Figures In A Landscape could never be more than a minor work. And I can't see it being made in any time other than the 1970's. It is existential, Beckettian. Two escaped men make an attempt to escape to a bordering country, pursued by a black helicopter with a malevolently playful pilot, and faceless soldiers on the ground directed by him. Along the way, they encounter some villagers, but mostly they are on their own, coping and not coping with escape. Robert Shaw plays the older, gruffer, working class Mac, McDowell is the young, higher class Ansell. But though they at first seem to play to type, this does not prove to be the case.
I personally think there should be more odd films like this. There is a real interesting sense of humour and character study contained within the script, and evinced by the acting. The performances by Shaw (who also wrote the script) and McDowell are excellent. Shaw seems at first a gruff, experienced older tough guy, but soon reveals a very strange underside, and McDowell is wonderful as the young, confused, hunted Ansell. Moreover, Losey's direction is stunning, and a brave departure from the suffocating interiors of his more typical films like The Servant (even though there are some horrors in the editing). But, at the same time, I also feel that Figures In a Landscape is too vague in its allegory.
I personally think there should be more odd films like this. There is a real interesting sense of humour and character study contained within the script, and evinced by the acting. The performances by Shaw (who also wrote the script) and McDowell are excellent. Shaw seems at first a gruff, experienced older tough guy, but soon reveals a very strange underside, and McDowell is wonderful as the young, confused, hunted Ansell. Moreover, Losey's direction is stunning, and a brave departure from the suffocating interiors of his more typical films like The Servant (even though there are some horrors in the editing). But, at the same time, I also feel that Figures In a Landscape is too vague in its allegory.