Stu-24

As close to an American masterpiece as it gets: honest, touching and politically charged, this film humanizes a point of contention that still matters to this day. Frank Langella gives a performance I did not know he was capable of: not mere impression, but a complete engagement in his character, an understanding at a core level of a man who is subject to as much caricature as any politician since Ceasar. Bravo.

This is the film that got me addicted to LMN. Over the top, 90210-like drama (with extra murder) encapsulated in a glorious 2 hour package. Like its ilk, you can ignore the last minute or two of network interference, and bask in the glory of sex-crazed nunnery-sin with exceedingly pretty people and cheese galore.

Frankly, I'm offended by the rating this film has received here. This is not only an exceptionally well acted film, a film that is shot not badly, and a film that has some iconographic moments, it is a brave film philosophically. It does not pander to any particular agenda aside from a slight humanism that is forgivable given the subject matter. It is somewhat populist, somewhat sexy and more frightening that most of the garbage being passed as horror these days. The sexual overtones are actually quite effective in the war-torn context, and add depth to the film that might not have been there if it was purely a polemic against Trotskyism.

Good stuff, and I congratulate the makers of this film for visual expansion and interpretation of an interesting, but dated, book.