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The Fixer (1968) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
7.0/10   520 votes
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Down 3% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
John Frankenheimer
Writers:
Bernard Malamud (novel)
Dalton Trumbo (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Fixer on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
8 December 1968 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama more
Tagline:
This is "The Fixer" who didn't know he had courage...until courage was all he had left.
Plot:
In Czarist Russia, unjustly jailed Jewish handyman tries to get out. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 nominations more
NewsDesk:
Veteran Actor Alan Bates Dead at 69
 (From Studio Briefing - Film News. 29 December 2003)
User Comments:
Captures the strengths of the book more (9 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Alan Bates ... Yakov Bok

Dirk Bogarde ... Bibikov
Georgia Brown ... Marfa Golov
Hugh Griffith ... Lebedev
Elizabeth Hartman ... Zinaida

Ian Holm ... Grubeshov
David Opatoshu ... Latke
David Warner ... Count Odoevsky
Carol White ... Raisl
George Murcell ... Deputy Warden
Murray Melvin ... Priest
Peter Jeffrey ... Berezhinsky

Michael Goodliffe ... Ostrovsky
Thomas Heathcote ... Proshko
Mike Pratt ... Father Anastasy
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
132 min
Country:
UK
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Certification:
Australia:PG | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | USA:PG-13 (re-rating) (1993) | Argentina:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:M (original rating)
Filming Locations:
Hungary more
Company:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Pg. 96 of Steve Martin's memoir ‘Born Standing Up’, relates a story in which Trumbo's daughter tells Martin: "He's got a screenplay due in four days and he hasn't started in yet." This is in reference to her father writing 'The Fixer' at the last minute. more
Movie Connections:
Featured in Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream (1998) (TV) more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful.
Captures the strengths of the book, 22 February 2002
8/10
Author: Jugu Abraham (jugu_abraham@yahoo.co.uk) from Trivandrum, Kerala, India

It is not often that cinema can do justice to a great novel. This one brings out the existential questions of the lead character Yakov Blok in an honest manner, true to the original. I think I would place the credit more with screenplaywriter Dalton Trumbo for this effort. He did not even change some of the key lines of the book. I wonder what Malamud would have thought of the script.

Frankenheimer needs praise in some sequences, the prison sequences and the seduction sequence--but what amuses me no end is why he chose to cast the three actresses who speak their lines with no care for even a semblance of being East European.

Alan Bates, Dirk Bogarde, Hugh Griffith, David Warner and Ian Holm are all good actors but Frankenheimer made no effort to make them speak like Russians or East Europeans. Bogarde is predictable in his role, but Alan Bates carried the film. He alone played his role with conviction. Maurice Jarre's music was good but not his best.

Like "Gandhi" this film will be remembered because of the subject, not because of its cinema. The true hero was not Bates, not Trumbo, not Frankenheimer--it was Malamud!

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Any Plans for a DVD release? REISMAN74
Harrowing film, but wonderful performance by Alan Bates gwen24
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