Seconds (1966)

The film's greatest strength is its dynamic black and white cinematography courtesy of James Wong Howe, who instills the film with an intense, paranoid feel.

A fun house mirror world that never looks quite right because it never is, and never was.

Bold, highly psychological science fiction that might have gone on to enjoy a cult reputation if 2001 hadn't stolen its thunder two years later. Seconds is nowhere near the auteurial spectacle that Kubrick's magnum opus is, but its premise gracefully avoids Twilight Zone-style moralization by communicating its sensations through aesthetics, not thematic monologuing. The ending is wordy, but it doesn't say half as much as Rock Hudson's blissful surrender at the wine ceremony, or the disorientation and betrayal he feels at a house party. This approach surely works because of the incredible cinematography, way ahead of its time; it keeps a tight focus around the human aspects of the film, locked behind Hudson's head as he goes through the motions of a painfully dull life or fisheyed on some strange faces looming over him. As a visual representation of a character's inner workings, it's very immediate and unabashedly obvious, but perfectly in sync with the film's own unique claustrophobia. A diamond in the rough, if you can hunt it down.

Riveting suspense thriller about a middle-aged man who takes the opportunity to exchange his mediocre humdrum life for something supposedly better. The best moral for this story would be "Be careful of what you ask for. " This film, starring Rock Hudson in a performance I didn't think he had in him, has me glued to the screen from the first frame. The film was made in a beautfiul B&W. The intro and titles involve a great deal of distorted and disorienting photography, courtesy of cinematography great James Wong Howe, enhanced by a driving, dramatic score by Jerry Goldsmith. This score tells you that there is nothing light-hearted about what's coming up. Director John Frankenheimer did a marvelous job at moving the story along so that you never wanted to look away. I remember being surprised when the film was over because It seemed a lot shorter than its 1:46 running time.The film starts with a mystery already in the making, in that the main character has already been unnerved by a sinister phone call. And if I never remember another thing about this film, the Twilight Zone-style final frames at the end of the film will haunt me forever. I'm usually not one to pick up on director style, but this film reminded me visually of The Manchurian Candidate so much that I would know Frankenheimer's work if he did a dog food commercial. The wildest thing about this film is how relevant it seems in this day and age . The theme of the film -- getting away from your old life, having all responsibilities and demands disappear, and to be installed into your dream career without any effort on your part -- sounds like the perfect solution for many people these days. But I think the lesson here would be over the heads of most of those same people. I'm surprised that this film hasn't been remade, although there is no reason for it to be. I can see a mediocre, high-octane version of this done with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Rock Hudson role. I hope no powers-that-be see this post; we will have that very thing inflicted on us as a big-budget summer movie. I shudder to think...