Seconds

Rating:
Summary: A classic, truly unforgettable "science fiction" film!
Review: When I began watching this video, I had only a general idea of the story from the description on the box. I find it unforgettable. Few films make such a lasting impression. It's hard to believe that this film received poor reviews when it was first released. I don't want to give anything away, but the ending is incredible. This is a film that doesn't need blood and gore or special effects in order to keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't miss it!

Rating:
Summary: Destroying the American dream
Review: Seconds is one of those Hollywood films which which challenges the dominant ideology of the American dream. A truly shocking and disturbing expose of a frustrated middle class businessman, bored with is life, who is offered a new identity by a mysterious organisation. The ending is frightening and chilling and can compared to Sam Fullers Shock Coridoor. Camerawork and music add to the atmosphere and we are left in a state of terror atfer watching the film. Rock Hudson has never been better and is probably Frankenheimers best picture.

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Summary: A realistic tale of suffocating paranoia
Review: "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, low-key lightning, 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".

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Summary: A creepy black and white thriller.
Review: I have seen this movie a number of times on late night television since the sixties. It always had quite a disturbing edge and feel.

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Summary: Top grade, haunting tale with an unusual Rock Hudson role
Review: This thought provoking little gem of a drama has haunted me since I came across it as a teenager by accident as the second film of a double feature at the local bijou in the 60's. Even at that age, when the reality of wanting a "second" chance at life was an abstraction to someone still beginning the first go round, the obsessive wistfulness of the character played in the film's last two thirds by Rock Hudson and his steady progression from disillusionment to disillusionment, right to the last brilliantly traumatic scene of terror, yearning and loss, stirred thoughts about what was out there to come. That the film also included a subtle critique, if not attack, on the "American Dream" and other unrealistic and oversimplified materialism and hedonism, as well as a vastly different Rock Hudson, in a dramatic role so unlike the sanitized Doris Day and "leading man" vehicles he was then known for, made it a truly revolutionary experience. Yet, it quickly dropped from sight if not from memory. For thirty years, I pondered the last searing scene, but had no way to justify my recollection of the film's impact except for conversations with the few other people who remembered the film. Finally, it was released on tape last year, with a little bit more flesh than in the original censored US version (not much at all by today's standards), which only underlines the "empty" hedonism involved in the film's message, while foreshadowing the hedonism of all kinds to come in the following decades. Although I was ready to be disappointed, the film still works for me after all these years, black and white and all. Life experience may put the message in perspective, and the cultural period reflected in the film, between the end of the 50's conformity and the beginning of the 60's changes, becomes more interesting in its own right as an historical artifact. But the film still succeeds because its essential message and artistic skill transcends a particular time and place while at the same time its focus is "small" enough to urge serious questions and emotions on the audience, like the best of the 60 and 90 minute television dramas of the late 50's. You are very likely to find, perhaps to your surprise, that you are greatly affected by this little film and I wouldn't be surprised if one of its themes or images doesn't haunt you, too, for thirty years.

Rating:
Summary: Top-notch Frankenheimer character study with a twist
Review: Only very special movies are enhanced by the magic of black and white. Anatomy of a Murder, To Kill a Mockingbird, Psycho and John Frankenheimer's Seconds all fall into this category. The subject matter is thought provoking: Would you become a totally different, new person if given the chance to start over? Would you ask for "Seconds" if given the opportunity? What about those who are a part of your life? What about your job, your home, your history? In "Seconds" Rock Hudson is given such an opportunity. This excellent movie is thought provoking and disturbing at the same time. Perhaps the grass is greener on the other side. Watch "Seconds" and see what can await you in a new life, be it wonderful or catastrophic.

Rating:
Summary: A forgotten American masterpiece
Review: "Every man has, inside him, a key left unturned."

SECONDS, directed by John Frankenheimer, may be perhaps one of the greatest American movies that no one has ever seen or heard of. It's obscurity is a real crime considering that the inferior (but still very good) AMERICAN BEAUTY and the absolutely wretched EYES WIDE SHUT (not to mention the bloated LAST TANGO IN PARIS) have enjoyed greater notoriety while dealing with exactly the same material.

In fact a great festival would be to show all four films together. Although one may want to shoot themselves afterword.

SECONDS, like all the great tragedies, truly is a pessimistic and depressing film on one hand, and yet, on the other hand, manages to elate the viewer in terms of the incredible mastery of storytelling craft that the filmakers John Frankenheimer and James Wong Howe so expertly display. The acting, script, direction and cinemaphotography all blend perfectly together to create a shattering and unforgettable experience.

The narrative, dealing with a middle aged suburbanite getting a chance at a new start via a shadowy company with real Satanic overtones, is filled with haunting, frightening and utterly truthfull revelations about the fragile human condition. Arthur Hamilton/Tony, the sad protagonist (expertly played by both John Randolph and Rock Hudson(!)) finds all too late that there is no place like home, and once you're gone, you're gone. This is a lesson that Hamilton/Tony doesn't learn until it is too late.

The film proposes this as a fact of our existance that ultimately we all must come to face and accept. Our choices will then lead us to either making our present state better or diving off into changing what cannot be changed: the past.

Watching this film is not escapist entertainment. It is challenging, disturbing and creepy. It is however, a work of art. Don't miss this. A 10 out of 10.

Rating:
Summary: Nightmare!
Review: Superb movie - hadn't heard of it till recently. Cinematography, acting, writing, lighting and direction brilliant. It somewhat resembles Hitchcock in its visual flair and detachment. I agreed with Frankenhiemer's comments in the fascinating commentary, about how nowadays you almost never see long scenes allowed to play themselves out with no editing or camera movement, as you do here in some of the movie's best moments. I must admit, the hippy bacchanalia scene now looks slightly embarrassing and feels too long - but it serves its purpose in the story. Hudson is excellent but i particularly liked John Randolph as the haunted, spiritually-dead Hamilton and Will Geer as the smiling, fatherly, utterly evil mastermind in frameless specs (why does he remind me of a certain US Defense Secretary?).

Rating:
Summary: Your Past Will Always Follow You...
Review: I did not think of Rock Hudson as a particularly gifted actor until I saw this movie - my mind quickly changed! This is one of the darkest, haunting, lovely cinematic experiences you can find..
Frakenhimer's film has a touch of Kafka, and a touch of Orson Welles - and it is original - one of my favorite little films that you don't here about to often - see it!

Rating:
Summary: Forget your past ; we ' ll give you a new life !
Review: This bitter and merciless film still reminds in my memory . The sinister metaphor about a man who wants to leave his past and begin a new identity with othe job , name and profession will be loaded for the unsatisfaction about the new concerns to face .
Crude warning about the articial world and the promised land . There are clear references faustic too .
Hudson was never better than this one .
This is a unfinnished nightmare .
One supreme cult movie .
And forget the happy ending!