• It was Steve McQueen’s big return to the screen after four years off from 1974’s The Towering Inferno (which was a massive hit). It surprised everyone that this was McQueen’s vehicle to return. It is a high-brow literary play (Ibsen by way of adaptation from Arthur Miller)
  • McQueen would pass away just two years and two films later- way too early- in 1980 at the age of 50
  • The direction is nondescript- I will not be seeking out what George Schaefer made next or before this
  • Not only is this a play- very political—but McQueen sporting a massive mane—Jeremiah Johnson-like hair and beard
  • Starts with old-timey black and white photos and then they slowly hue into the color photography of the film- nice touch—used very well in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • Choppy editing in places – not on purpose
  • The narrative is a battle between brothers (McQueen and Durning)—right and wrong- chess match, a parable, political – it is well done- a powerful film
  • I’d love to see the material (or close) in the hands of Lumet, Haneke… certainly it has much in common with von trier’s Dogville — even Stanley Kramer would have been more suited.
  • Ditto with McQueen in the lead in terms of it not being a complete fit— he’s no speech-maker like Pacino. Spencer Tracy would have been better suited to the material. McQueen isn’t a talker, his best piece of acting in the film is the silent stare he gives his brother Durning through the window when he arrives at his house at the end
  • The casting of Bibi Andersson makes it feel more Scandinavian
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 1978