The10thVictim

The 10th Victim (1965)

You know there are times where I sit down to watch a movie that has a good reputation and I just hate it. I’m not sure if that is because I don’t relate to it, or if everyone else is just wrong. I’d like to think that everyone else is just wrong. But reviewing movies and being a critic is all a matter of opinion so I have to be honest with myself and with you the loyal reader (both of you!). This latest release from Blue Underground is one of those movies.

It is the future and murder has become legal. There are clubs that you can join where you alternate between being a hunter and being the hunted. Survive 10 times and win a fabulous cash prize. As if that weren’t enough when the computers match up an American champion against an Italian one a company decides to try and capture the kill for an advertising campaign. This plan is complicated when the hunter and victim fall in love while trying to kill each other and decide not to. Or do they, or maybe they don’t. I’m not sure, but somehow they keep killing or not killing each other until they get on an airplane are forced to marry each other. Don’t look at me I’ve watched this movie twice and is still really doesn’t make much sense to me.

So I understand that this is meant to be an intelligent satire of society and perhaps the excess of the movie industry of the 1960s. And I might be missing the point here, but for the most part I didn’t find it entertaining at all. In fact I found that the entire plot was a bit contrived, repetitive, and didn’t seem to have a point at all. We are quickly introduced to the characters and before you know it they are in love? There is nothing in the movie that makes me think that either of these characters have any feelings for each other at all. But what really gets me fired up is the ending of the movie. Up until then the plot sort of made sense, but then suddenly people are dying and then not. There is no flow or narrative at all and then they end up on a plane getting married. Really what the hell is that? The movie and especially the ending smacks of that arrogant “look at me I’m strange and I don’t make any sense which makes me art and you dumb for not liking me” school of filmmaking that I hate with a passion. But hey maybe I am just too much of an ignorant Midwesterner to understand these movies. Though I do know what I like and I certainly didn’t like this one.

Now of course I will make a few concessions here. I did sit thru this movie twice and both times I recognized a couple of things that were pretty cool. First of all Marcello Mastroianni was an excellent actor with an incredible screen presence that makes me want to find and watch more of his films. In spite of not liking the story I did think that he and Ursula Andress had some chemistry on screen and made for a fine pair of leads for the movie. The camera work is spectacular, which is perfect given the wonderful locations the movie is shot in and around.

Up until now I never met a Blue Underground release that I didn’t like. That said if this movie sounds like something that you might want to check out head on over to their website at http://www.blue-underground.com/

1 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer