Peter Fonda stars as Evan Bonner, an American deserter returning to face the music at home after a long sojourn in Morocco, in this oddly out of character and very low-key Robert Wise-helmed drama. Evan meets fellow American Deirdre McCluskey (Lindsay Wagner) on a train trip to Casablanca when she asks him if he has any wacky tobacky she can buy from him, and their star-crossed romance begins to bud, reaching fruition in Paris. Fonda's performance is extremely restrained and he spends much of the film wearing a sheepish grin, which is perhaps appropriate as there are tons of REAL sheep featured in the Moroccan scenes. The film is very much of its time and suffers from an undernourished screenplay by TV scribe Richard De Roy as well as from a fairly dreadful, movie-of-the-week score from a quite young David Shire. Even Henri Decae's cinematography isn't up to snuff, but that may be the fault of the washed out pan and scan print recently aired on IFC. Considering the level of talent involved in this picture, Two People really should be a lot better than it is, but is harmless enough.
5 Reviews
Rewatched after 40+ years
robertnorris16 April 2022
KTLA would play this once a year in the late 70's early 80's. Nice little film of two crossed people meeting each other at the wrong time in their lives and making 36 hours count. Certain things about Fondas character dont completely translate but its competently acted and better than i expected.
Really not a good film
rdoyle2928 March 2023
Peter Fonda is a deserter from Vietnam who has been hiding in Marrakesh. Lindsay Wagner is a fashion model who's in Marrakesh on a photo shoot. They meet on a train heading back to the US via Paris and fall in love. The catch is that Fonda is returning to the US because he's turned himself in.
This is not a bad idea for a film. In the early 70's it must have seemed like "Love Story" with a healthy dose of hip radical politics, so you can see what drew Robert Wise to it. It's a pretty bad film though, mainly because the main performances are not very good and the script is awful.
Fonda is an appealing screen presence, but he's a pretty shallow actor and he's playing a character that needs depth of feeling that he just can't provide. He's supposed to be full of regret and uncertainty about both what he's done in Vietnam and his decision to desert ... so much so that his decision to turn himself in makes some sense. Fonda is so cool and self-assured that none of this really registers, and you can't really accept the idea that he's about to go to prison for years. Wagner, in her film debut, has nothing to play off and is let down by both Fonda and the screenplay.
Boy is this screenplay bad. None of the dialogue feels like it's uttered by actual people.
Estelle Parsons is along for the ride as Wagner's travelling companion. She has very little to do.
Other than Wagner having a topless scene (which must be rare, right?) and being the only film where I've seen someone try to by marijuana from a man who's crying, the real draw here is seeing how not to make "Before Sunrise".
This is not a bad idea for a film. In the early 70's it must have seemed like "Love Story" with a healthy dose of hip radical politics, so you can see what drew Robert Wise to it. It's a pretty bad film though, mainly because the main performances are not very good and the script is awful.
Fonda is an appealing screen presence, but he's a pretty shallow actor and he's playing a character that needs depth of feeling that he just can't provide. He's supposed to be full of regret and uncertainty about both what he's done in Vietnam and his decision to desert ... so much so that his decision to turn himself in makes some sense. Fonda is so cool and self-assured that none of this really registers, and you can't really accept the idea that he's about to go to prison for years. Wagner, in her film debut, has nothing to play off and is let down by both Fonda and the screenplay.
Boy is this screenplay bad. None of the dialogue feels like it's uttered by actual people.
Estelle Parsons is along for the ride as Wagner's travelling companion. She has very little to do.
Other than Wagner having a topless scene (which must be rare, right?) and being the only film where I've seen someone try to by marijuana from a man who's crying, the real draw here is seeing how not to make "Before Sunrise".
about....
trekker9876-12 November 2003
Evan Bonner (Peter Fonda) is a deserter from the Vietnam war; he is on his way back to America to give himself up when he meets Deirdre McCluskey (Lindsay Wagner) a beautiful if petulant model. The two make an unlikely couple, but once in France the magic of Paris works its charm and these two vulnerable people finally find each other.
Movie reflects the age of Aquarius once removed
taikwan20 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I just,tonight, (1/20/07) saw this film for the first time since it was released in 1973 - I wanted to see it again because for some reason it has resonated with me through 3 decades.
and part of that reason is Robert Wise, the director - From The Sound of Music and Citizen Kane to this...yet, still, it's a movie I remember from a very formative age.
Lindsay Wagner pre-bionic woman and Peter Fonda post Easy Rider. This film reflects the time it was made - a Vietnam era army deserter is only germane to the 1970's.
The acting is spotty - but the locations are surreal and real- jumping from Marrakesh to Paris to New York. We go from the Middle East (which we are so much more familiar with today, post 9/11, than we were in the 1970's - sort of ironic, ya know?) to the sophistication of Paris and New York. An army deserter after some time eluding capture(not specified) decides to face the music and return to America and prison. Lindsay is Deirdre - a fashion model on exotic location but so much more than her profession and those who surround her. After a brief encounter at a restaurant Evan and Deidre retire to their own paths and then find themselves on the same train leaving Marrakesh. A memorable moment was Deidere dumping all her newly-found and just paid for weed, saying, "I expected to be clean by Casablanca" - this after Evan (Peter Fonda's character) rejects her and her gift, but reluctantly, and she knows this. .....As they return from a rest stop to re-board the train, I am reminded of "Lawrence of Arabia". They travel from the very minute and ethnic feel of Marrakesh to progressively rejoining the sophistication of the western world. En route Evan is stopped when he has to present his passport at the airport and doesn't have one. He is taken back to security where he says the magical words of "Didn't Fitzgerald talk to you?" (the non-disclosed person who assists Evan, one would presume by family but also vaguely referred to as having connections to The Embassy) - Evan rejoins Deidre and Barbara, a character portrayed by Estelle Parsons (the woman traveling with Deidre - i.e. the ugly American - silly but effectively rendered by Parsons.) Dedire chooses to flip the magazine she is reading - Time with a cover photo of a soldier in Vietnam - upside down thus removing the photo from Evan's view - and this opens up the opportunity for Evan to reveal exactly, his status as an army deserter. When Deidre notes he isn't in handcuffs - he replies, "I'm turning myself in - it's the Embassy - I will be court martialed and sent to prison - I'm sorry, I should have told you" - and Deidre replies after a very poignant pause - "Why? I'm just a girl you met on a train". I like this stuff very much.
On the plane we learn that Deidre had participated in peace marches but in a jaded fashion......thus we now have more than just a physical connection. Deidre says, "You took a stand on a stupid, corrupt war" and Evan responds, "You've got me pegged as Robin Hood and I'm not." Could be 2007, heh? The plane arrives in Paris and then they travel back to Dedire's home in New York - and Deidre represents a choice, even if it's temporary to Evan.....and she is politically aware, very much so. At a sculpture/art function in Paris the Vietnamese delegation arrives and she asks if it's the North or South. and evidently things have blended so much "they share the same tailor" and that, my friends, speaks volumes about wars - those who fight them and those who decide them.
We are left to decide on our own what choices will be made by Evan and Deidre and the repercussions of those choices.
an addendum - I appreciated the naturalness of Lindsay speaking French to locals in Marrakesh and on the train out of same - which triggers a memory to the time when French was considered THE international language.
The DVD I have does not retain the vibrant local color and film color I remember. I'm thinking I have a copy of a copy - but this film is very difficult to find so I'm grateful just to have it.
This is an example of why the medium is so precious......it vividly, even in fiction, preserves a history of who we are as a people, as a country, as a time.
What a treasure film is.
and part of that reason is Robert Wise, the director - From The Sound of Music and Citizen Kane to this...yet, still, it's a movie I remember from a very formative age.
Lindsay Wagner pre-bionic woman and Peter Fonda post Easy Rider. This film reflects the time it was made - a Vietnam era army deserter is only germane to the 1970's.
The acting is spotty - but the locations are surreal and real- jumping from Marrakesh to Paris to New York. We go from the Middle East (which we are so much more familiar with today, post 9/11, than we were in the 1970's - sort of ironic, ya know?) to the sophistication of Paris and New York. An army deserter after some time eluding capture(not specified) decides to face the music and return to America and prison. Lindsay is Deirdre - a fashion model on exotic location but so much more than her profession and those who surround her. After a brief encounter at a restaurant Evan and Deidre retire to their own paths and then find themselves on the same train leaving Marrakesh. A memorable moment was Deidere dumping all her newly-found and just paid for weed, saying, "I expected to be clean by Casablanca" - this after Evan (Peter Fonda's character) rejects her and her gift, but reluctantly, and she knows this. .....As they return from a rest stop to re-board the train, I am reminded of "Lawrence of Arabia". They travel from the very minute and ethnic feel of Marrakesh to progressively rejoining the sophistication of the western world. En route Evan is stopped when he has to present his passport at the airport and doesn't have one. He is taken back to security where he says the magical words of "Didn't Fitzgerald talk to you?" (the non-disclosed person who assists Evan, one would presume by family but also vaguely referred to as having connections to The Embassy) - Evan rejoins Deidre and Barbara, a character portrayed by Estelle Parsons (the woman traveling with Deidre - i.e. the ugly American - silly but effectively rendered by Parsons.) Dedire chooses to flip the magazine she is reading - Time with a cover photo of a soldier in Vietnam - upside down thus removing the photo from Evan's view - and this opens up the opportunity for Evan to reveal exactly, his status as an army deserter. When Deidre notes he isn't in handcuffs - he replies, "I'm turning myself in - it's the Embassy - I will be court martialed and sent to prison - I'm sorry, I should have told you" - and Deidre replies after a very poignant pause - "Why? I'm just a girl you met on a train". I like this stuff very much.
On the plane we learn that Deidre had participated in peace marches but in a jaded fashion......thus we now have more than just a physical connection. Deidre says, "You took a stand on a stupid, corrupt war" and Evan responds, "You've got me pegged as Robin Hood and I'm not." Could be 2007, heh? The plane arrives in Paris and then they travel back to Dedire's home in New York - and Deidre represents a choice, even if it's temporary to Evan.....and she is politically aware, very much so. At a sculpture/art function in Paris the Vietnamese delegation arrives and she asks if it's the North or South. and evidently things have blended so much "they share the same tailor" and that, my friends, speaks volumes about wars - those who fight them and those who decide them.
We are left to decide on our own what choices will be made by Evan and Deidre and the repercussions of those choices.
an addendum - I appreciated the naturalness of Lindsay speaking French to locals in Marrakesh and on the train out of same - which triggers a memory to the time when French was considered THE international language.
The DVD I have does not retain the vibrant local color and film color I remember. I'm thinking I have a copy of a copy - but this film is very difficult to find so I'm grateful just to have it.
This is an example of why the medium is so precious......it vividly, even in fiction, preserves a history of who we are as a people, as a country, as a time.
What a treasure film is.
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