The Next Man

It has an interesting plot, and a political message. Imagine the Saudis sending a man of peace to the UN, to change OPEC. Other than that, it resembles Day of the Jackal in some respects, and Cornelia Sharpe is dazzling. Scenes of New York prior to 9/11 are always poignant, and Connery does a fine job. His "conversion" sparks a multitude of organizations to try to stop him from doing further damage. There is much to look at, and the pace is fast. I enjoyed his pleasure at confronting the UN members from the Mid-East who were outraged by his refusal to parrot the OPEC line. There is always a "next man"... or woman...who has a mission to perform.

Sean Connery as an Arab doesn't bother me, I've seen him as a Spaniard, Russian, Irishman, even an English Agent, though very rarely a Scotsman. This is an interesting film as it could only end one way, even if it's heart is in the right place. Sean plays Abdul Muhsen, the new delegate from Saudi Arabia at the UN. He has great ideas about inviting Israel into a new kind of OPEC, which infuriates some Arab countries. He gets romantically involved with Nicole Scott (Cornelia Sharpe), but we know her back story.

This should've been better, but somewhat silly scenes lower it overall score a wee bit.

Two of my very dear actors, Sean Connery and Adolfo Celi, after the extraordinary "Thunderball", reunited in "The Next Man". But, unfortunately, Adolfo Celi only has one line, after which he is killed at the beginning of the film and we don't see him again. After she takes off her panties, a sign that she will make love to him, Cornelia Sharpe does something completely different, as you will see in the movie. Someone wrote on YouTube where I saw the film that it is "an explosive action film". It is not explosive at all, not in the action sense. There are 4 explosions at the end, some bombs placed in diplomatic briefcases explode, but the rest of the movie is just boring chatter. Except for the assassination attempt on the island and the coup de grace given at the very end in the car. What I don't understand is how a woman (Cornelia Sharpe's character) can make love to a man (Sean Connery's character) and then kill him. I think she came to love him in turn, but for a lot of money, you do anything. Sharpe, in Romanian, means snake.

This is a case of a bunch of people thinking they are so clever they have a story that fits the time. Remember the all-around political conspiracies caught on camera in the years leading to the Watergate and a little later? Most movies trying to cash in on made-for-TV 'o so powerful, o so mind numbing' conspiracies were in fact caught in their own navel-gazing attitude.

I was never a fan of The Conversation which I find as much dated as others conspiracy stints of the time but Coppola was true to his main character and Hackman was a pretty engaging actor to observe. I mean these conspiracy movies are mostly drowning in the character pool of noir heroes. Lots of questions unanswered, lots of dis-communication... Well this takes at least Bergman to build a movie about such un-visual bases.

The Next Man is a perfect example of its time: one political soup served with an idealistic character and an horrendous conspiracy tightening its web around him. Neither part is interesting in itself and the whole doesn't get any better. In fact you can tell how much it will be bad from the very first sequences piling up 'watcha that' murders without ever advancing any storyline. Pedestrian directing at its worst as most of the movie is one pompous accumulation of scenes revolving around violence naively brought under the viewer's eyes.

"The Next Man" is an obscure Sean Connery film from Allied Artists...and its financial failure might just be why it was the studio's final release. The copy I saw was on a DVD from Netflix...one that looks just like it was duplicated from an old VHS tape....so in addition to a poor picture quality, there are no DVD extras.

The story begins with a shot of the Twin Towers in New York....which is a bit ironic considering the film's content. In the space of just a few minutes in the film, three different important Middle East politicians are assassinated. Soon, a Saudi diplomat, Khalil Abdul-Muhsen (Sean Connery) arrives at the UN to give a speech. The speech seems to shock everyone when he calls for an end to OPEC nations supporting terror and proposes his country leave OPEC if it continues. He also then proposes the seemingly impossible....peace with Israel!! Surely Khalil has a death wish....and soon American officials are fearing for his life. Can he survive this hate...as well as the assassin to which he has found himself falling for after he meets her?

The weird thing about this movie is the casting of Scottish actor Sean Connery in the lead. While he looks a bit like the part he's supposed to play, he sure doesn't sound like a Saudi! And, I am pretty sure this as some of the reason the film faced such an icy reception when it debuted. He's enjoyable and a fine actor...but wrong for the part.

Aside from this silly casting decision and a poor DVD dupe, is "The Next Man" worth seeing? Well, despite having a seemingly impossible premise, it is nice to see a film that gives a slight glimmer of hope to Middle East peace.....that's a nice plus. But the story itself seemed to be missing something...mostly fully three dimensional characters. A nice attempt but a film that just doesn't quite score.