The Big Fix (1978 film)

The Big Fix
The Big Fix
	Theatrical release poster, with the tagline ; "...so go figure."
Directed by	Jeremy Paul Kagan
Written by	Roger L. Simon
Based on	The Big Fix; by Roger L. Simon
Produced by	Carl Borack; Richard Dreyfuss
Starring	Richard Dreyfuss; Susan Anspach; Bonnie Bedelia; John Lithgow; Ofelia Medina; Nicolas Coster; F. Murray Abraham; Fritz Weaver
Cinematography	Frank Stanley
Edited by	Patrick Kennedy
Music by	Bill Conti
Color process	Technicolor
Production; company	Universal Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	October 6, 1978;
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3,800,000 (estimated)
Box office	$13,000,000 (USA) (October 1978)

The Big Fix is a 1978 American political comedy thriller film directed by Jeremy Kagan and based on the novel by Roger L. Simon, who dramatized his own novel for the screen.^[1]^[2] It stars Richard Dreyfuss as private detective Moses Wine and co-stars Susan Anspach, Bonnie Bedelia, John Lithgow, and F. Murray Abraham.^[2]

Plot

Former student radical Moses Wine now works as a private investigator. He is contacted by Lila, an ex-girlfriend from his college days, who is working in the election campaign for Miles Hawthorne, a politician who is running to be Governor of California. Lila takes Moses to meet Hawthorne's campaign coordinator Sam Sebastian, who is concerned about a fake campaign flyer supposedly showing former Berkeley radical Howard Eppis together with Hawthorne and endorsing him. Knowing that Moses was a former contemporary of Eppis, Sam hires him to find out if Eppis is behind it.

Eppis was one of a notorious group of radicals known as the California Four and has been in hiding for years. Moses sets about trying to track him down by contacting some of his old associates. He is given the name of Oscar Procari, the son of a businessman and a supporter of Eppis, who proves elusive. Meanwhile, Moses and Lila visit the printing company and trace the order for the flyers to an electronics store owned by a Korean man, Harold Pak Chung, who disappears after Moses tracks him to a casino. Moses then finds Lila murdered in her apartment. Later he meets with Sam, who seems more concerned about the publicity and the effect it will have on Hawthorne's campaign. Rather than be fired, Moses quits.

Moses encounters a woman named Alora and discovers she is the niece of another of the California Four, Luis Vasquez, who says that her uncle met Lila on the night she died and has now disappeared. Procari's father contacts Moses and they meet. Procari says that he hasn't seen his son in years and blames Eppis for turning his son away from him. Procari offers to pay Moses to find his son, but Moses declines. Meanwhile Sam re-hires Moses as Eppis has contacted him threatening a series of bombings but that the police think it is a hoax.

Sam gives him a typewritten note with an address, which Moses visits and discovers Eppis now living a comfortable suburban lifestyle and no longer a radical. Moses is followed to the address by two hitmen, who burst in and try to kill them, but leave when Moses triggers an alarm. The hitmen try to kill Moses again at his office, but Alora and her associates ambush them. They interrogate the hitmen and find they were hired by Pak Chung and that they killed Lila when they kidnapped Vasquez, but don't know where he is being held.

Moses calls the police to warn them about the bombings. Pak Chung has rigged a van with explosives and drives it by remote control while Luis Vasquez is unconscious at the wheel. Moses finds Pak Chung near one of the target sites and kills him before he can carry out the bombing. A tape recording is found nearby supposedly by Eppis claiming responsibility for the bombing. Later Sam reveals himself as Oscar Procari and that his father was behind Pak Chung and the attempt to fix the election by implicating Hawthorne with Eppis.

Cast

Richard Dreyfuss as Moses Wine
Susan Anspach as Lila Shea
Bonnie Bedelia as Suzanne
John Lithgow as Sam Sebastian
Ofelia Medina as Alora
Nicolas Coster as Nicholas Spitzler
F. Murray Abraham as Howard Eppis
Fritz Weaver as Oscar Procari Sr.
Ron Rifkin as Randy Esterhaus

Reception

The Big Fix received fairly positive critical reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 88% from 16 reviews.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b Simon, Roger L. (1973). The Big Fix (1st ed.). San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0879320485.
^ ^a ^b Canby, Vincent (November 19, 1978). "The Big Fix Film Review". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
^ "The Big Fix". Rotten Tomatoes.

External links

[Simon_1973-1] Simon, Roger L. (1973). The Big Fix (1st ed.). San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0879320485.

[NYT_1978-2] Canby, Vincent (November 19, 1978). "The Big Fix Film Review". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved June 5, 2015.

[3] "The Big Fix". Rotten Tomatoes.

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