Review: Eureka
Blu-ray: Eureka (1983)
Performance, Walkabout, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Don’t Look Now and Masters of Cinema’s new release of ‘Eureka‘ are all films by Nicolas Roeg. I would expect any film fan to have heard of the first 4 and probably hold those films in very high regard. I’ve read about Eureka but had never seen it, though seeing the amazing cast of Gene Hackman, Theresa Russell, Rutger Hauer, Joe Pesci and Mickey Rourke amongst others, one would think you were onto a sure fire winner. Wouldn’t you?
This is the bit of film reviewing that I don’t enjoy.
I disliked this film so much I decided to read some other reviews, I’m an open minded girl, I will admit it when I get it wrong and thought I must be mistaken, I’d got a headache, I just wasn’t ‘seeing’ the genius in it…so I delved into old reviews of this film and most agree that this film is a work of genius.
I say it is a massive load of pretentious crap.
I admire Roeg very much, although he is often accused of ‘meandering’ I find his ‘meanders’ quite breathtaking (The Man Who Fell to Earth being one of my favourite films). However this film, despite its many glowing parts, is so disjointed, fetid and bloody annoying I felt like woohooing at the end of it.
The films has many elaborate scenes, fights, head explosions, a gold hunt, an orgiastic voodoo ceremony, a very grisly and torture filled murder, and a Colonial-style ‘white mischief’ trial. None of which touch the viewer (well not THIS viewer). The dialogue is dire: ‘I took a bath because of you’, ‘I won’t rest until I see that man dead’, ‘You are guilty of innocence‘, ‘ Once I had it all. Now I just have everything’, ‘Gold smells stronger than a woman’. Pffft. Yawn.
The performances, considering the awful story, are in fact really good though Hackman looks completely lost, like he’s in the middle of a bad acid trip in the 1970’s even though he doesn’t know what acid IS. His character is a gold prospector, he finds a lot of gold (I think) and the next time we see him he’s is the richest man in the world living on his tropical island of Eureka. But is he happy? Of course not, his wife drinks. His daughter is infatuated with French (German? Austrian?) Playboy and his best friends are trying to get him involved in a deal to open a casino with a short Miami gangster.
I have literally NO idea why this is a ‘lost’ classic, it’s terrible. However, having said all that, Eureka/Masters of Cinema should be congratulated on bringing out another great looking restoration and package. Hey, you can’t win ‘em all the time!
Review by Tina (co-host of 60 Minutes With) from a disc kindly supplied by Eureka Entertainment.
