Complete credited cast: | |||
Sarah Miles | ... | Anne / mother | |
Kris Kristofferson | ... | Jim Cameron | |
Jonathan Kahn | ... | Jonathan / son | |
Margo Cunningham | ... | Elizabeth Palmer | |
Earl Rhodes | ... | Chief | |
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Paul Tropea | ... | Number Two |
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Gary Lock | ... | Number Four |
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Stephen Black | ... | Number Five |
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Peter Clapham | ... | Richard Pettit |
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Jennifer Tolman | ... | Mary Ingram |
Widowed now for close to four years, Anne Osborne, who now operates the antiques shop formerly owned by her husband David, and their son, Jonathan Osborne, live in a small, English seaside town. Both Anne and Jonathan still miss David even after all these years. Going through puberty, Jonathan uses something he finds in his bedroom to explore the emerging thoughts of sexuality going through his mind. Although Anne knows Jonathan sneaks out of the house early in the morning against her orders, she is unaware that he is attending meetings of a secret society of five boys, who refer to each other only by a cardinal number, their rank within the group as assigned by "The Chief", number one. The Chief is an arrogant, sadistic pseudo-intellectual who needs to show his power and dominance over the other four in whatever means possible. He largely considers them immature as he spouts off his Nietzschean philosophies, centering on that adults create rules that ultimately disrupt the natural ... Written by Huggo
Though I never read the Japanese book from which this movie is based - I thought the comments of other posters missed a salient point in their reviews.
No one brought up the exploration of the focus on the "pure and perfect" order of things that is a backdrop for the exploration of the boys in the film. I'm assuming that that refers to the idea that there is such a thing and that when we deviate from it - meaning is somehow bastardized - and focus and purpose are lost. Unfortunately, when - during exploration - one destroys the object of one's investigation that too seems a bastardization of the "pure and perfect order."
A disturbing film but I do like Kris Kristofferson and he did write the music for the soundtrack which is beautiful. I tried many times to find a CD of the soundtrack but the movie has been out of print for so long that it is probably not possible to find one.