Winter Kills (1979)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

William Richert

Writers:

Richard Condon (book)
William Richert (writer)

Release Date:

11 May 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

They are the power. Protected by violence and ruled by corruption. [Video]

Plot:

19 years after President Timothy Keegan was assassinated, his brother Nick discovers a dying man claiming to have been the gunman...

Plot Keywords:

Wealthy | Reference To Khrushchev | Morgue | Directorial Debut | Flashback Sequence

Cast

Jeff Bridges	...	Nick Kegan
John Huston	...	Pa Kegan
Anthony Perkins	...	John Cerruti
Eli Wallach	...	Joe Diamond
Sterling Hayden	...	Z.K. Dawson
Dorothy Malone	...	Emma Kegan
Tomas Milian	...	Frank Mayo
Belinda Bauer	...	Yvette Malone
Ralph Meeker	...	Gameboy Baker
Toshirô Mifune	...	Keith
Richard Boone	...	Keifitz
David Spielberg	...	Miles Garner
Brad Dexter	...	Captain Heller One
Michael Thoma	...	Ray Doty
Ed Madsen	...	Captain Heller Two

Runtime:

97 min | Netherlands:96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | UK:18 (video rating) (1986) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Death Valley National Park, California, USA

Company:

Winter Gold Productions

Quotes:

Z.K. Dawson: You think before you speak, young man! Jesus, they didn't teach you kids nothin' since 1944.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Who Killed 'Winter Kills'? (2003) (V)

Very dry and very, very funny

Nineteen years after JFK was killed (by whom?) and five years after Watergate, this one puts the whole conspiracy theory industry in its place. One of the funniest films I have seen for a very long time - anyone who still thinks that Americans don't do irony (always a stupid claim but one which is made time and again) should see this. But it's bone-dry and very subtle, and I can understand how many people were puzzled and bemused by this when it was first released and that it did not do well commercially. Performances are universally excellent, tho' Jeff Bridge as the starry-eyed son trying to discover who killed his half-brother, the US president, and John Hustion as the paterfamilias and caricature mega capitalist are treat. The plot is nonsensical, but then that is the whole point of a film which sends up conspiracy films something rotten and then some. Buy the video, because this really does bear watching again and again.