Conspiração Total

Disgusted at the behaviour of his corrupt government, Colonel Narriman (Hemings) agrees to lead a Coup D'Etat. The films follows the planning and delivery of the Coup with associated twists and turns.

An intriguing film, charting the thinking and action required to complete a Coup. Hemmings is really good in the lead with fine support from Morse as a moral driving force, Pleasence as the dreaded head of Security and O'Toole, in a supporting role as one of the key soldiers involved. There are issues however. It is rather dull to look at, the pace varies considerably, it clearly needed a bigger budget and towards the end looks cheap and the direction overall is flat and unimaginative. Worth catching though, it's different, well acted and definitely provides food for thought.

Familiar faces in this film (Hemmings, Pleasance, O'Toole) help to get a Western audience to empathise with what it's like to live under a totalitarian regime. Our sympathies are with the heroes as they move towards a coup d'etat (an odd one in which the military intends to replace a more repressive regime with one less so). However not every conspirator's motives are the purest...

Firstly I personally feel we need all the political films we can get, as they are somewhat far and few between.

The plot is believable if you relate it to something akin to the Portugal Coup in 1974, with the exception of the rather grim ending. This is also not too difficult to accept when looking at other events in the not so distant past.

One point of interest is the motivation of the concept, being a Canadian production may have been the now forgotten political kidnap of the British Government official James Cross by the Front de liberation du Quebec in 1970.

I think the dialogue is the weakest point but I can overlook the somewhat unconvincing conversations as some set pieces, like the Aldo Moro kidnapping and Chilean Secret Police style torture sequence are effective.

I read a TV review of this once that appeared to misunderstand what a coup involves, When the critic stated only one tank was blown up as if to highlight the low production values. The reviewer clearly missing the point entirely.

An unnamed country is suffering at the hands of a corrupt government so a group of idealistic army officers and intellectuals attempt to stage a coup with the idea of reforming their nation. But who can they trust, is there a Judas in their midst?

A great idea, a great cast and great detail into how to stage a coup d'etat and yet the film just lacks that little bit to make it truly memorable. The production looks a little flat, the pace lags and it's narrative is a little fractured. It comes across as a vaguely interesting tv movie not helped by the fact that it should have been set in either Africa, South America or Eastern Europe because the locations just scream "Canada!" at you and why would they be staging a coup? Still, enjoy Peter O'Toole, David Hemmings, Donald Pleasance and Barry Morse together.

I find this movie quite interesting, I saw this movie in the Philippines during the height of the 1986 revolution in the Phil. I liked the way Peter O Toole played the character of a cunning officer. The treachery of the power grabbers was for real. Other cast and characters of the movie are good to their respective roles. I could not believe the setting was in Canada. I thought it was in Latin America. I recommend this movie to all countries with unstable political system. There's a lot of lesson you could learn from this movie. Its a warning to military adventurism and to those who wants to grab power unconstitutionally. I want to own a DVD copy of this movie. Where could I find it?