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61 out of 64 people found the following comment useful :- One of the greatest thrillers ever made, and one of the most overlooked American movies of the 1960s., 27 March 2003 Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia
You could make a strong case for the late John Frankenheimer being the most unappreciated American film director of all time simply by mentioning his two astonishing 1960s movies 'The Manchurian Candidate' and 'Seconds'. Frankenheimer made many others movies both good and not so good, but these two are amazing pieces of work and rarely get the praise they deserve. 'Seconds' is one of the greatest thrillers ever made. Intelligent, complex, and extremely depressing. It doesn't talk down to its audience and perhaps this is the reason why it was a box office flop and is still all but ignored today. Rock Hudson isn't an actor with much credibility to most film fans but he is brilliant in this film in easily his most powerful and believable performance ever. The rest of the supporting cast are excellent, especially the underrated character actors John Randolph ('Serpico'), Will Geer (TV's 'The Waltons') and Jeff Corey ('Mickey One'). 'Seconds' is a minor masterpiece. A very disturbing story with an unforgettable climax. Highly recommended!
46 out of 47 people found the following comment useful :- Seconds : a realistic tale of suffocating paranoia, 11 April 1999 Author: Thomas Rucki (filigrane@hotmail.com) from Paris, France
"Seconds" is a fascinating and engrossing realistic fantasy tale that deals with the question of the identity and above all, the exploration of madness symbolized by the search of material happiness and the search of eternal youth which leads to the most claustrophobic fate. "Please be yourself !" can be the warning of this film. The innovative and the post-expressionist cinematography of James Wong Howe (the use of the 9.7 mm fish-eye lens, extreme chiaroscuro, tilted low angle shots, hand-held camera shots) combined with the stylish graphic work of Saul Bass and a cold, taut and harsh music of Jerry Goldsmith makes it like a Faustian tragedy with a Kafkaesque approach. The whole film is about distortion. The twisted vision of the main character trapped in his own nightmarish world, full of "re-borns" and "employees". But the real nightmare is the dreary routine of his existence. For instance, the scene of the train when Arthur Hamilton is reading his newspaper and feels suddenly sick with his life. We see very short shots of the train window and his sad face. The more oppressive scenes are silent just extreme close-ups of faces. Perhaps, the best film directed by John Frankenheimer and the best paranoiac film ever created. "Classic" is a weak word to define this masterpiece of modern terror. "Seconds" is the last film of the John Frankenheimer's paranoiac trilogy, without forgetting : "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Seven days in may".
43 out of 47 people found the following comment useful :- Depressing as they get, 18 September 2002 Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) from United States
Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) is a middle-aged man. He has a nothing job and feels he has no purpose or direction in life. He can't even make love to his wife anymore. He is offered a new life by the Company--a secret organization. They will "kill" off Arthur and give him a new face, a new body and a new identity. He comes back as Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson). However, can he be happy in his new life?Exceptional black and white cinematography by James Wong Howe; great direction by John Frankenheimer (all the extreme closeups and off kilter camera angles keep you uneasy); a perfect score by Jerry Goldsmith (the organ fits perfectly)...but this is almost unwatchable.It's VERY depressing, very downbeat and (at times) way too slow (the beginning). It's easy to see why this was a box office bomb--it's way too depressing for the average viewer. The things I mentioned above help make the film bearable as does the acting.Randolph is superb as Hamilton--you feel his pain and misery. Hudson, surprisingly, is pretty good. Sometimes he's not that good but there are certain sequences when he's exceptional--particularly at a wine party, a cocktail party (where he actually got drunk to play it realistically) and he explodes during the harrowing ending. The ending is one of the most horrific sequences I've ever seen. I felt like bolting from the theatre.A one-of-kind horror thriller. I can't say I enjoyed this, but I'll never forget it. It has a big deserved cult following.
24 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :- far ahead of its time, 19 April 2007 Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY
In watching "Seconds" the thing that struck me was how far ahead of its time it was, for the mentality of the film is not that of the 60's at all. A man with a solid, yet unhappy life, is contacted by an old friend, supposedly dead, who offers him something, but what, exactly, he isn't sure. Turns out it's somewhat of a chance to start over again in life, under a new identity, and with a new face, with the past life obliterated by a faked death. The trouble is that you can never go back and the man finds himself thinking his old life wasn't so bad after all but there are penalties for such thinking. This is a rather creepy film and uses lots of strange camera tricks, angles, and lenses. Sometimes when a character is moving it's almost as if they were standing on the dolly with the camera and gliding along rather than walking. An unnerving and strange film that isn't exactly uplifting but well worth seeing because there's nothing else like it that I've seen. 8 out of 10.
23 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :- the best midlife crisis film, 16 March 2004 Author: dr_foreman
Midlife crisis films are rare beasts, but everybody loves them. Look at the success of "American Beauty," probably the most stereotypical depiction of middle-class America that I've ever seen. Quite shallow in its way, "Beauty" was a hit because of its subject matter - it tackled some taboos and had the nerve to portray the problems of "ordinary" people. But you know what - it had been done before, and better, here."Seconds" is the story of a middle-aged banker who undergoes surgery to become - this part is really a gas - Rock Hudson! He's given an outlet to escape from his loveless family life and tedious job, and he becomes a swinging painter/playboy with a beautiful house on the coast. Of course, he soon finds that good looks and money are no substitute for what he really wants - some kind of genuine intimacy in his life.Is this message a bit too predictable? Oh, I dunno - we all seem to agree that the pursuit of wealth is an empty one, yet we indulge in it all the same. The social problems explored in "Seconds" are still very much with us, and our awareness of these problems certainly hasn't solved them. The film ultimately acts as a powerful, sobering reminder that most of us aren't doing what we really want to do. Plenty of great style on display here from director Frankenheimer. There's a wonderful "wobbly camera" drunk scene that is so realistic, you'll feel as though you've been hitting the bottle yourself. There's also consistent effective use of point-of-view shots and unusual angles. In terms of subject matter and directorial flair, this film is incredibly innovative...it's taken years for us to catch up to this kind of material, and yet we still haven't topped it. Definitely in my top twenty.
19 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :- Chilling update of Faust, 3 March 2002 Author: JoeytheBrit from www.moviemoviesite.com
This is a movie I've wanted to see for a long time, but have never been able to catch on TV until now. I have to say it was well worth the wait. Everything about this tightly plotted, leisurely-paced morality-tale is superb; every scene, every line spoken, serves a purpose in retelling what is effectively a retelling of the Dr Faustus legend.The devil takes the form of Will Geer, a seemingly benign old man who carries about him a hint of malevolence that, while never tangible, lurks beneath every word and expression as he persuades the hapless Hamilton to enter into the fatal bargain with nothing more than a (metaphorical) mirror held up to his face. Geer is CEO of an anonymous corporation - a cliched device to depict hell on earth these days, but a fresh idea in those days - that processes selected candidates for 'rebirth' - a total overhaul of their appearance and life that requires total severing of all links with their past life.After an intriguing start during which John Randolph, as the character who will eventually be transformed into Rock Hudson, is enticed into attending a mysterious meeting by a friend he thought to be dead, the pace slows considerably - but to good effect. Rock Hudson gives a career-best performance as the transformed 'Tony Wilson', skilfully capturing the increasing sense of isolation and despair his character feels as he comes to realise that he is just as trapped in his new existence as he was in his old.John Frankenheimer's direction is perhaps a little erratic in this film; it veers from short, sparse scenes that so effectively describe Wilson's dissatisfaction to long over-indulgent sequences such as the wine-pressing and cocktail party scenes. Greatly adding to the tense and doom-laden atmosphere of the movie is James Wong Howe's superlative cinematography.Despite re-telling a familiar story, it is testimony to the quality of this film that, after more than thirty-five years, it has retained it's freshness and power.
17 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :- Where do I sign up?, 14 December 2004 Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
SPOILERS.The director, the late John Frankenheimer, once commented that the problem with this movie is that it doesn't have a middle act, and he's right.The beginning and the end are gripping, in a Twilight Zone kind of way. The use of fish-eye lenses, although sometimes excessive, helps lend a surreal quality to the proceedings, which is apt.Here we have John Randolph, a nonentity, with a face that has all the appeal of a hard-boiled egg. He's converted into Rock Hudson, which is a considerable improvement, in appearance anyway. But both the organization and Hudson have botched it. Under hypnosis Rock has revealed that maybe his true desire is to be a painter, an artist.He winds up at a very nice beach house in Malibu, with an understanding servant, a studio with all the amenities, and Salome Jens as a woman he picks up on the beach. Not bad, eh? And all this for a mere $30,000. (The house alone would run 30 or 40 times that much now.)Well, to tell the truth, Rock seems a little unhappy in his new life. He dabs perfunctorily at his canvas. He doesn't smile much. He doesn't seem to be having a good time.So far, so good, but then we enter the befouled middle act. Salome Jens hustles him off to a Saturnalian bacchanal in the forest. Everybody gets drunk, strips, plays musical instruments, and dances around in a vat full of grapes. Rock is at first repelled but is dragged into the vat anyway and gets drunk and ecstatically happy.Fine, right? But then later, Rock is urged to give a party for his neighbors, all of whom turn out to be retreads like himself. Rock begins to drink cocktails and gets loaded. But what is the reaction of his guests? This time it's disgust. Jens cautions him to "take it easy" on the booze, but why? It's the only time we see him happy, and what's so worrisome about being drunk at a party where everyone else is drinking too? Disgust turns to a deeper concern when Rock begins making allusions to his previous life. He's a Harvard graduate and you can't keep them down. Finally he realizes that he's not really made out for this kind of life, for reasons never made entirely clear. Well, not made clear at all. Not even explored in the dialogue. Was his dream of being a painter just a childhood fantasy, like wanting to be an astronaut? What is the source of his dissatisfaction? There is a good scene in which he visits his wife, who now believes her husband to have died in a fire. He asks about some watercolors he'd done in his previous life and discovers that they were thrown out. No question about his original identity having been dismal.So he complains to the organization that he wants yet ANOTHER identity. The very sensible and reassuring Will Geer handles him and tells him that everything is fine and they'll re-do him. Geer, in a perfect performance, doesn't tell him that a second renovation involves his death. Rock will provide a cadaver as a substitute for a new guy entering the program. Nothing is more scary than the doctors, having strapped Rock down, lowering a bone drill onto his skull behind the ear. How does Rock perform? Pretty well. It's certainly his best dramatic role.And the supporting cast is flawless. The logic behind the middle of the story is its greatest weakness. The rest is well worth watching.
18 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :- Unnerving and Claustrophobic, 28 November 1999 Author: gbheron from Washington, DC
SECONDS decries the dehumanization of the middle class. The protagonist is a successful banker, though successful at banking, in late middle age finds his life devoid of purpose. Given an opportunity to completely start his life over he jumps at the chance even though it means he must "die" and be reborn in a new body.Filmed in black and white SECONDS has that unsettling jumpy-jangly editing and sound track I associate with 50s film noir. It keeps the viewer off balance and out of kilter, like the banker who slides slowly, effortlessly into a more ominous dehumanized existence than the one he left. An oddly (but successfully) cast Rock Hudson gives a great performance as the 'reborn' banker. Recommended when in the mood for something different.
13 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :- A real downer, 10 December 2004 Author: Pamsanalyst from New Jersey
but that's not a bad thing. Someone on this board says they are remaking it.Will they have the courage to avoid punching up the ending so that all walk out happy? Probably not. The opening tells us something is wrong; camera angles are unsettled, and as John Randolph walks, the shots from his shoetops give us the feeling that he is moving his upper body, but not his feet. The crowds look so threatening.Btw, how many films have been set in Grand Central Station? Randolph finds his way into the office of the chief honcho, but no one appears and he wanders off down the hall, goes through double doors into a room where people sit at tables, with a monitor in the front, as if they were taking their mid-terms. No one listens to his questions. I don't know about you, but I've been there, done that before and it is frightening.The saddest scene is that of Hudson returning to his former home, to the wife who does not know that Mr. Wilson is her husband, the late Arthur Farrell. As she paints a warts-on picture of her departed hubby, Wilson sees he cannot go back, but that he hasn't changed in his new guise and thus his infatuation that somewhere, in some place, there is the character he wants to be.A truly chilling story which gives the viewer little hope, but we knew that early on, when we saw the interrogator from Manchurian Candidate serve as Wilson's guidance counselor.
11 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :- A rare bird -- a science fiction film that comments just as much on the human condition as it does technology., 20 July 2004 Author: kingdaevid from Phoenix, Arizona, USA
...it's difficult to review SECONDS without turning into a spoiler right away, but I'll try. From Saul Bass' opening title sequence through to the next-to-last shot, SECONDS is a perfectly-realised vision of unrelieved discomfort and anxiety. Throughout the picture, the lead character is in one circumstance after another in which he distinctly does not want to be. And yet, every step he takes to extricate himself simply leads into another disagreeable circumstance. Much of the cast certainly knew how to convey that feeling, as three of the most important roles were taken by actors (John Randolph, Jeff Corey and Will Geer) who were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era; indeed, for two of them (Geer and Randolph), this was the first major studio production they'd appeared in for fifteen years*. For many, this is a depressing film, because so much of it can be related to out of our own lives; even the plastic surgery aspect that made it science fiction in '66 is science fact in this day of Michael Jackson. And, to say the least, it's one of the few times Rock Hudson was given truly demanding material, and he rises to the occasion, giving perhaps the finest performance of his entire career...*Geer had appeared in ADVISE AND CONSENT four years previously, but that film was produced independently and distributed by Columbia.
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