Les Visiteurs

Many of you have probably seen Brian De Palma's Casualties of War from 1987. CoW was based on a real story, this fictional 1972 film shows what happened afterward. All I can say is that this is an incredibly intriguing, but sadly forgotten film.

There are many other aspects that make this film special. First of all it's James Wood's debut, second it's allegedly the first fictional film to deal with Vietnam in a serious manner, and third because of how intense the film manages to get. The very set-up sends flashbacks to Funny Games. Two old army buddies of Wood's shows up at his house. This might seem nice enough, but even without the knowledge I had you get the feeling that something is wrong. These are the men Wood's turned in for raping and killing a Vietnamese girl.

The atmosphere screams of dread and you sit back horrified wondering when it's all going to explode. Unlike Kazan's other features it's not visually beautiful in the traditional sense, though it does have many haunting images. This film seeks a more personal touch, again one that might appear somewhat similar to Haneke's minimalism. One thing I found fascinating is that it often cuts the heads of it's characters, which creates an unnatural and weird, albeit very effective atmosphere.

It's also wonderfully contained - there's basically just one setting - their house and the area near by. This only intensifies the whole situation. Of course it does have some small problems. For example the character doesn't seem to realize how serious the situation actually is. But this is one scary flick, and I would definitely recommend it!

Untypical material for Kazan: this curiously amateurish amalgam of ACT OF VIOLENCE (1948) and THE DESPERATE HOURS (1955), updated for the Vietnam era, is unworthy of the director's unquestionable talent (despite being written by his own son!) and emerges as a pointless talking marathon - in which the dialogue is muffled most of the time anyway, because of poor sound recording!

Patricia Joyce comes off best from the hand-picked cast, which includes James Woods' debut role as the wimpish hero(!) and Steve Railsback as one of his two revenge-seeking war buddies; these actors must have thought that they had it made when they were chosen by Award-winning director Kazan (who had, after all, virtually discovered Marlon Brando, James Dean and Warren Beatty) to feature in his next movie but, unfortunately for them, THE VISITORS sank without trace despite being an official entry in that year's Cannes Film Festival!

While the film could easily have turned into a nasty shocker in the vein of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) - which might even have been preferable in the long run - the story just meanders on towards a lame and inconclusive ending. At least, the film's snowy setting provides a nice pictorial backdrop...

Really wanted to like 'The Visitors' so much more. Am a great admirer of Elia Kazan, really like to love almost all his films (his best work being iconic classics and even lesser work is watchable) and deeply respect his directing of actors, of which he is rightly considered one of the best at and it is obvious in almost all his films. Also have often gotten a lot of fun out of James Woods', in his debut here, ability to steal every scene he is in in most of his films, regardless of my negative feelings of him as a person he is always a lot of fun to watch.

'The Visitors' just didn't do it for me, though it does have its moments. It is Kazan's penultimate film and is the only one to actually properly not feel like it was directed by him, this could easily have passed for being mistaken for a film from somebody else entirely. The subject was really intriguing and difficult and could have made for a hard-hitting and emotional experience, but not near enough is done with it despite the promising start. Being somebody that dislikes concept-wastes, that did frustrate me. As far as Kazan's work goes, 'The Visitors' to me is one of his worst.

As said, 'The Visitors' has good points. The scenery is both beautiful and unforgiving, which suited the subject brilliantly. The music is suitably ominous, again fitting. The film starts off very suspensefully and intriguingly, and has moments that are quite shocking. The best scenes are actually the ones that are the hardest to watch.

Scenes that will be too upsetting for some. The dog murder and the rape being the most memorable. 'The Visitors' sees Woods at his most vulnerable, subtle and touching without showing signs of inexperience, words not usually commonly associated with Woods' performances generally. Not a bad thing just to say, just an observation. Steve Railsback plays his even meatier role with steely intensity. Patricia Joyce and Patrick McVey are also very good, McVey being the most experienced of the four and that experience shows.

Kazan's usual directorial brilliance unfortunately doesn't really come through here in 'The Visitors'. Here it was like he was uninterested in the material or not at ease with it, all his other films were far more engagingly, intensely and tastefully directed, whereas this just didn't feel like a Kazan film visually or tonally. 'The Visitors' is also perhaps his least accomplished film visually, scenery aside. Despite having serious problems with 'The Sea of Grass' and from memory 'The Last Tycoon', at least they were well made, visually this was uncharacteristically amateurish work. Very sloppy and disorganised, which cannot be said about Kazan usually.

Despite the promising start, 'The Visitors' badly under-explores the great idea it has. The hard-hitting and emotion only come in spurts, most of the time it's dreary and meandering furthermore done in bad taste. The pace is at its worst interminably dull and there is far too much talk. None of it really that interesting. The story lacks atmosphere and the complex subject matter could have done with a far more pull no punches and nuanced approach, as it comes over as indifferent and bland generally apart from some good moments. There is not really that much interesting about the characters, the only character to get some development is Nickerson.

On the whole, watchable for curiosity and completest sake but not a great or good representation of Kazan. 5/10

If you look at this in terms of Kazan's career and the way he puts his own experience in every film (even though I'm sure he'd rather not, but he just can't help himself), this is a masterpiece. If you look at it in terms of commercial cinema, you might describe it as an interesting failure. (Leonard Maltin's book describes it as a BOMB.) All I know is that I was on the edge of my seat screaming at the television, it must have had something going for it.

The filming has a "Night of the Living Dead" kind of quality, and is just as harrowing. I wish I didn't relate to Kazan's misanthropic view of humanity, but I do. If you think you're an expert on what makes a good movie, skip this, it's not for you. If you're interested in looking at the dark and fascinating side of people who do evil things, don't miss it. A depressing but great movie. At least someone knows enough about this stuff to put it in a film; the bad part is when we have to live through it.

(1972) The Visitors WAR DRAMA

Somewhat controversial subject matter that centers on common law couple, Bill Schmidt (James Woods) and Martha Wayne (Patricia Joyce) with their young baby Hal. While Martha's dad, Harry Wayne (Patrick McVey) lives next door, we find out is a Western novelist. And just when Bill decides to leave on the following morning on a drive to grab the newspaper, two people show up we find out used to belong to the same army regiment as Bill and wanted to see him or "The Visitors" hence the title. Their names are Antonio Rodriguez (Chico Martínez) or Tony for short and Sgt. Mike Nickerson (Steve Railsback). And as the movie is progressing we find out both Tony and Mike used to be court martialed by one of their own regimen Bill, and it was at this point their motives for showing up at Bill's residence is ambiguous.