Pursuit

E.G. Marshall is a political activist who intends to release nerve gas into San Diego, where the Republican national convention is being held. Ben Gazzara and his team are assigned to capture him and stop the gas from being stolen.

Written and directed by Michael Crichton, this was a low-budget TV movie, though it deserved better. What's always interesting about any films with a political slant -- even back to 1930 -- is that politics haven't changed, and most of the time, the speeches and situations remain timely. This movie is no different. Just listen to what E.G. Marshall has to say.

It was wonderful to see Ben Gazzara, William Windom, Joseph Wiseman, and a baby-faced Martin Sheen in this - all of them were very prevalent in the TV of my youth, as was Jim McMullan, who had dark hair then.

Very suspenseful.

I read Binary, Pursuit's first title, published under the pseudonym John Lange. Crichton published under a pseudonym because he was afraid his med school instructors would doubt his dedication to medicine (at that time he still wanted to be a doctor). The title Pursuit was ordered by the studio, fearing that the public would not understand the title Binary, and the general incomprehension about biowarfare agents in 1972 help land Crichton the Director's job. First run as an ABC TV movie of the week. Pursuit is fast paced with a surprisingly high powered cast: EG Marshall, Wm Windom, Ben Gazarra, and a young Martin Sheen as what may very well be the first role as the small screen's first computer hacker. It's a good TV thriller at least thirty years ahead of its time

The iconic writer Michael Crichton had another book taken to screen about political fictional thriller, the premise is far-fetched by countless reasons, firstly for a politic extremist forego the democratic system to appeal to killing of thousand on political convention by hazardous gas stolen from US's Army, it sounds a bit weird to solve this neuralgic issue, second the cat and mouse game conceived by egocentric politician played by E. G. Marshall against the US' agent of intelligence Ben Gazzara to the extent of a character study upon psych profile.

The screenplay has plenty of noticeable holes, meanwhile E. G. Marshall sets free to built a bomb device thru an inertness of FBI's agents, looks like deliberate by pure foolishness to get a proper tension to hold the audience, to make it worst some oddities were appended in the lame plot, some catches wisely designed by the perpetrator in a bomb shut down process, it will raises the strain thru the countdown at last seconds, in the meantime the missing President is reaching in the crowed convention.

On the casting appears the upcoming star Martin Sheen at small role, someone wrote in his review that E. G. Marshall was miscasting to play a villain, whereby I agree, he doesn't fit well in this kind evil persona, the veteran actor often portraited a nice guy on serious character.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1992 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 6.25.

I am surprised that no one has noticed that this film may have inspired 24 series, that's my own opinion at least. I appreciated this TV movie, very well paced but unfortunately too much foreesable, predictable. Good job anyway, no problem.

The made for TV thriller "Pursuit" has some interest in not only is it based on a Michael Crichton novel (written under a pseudonym), but that Michael Crichton directed it, making his directorial debut. But there is additional interest to be found here. What will strike many modern day viewers is that despite the subject matter, the tone of the movie is significantly restrained. There isn't a swift pace or a feeling that things are going to really fall apart at any second. Though that may not sound like the right tone, it actually is convincing; we see that the government agents are well trained and professional, so they of course are conditioned not to panic. The movie also works well because of its short length (74 minutes) - there's no padding on display here, and the story moves briskly as a result. The only real flaw the movie has is that it doesn't hide the conspiracy very well - most viewers will have a reasonable guess as to what is being planned long before the government agents find out. But even though you will probably guess what is happening early on, the movie remains very effective.