Steppenwolf

Max Von Sydow is perhaps one of the finest versatile actors of all time. In any film which originate in Europe, one can expect not only finally crafted and intricate drama, but also superb acting. In this complex tale, he is convincing as Herman Hess, a soul in search of himself. Tragic in his troubled journey is the fact that like his character, Max Von Sydow will always fills the bill for classic theater as he does in this dark tale. With supporting actors like Pierre Clémenti who plays Pablo and Dominique Sanda as Hermine the film is both mysterious and deep. Expect the best from both author and actor as you follow along in a surreal life man scratching for the inner man. ***

This adaptation of the novel is a really interesting movie - in ways, I feel like it's so unique that it makes it difficult to judge how "good" the film really is. There are a lot of colorful, unusual and even rather creepy special effects, including animation of several kinds.

The quality of the acting is also difficult to gauge because the interactions between characters are already supposed to be so far removed from the kinds of things that people in your life most likely say and do. Max von Sydow's performance was very different from how the character of Harry Haller existed in my head before seeing the movie: I had read the book first and couldn't quite see Harry as being so silly-looking or laughable throughout the whole story. Dominique Sanda did convey an appropriate mystique as Hermine, and has a really interesting speaking voice. A very nationally and sexually ambiguous guy named Pierre Clementi seemed to have a lot of fun with his crazy take on Pablo. Hilarious! The music and the whole sound concept of the movie were also.. can anyone think of another word for "unique"? But in this case, I also thought they were excellently conceived.

Part of me found that the movie's endearing irregularities were a great way to reflect the absurdity and awkwardness that are felt by the main character, but another part was not entirely convinced. So, I give the movie a 7/10 after some deliberation, partly out of the respect I have for works of true originality, of which this is certainly one.

I read Hesse's "Journey To The East" and "Siddhartha" in my early twenties and thought they were excellent, but, when I then tried to read "Steppenwolf", it defeated me after a dozen or so pages. I put it to one side for a few weeks, then tried again, with the same result. The same thing happened for a third time.

Then I saw that the movie was showing at a local art-cinema, so thought I'd go and watch it. I allowed myself to suspend judgement until the end, and found it to be an unforgettable movie. OK - it has several flaws, as other reviewers have highlighted, but it certainly made a strong impression on me. I then went home and read the book from cover to cover. It's still not my favourite Hesse book (that honour goes to Siddhartha), but it is definitely a worthwhile read, and I probably would never have finished it if I hadn't seen the movie.

This movie communicates only bits and pieces of what the book itself does. It doesn't show well the actual character of Haller at all and, not understanding his personality well, the rest of the film doesn't pass on the original message very well except through occasional one line sum-ups of an idea by a character. This movie includes tons of lines taken directly from the book but I found that the movie uses some of the weaker lines at times while leaving out most of the best. I found the first half of this movie to be utterly boring however the second half was moderately well done. I like the feel to the second half although I barely made it through the first. That said I give this 5 stars because of the nice surrealism (really psychedelic more than just surreal) and I found the film to be overall very poor considering the material its based. I don't particularly like some of the acting selections either. Overall if you just read this book or ever have for that matter I would say don't watch this film because it leaves me with much less feeling than the book did and really calmed down some of the feelings racing in me for days after reading the book. If you've never read the book I would say watch the film but know that the book is a masterpiece and this film is not. But like I said if your into psychedelic feels to films this has plenty to offer there. All that said I believe my review is biased because of comparing it to the book and had I never read the book some of the ideas presented in the film would have really hit home. But that's not hard to do when your script is pretty much taken directly from the book. I think being disappointed is what I feel. I also particularly dislike the scene with the war against machines where in the book the attorney or whatever he was was (I forget) wasn't treated the same as in the film. I think the last few sentences of Gustav and his conversation in the book really hit at what was being said in that section and that the film didn't.

I have long been a fan of Hermann Hess and have read Steppenwolf innumerable times and will most likely reread it many more times. With this kind of familiarity of a book it would normally be quite unlikely that a movie adaptation would be found to be satisfying. This movie is the very rare exception. Max von Sydow is the perfect Harry Haller! The Magic Theatre was done very well! I highly recommend this movie to all who Herman Hesse fans.