The Ninth Configuration (1980)

"I don't think that evil grows out of madness, I think that madness grows out of evil."

Although spoilers exist all throughout the internet pertaining to The Ninth Configuration, they are to be ignored at all costs. Those who read them are cheating themselves, and those who write them are gravely insulting this fine movie. People who watch this film for the first time without any expectations, preconceived notions, or any other ideas as to how the movie ends are to be envied. One reviewer was very smart to add in his/her review that you don't ask a great filmmaker if they seen this before, you ask them how many times. Even most of the negative reviews are about the DVD transfer (which I'll admit does leave something to be desired) and not the actal film quality.

Being one the first films to deal with Vietnam Era Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Apocalypse Now being another), TNC was one the first great films of the 1980s. Here, the military commandeers an abandoned medieval castle in the Pacific Northwest(?) to treat a group of highly intelligent, but mentally unbalanced soldiers who may or may not be faking their ailments. The patients range from an artistic type who tries to turn the facility into his own version of the Sistine Chapel to one who directs his own Shakespearean productions - starring dogs! There is also a multiple personality case who one day believes he is a German scientist who can walk through walls and a foul-mouthed nun the next. Now the story takes an even sharper turn toward the bizarre.

A seeming compassionate and understanding Dr. Hudson Kane (an amazing performance by Stacy Keach) transfers to the facility. His treatment of patients at first appears to be calm and nonjudgmental, even when the patients become belligerent. His most challenging case is Capt. Cutshaw, a Marine astronaut who saw no actual combat, but lost his nerve before his rocket blasted off. At this point, some of the patients begin to wonder about Kane's sanity. And to make matters more complicated, in order for Kane to get to the bottom of Cutshaw's problem, he has to confront some very uncomfortable truths about himself.

You may hear it a lot of times; but in this case the words "They don't make'em like they use to" definitely apply. Rarely does a film nowadays explore spirituality in a positive way that TNC did. For all of its profanity, bleak themes, and a very violent bar fight; it is one of the most uplifting and life-affirming films I have ever seen. It has often been said something cannot be both intellectual and religious. This film takes that myth and rips it to shreds. Unlike some "religious" movies that try to push an agenda down the viewer's throat via emotional pandering (The Passion of the Christ, anyone?), TNC uses logic. And never once does it condemn people who have legitimite questions.

Extremely recommended.

September 12, 2008

Amust see

This movie is very well written. It had me in a trance from begining to end. I highly suggest this movie to anyone who likes movies that require deep thought. July 27, 2008

Gentlemen... I present the group!

I first saw this film on vhs about 15 years ago on a whim. Then as now I enjoy it. In widescreen it's even better. Say what you want about William Peter Blatty. As a writer and director the guy has made some astonishing American poetry. This film being his personal masterpiece. A dark comedy about insanity based in an old castle at the end of the Vietnam war. I won't go into the plot..you can read other reviews or see it for yourself. This film is enlightening in an abstract way..dark humor..with a great statement about comedy and tragedy. If you enjoy strange and obscure films about psychological drama and human experience, this is a must see. But don't expect the exorcist here. It's really nothing even remotely of the same genre. Non-the-less brilliant and charming. July 8, 2008

In the trash

The vocals are not synchronized with the video. The visuals are a terrible blur. This old (1980) film needs to be deleted from supplier inventory....mine is in the trash can as toxic waste......... February 23, 2008

"Does suffering make turkeys noble?"

"The Ninth Configuration" will be one of the most confusing, rich and absolutely bizarre films you've ever seen (if you do see it, which seems unlikely).

Based on William Peter Blatty's fairly confusing and average novel, he seems to work far better as a screenwriter than a novelist (with the exception, perhaps, of "The Exorcist") with a middleman to guide his otherworldly ideas into a more concrete and understandable cinematic form. Even still, this is one zany smorgasboard of a film: set in an abandoned Gothic Castle where insane and frustrated Vietnam veterans are observed--it seems--by the ominously serene and kind Army psychiatrist Col. Kane, played with a sort of demented Gary Cooper style by Scott
Wilson.

Jason Miller is a soldier who won the Congressional Medal of Honor and who now prefers teaching Shakespeare to dogs than fighting in combat. As he recites some of Julius Caesar to his pooch, determined that the little furry mop will be a star on the stage, he remarks to the bemmused Ed Flanders: "It's a labor of love, but someone's gotta do it." Another AWOL black soldier dresses up in a Superman costume, has a taste for blackface, and frequently loses his pants. The dialogue ranges from serious literary discourse to unbearable pretentiousness.

Stacy Keach's Captain Cutshaw and Wilson's Kane are the most important characters in this mind bogglingly complex meditation on the true nature of man and the cosmos. No one is quite who they seem, least of all the gentle Col. Kane. As stone gargoyles hover (not unlike the one we see confronted by Father Merrin in "The Exorcist") and a St. Christopher's medal becomes the vehicle for a recurring and horrific flashback, things slowly fall into place like the notes of a deranged piano score. You really can't talk about the film's plot without revealing it, and part of this amazing experience is the gradual discovery of truth about the characters; in order to believe in Col. Kane, however, one has to believe in a sense that a man like Barnes from Oliver Stone's "Platoon" could reform himself and start reading Teilhard De Chardin. This is what Blatty asks, however, and without patronizing anyone: the belief in the redemption of the individual no matter what the circumstances.

This is one powerhouse of a film and in a certain sense one needs a strong stomach and an active mind to appreciate it; the themes touch the very core of human life. Watching it once is kind of fruitless unless you're extremely quick on the uptake. The self sacrificial gesture at the end is something one has to ponder to take seriously. All flaws aside, though, and there are many, one has to admire this sometimes goofy but painfully sincere effort on the part of Blatty. One of the most memorable films I've had the privilege to see.

November 17, 2007

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