-paced and multi-sequenced video music clips were on rise. This style was very rare to come across in those years after its pioneer Tony Scott's "The Hunger(1983)".

The medical student Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland) invites Joe Hurley (William Baldwin), David Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), Rachel Mannus (Julia Roberts) and Randy Steckle (Oliver Platt), who are friends from his class, to participate in a near death experiment where he will die for one minute to see whether there is afterlife or not. After the successful result, Nelson tells that there is something afterlife and hides that he saw the boy Billy Mahoney that he used to bully with his friends. The next to try is Joe, who likes to secretly videotape women that he has sex. He stays dead for a longer time and has an erotic experience. Then the atheist David is the next to try the experiment for a longer time. He sees the black girl Winnie Hicks that he used to bully at school, and later he is haunted by her. David tries to convince Rachel Mannus to avoid the experiment but she is already dead when he arrives at the university. Soon Rachel is haunted by her deceased father that she believes died because of her. David learns that Nelson is haunted and injured by Billy Mahoney and discovers that they are haunted by their sins and atonement is the only way out. What will happen to them?

"Flatliners" is a suspenseful horror film directed by Joel Schumacher in 1990 with a great cast. The storyline of afterlife, sins and atonement is original and well-resolved. Unfortunately this great storyline was recently used in a totally unnecessary remake. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Linha Mortal" ("Mortal Line")

I recall seeing this movie three times, first in the early 90s, then 00s and now I just saw it again and each time I've grown more fond of it. There is something in Schumachers style that drags me into it. The story is OK, nothing really remarkable. It's one part ghost story, one part medical thriller, one part love triangle.

What really makes this movie worthwhile is Schumachers direction. He's got a very good eye for this Gothic style. One might wonder why the school was so poorly lit, or what exactly was the place they did their experiments at, but it's all for the mood, it's all style. Sometimes style does go over substance, but in this case they work hand in hand. The Gothic architecture and gloomy late autumnal Chicago are just what this movie needed. Just like The Lost Boys IS small town sunny California. Schumacher should've stuck to this style which clearly is his forte, but sadly he has since had a very varying career with only occasional hits.

The cast is great, all of the stars have gone a long way since. Makes one only wonder what could've become of William Baldwin had he made better career moves. He is very good in this movie. I've always liked Kiefer Sutherland as a movie actor, and he does a remarkable job here too. I really would've rather seen him as a full time movie actor rather than going for TV.

There is only one thing that bothers me in this movie and it's the story in all it's simplicity. If people have had near death experiences before and have come back to tell, what new did this crew try to achieve? If not only have personal experience of death, but I got the idea most of them were in it for the science. Why risk brain damage and gamble with life for something you will not get any proof anyway. Especially given that they are medical students, the story is not 100 % believable, but like I stated earlier, watch this movie more for the mood.

I'm glad it's already been so long since the 90s so one can start appreciate the movies of this decade again without getting caught on the hairdos and such.

Kiefer Sutherland and Kevin Bacon showcase their talents and give compelling performances, as usual. This might even be one of Bacon's best roles. Unsurprisingly, Julia Roberts was the weakest part of the film, in terms of acting and casting. Oliver Platt proved himself to be a reliably consistent side-character actor, and William Baldwin's performance was decent to mediocre (at least better than Roberts'). The suspense was gripping throughout most of the film, from the "experiment" procedures to the after-math following each one. Overall this film was suspenseful, presented some interesting thoughts and ideas on a controversial subject, and provided some commendable performances. The premise was very provocative here and it was one of the earliest films to show Generation X's ambition despite the suppression by the Baby Boomers. It was also very true to the nihilism that embodies Generation X.