The Visitors

Slow and creepy, The Visitors is a very low budget story about two Army buddies, newly released from the stockade after serving their terms for rape, who drop in on the comrade responsible for their conviction. Very slow, but rewarding, and definitely worth a look as an unsung classic of 70s cinema.

Untypical material for Kazan: this curiously amateurish amalgam of ACT OF VIOLENCE (1948) and THE DESPERATE HOURS (1955), updated for the Vietnam era, is unworthy of the director's unquestionable talent (despite being written by his own son!) and emerges as a pointless talking marathon - in which the dialogue is muffled most of the time anyway, because of poor sound recording!

Patricia Joyce comes off best from the hand-picked cast, which includes James Woods' debut role as the wimpish hero(!) and Steve Railsback as one of his two revenge-seeking war buddies; these actors must have thought that they had it made when they were chosen by Award-winning director Kazan (who had, after all, virtually discovered Marlon Brando, James Dean and Warren Beatty) to feature in his next movie but, unfortunately for them, THE VISITORS sank without trace despite being an official entry in that year's Cannes Film Festival!

While the film could easily have turned into a nasty shocker in the vein of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) - which might even have been preferable in the long run - the story just meanders on towards a lame and inconclusive ending. At least, the film's snowy setting provides a nice pictorial backdrop...

A couple spend a quiet day at home, until the husband's 2 Vietnam "pals" come to visit. I saw this for two reasons. First of all, I feel Kazan was a great director and ,secondly, i adore James Woods.This is a very moody film that paints the world very bleak and creepy. It does draw you into it, the way you wait for the inevitable something to happen. the ending just didn't jibe for me. Did she want what happened? It seemed that way a little bit. Also it ends too abruptly.

My Grade:C

Where I saw it: showtime extreme

Eye Candy:Patricia Joyce topless briefly

Many of you have probably seen Brian De Palma's Casualties of War from 1987. CoW was based on a real story, this fictional 1972 film shows what happened afterward. All I can say is that this is an incredibly intriguing, but sadly forgotten film.

There are many other aspects that make this film special. First of all it's James Wood's debut, second it's allegedly the first fictional film to deal with Vietnam in a serious manner, and third because of how intense the film manages to get. The very set-up sends flashbacks to Funny Games. Two old army buddies of Wood's shows up at his house. This might seem nice enough, but even without the knowledge I had you get the feeling that something is wrong. These are the men Wood's turned in for raping and killing a Vietnamese girl.

The atmosphere screams of dread and you sit back horrified wondering when it's all going to explode. Unlike Kazan's other features it's not visually beautiful in the traditional sense, though it does have many haunting images. This film seeks a more personal touch, again one that might appear somewhat similar to Haneke's minimalism. One thing I found fascinating is that it often cuts the heads of it's characters, which creates an unnatural and weird, albeit very effective atmosphere.

It's also wonderfully contained - there's basically just one setting - their house and the area near by. This only intensifies the whole situation. Of course it does have some small problems. For example the character doesn't seem to realize how serious the situation actually is. But this is one scary flick, and I would definitely recommend it!

This curio is a low budget drama directed by Elia Kazan from a script by his son. This is probably one of the first times audiences got to see James Woods in a leading role. He plays Bill, a young man, just back from the Vietnam War and living in a rural menage with his girl, her older husband, and his child. The older guy is a Hemingwayesque writer with a penchant for booze, and Patrick McVey plays the role with aplomb. At their door appear a couple of Bill's old army buddies, and one of them has a grudge to work out, since Bill ratted him out something back in the war zone. The young woman gets into it too, and the tension grows to an inevitable confrontation. There are no revelations here, but it is worth a look.