Review: The Osterman Weekend

A CIA agent named Fassett (John Hurt) brings some new intel to his boss Danforth (Burt Lancaster) concerning a spy ring called the Omega network. Upon reading the intel, Danforth tasks Fassett himself with convincing controversial TV host John Tanner (Rutger Hauer) that three of his most trusted friends (Craig T. Nelson, Chris Sarandon, and Dennis Hopper) are really Soviet spies. Ultra right-wing Lancaster wants Tanner – who frequently criticises the government – to turn at least one of the three Soviet agents of the Omega network. Tanner will do this at their annual get together at Tanner’s remote family home for the weekend. Fassett will set up camp somewhere on the estate grounds out of sight of the other guests but watching through several surveillance cameras he has set up all over the place. Occasionally he’ll pop in when no one else is around to give the very reluctant Tanner a pep talk. Let the games and manipulation begin. Cassie Yates, Helen Shaver, and Meg Foster play the spouses of Sarandon, Hopper, and Hauer’s Tanner, respectively.

 

Almost universally panned as the worst film from Sam Peckinpah (“The Wild Bunch”, “Cross of Iron”, “Convoy”), this 1983 swan song for the famed hell-raising director is often seen as incoherent. I personally don’t agree with either assessment and think it’s a flawed, dated, but interesting and underrated spy movie based on a book by Robert Ludlum. There’s a good Lalo Schifrin (“Cool Hand Luke”, “Bullitt”, “Dirty Harry”) score and the director does lots of cool little things on a visual front, too.

 

It’s an incredibly cynical film, with both the media and addicted consumers of media in Peckinpah’s firing line here. The plot is really quite interesting, as far as I’m concerned the broad outline is easy enough to follow that I really don’t understand the problem many seem to have here. There’s an interesting bit of deception towards the end that seems to have confused everyone – even those who read the book. However, I understood it easily and really don’t think it’s terribly difficult. Yes, you need to pay attention, that much is true. I’m normally an idiot with such things and I dislike directors who arrogantly go out of their way to make their films as difficult to follow as possible (“Tenet” springs to mind. It’s not incoherent, just unhelpfully told). So if I’m telling you that the film pretty well makes sense, you can believe it does. Meanwhile, one terrific car chase shows that Peckinpah still had a bit of that magic left in him in his final film.

 

I said earlier that the film is flawed and dated, and I have to say that the use of TV/video technology here is a bit goofy even for the early-to-mid 80s, though the overall theme of technology being used for sinister/manipulative purposes is certainly a valid and still-relevant one today. Outside of that, this one’s mostly really solid. The cast is terrific, with Craig T. Nelson giving his best performance that I’ve seen (though sporting the most unconvincing moustache anyone has ever seen), and John Hurt also offering up some of his best work outside of “The Elephant Man”. Best of all is a slimy prick of a performance from Chris Sarandon as a real oily bastard. Rutger Hauer is almost always good, here in one of his earlier American roles. His character isn’t always the brightest spark, but that’s a script problem, not an acting issue. The three ladies – Cassie Yates, Meg Foster, and Helen Shaver are rock-solid here too, with Shaver being naked quite often and Yates briefly showing her nipples too (Apparently Mr. Peckinpah promised her it wouldn’t happen, and based on a DVD featurette interview from some years back, it sounds like she was still a little bit pissed about it, understandably). Pale-eyed Foster is an underrated and interesting actress, her unique facial features tending to lend themselves to sinister or otherworldly parts. Here she’s playing the standard wife and mother role and shows she can do that jolly well too. You may remember underrated character actress Yates for being one of the better things about the otherwise histrionic and soapy “Rich Man, Poor Man Book II”. Old pro Burt Lancaster couldn’t be more perfectly cast as a hawkish CIA head, one of his best latter day turns. Dennis Hopper (who was still in the midst of his hell-raising ways) is actually surprisingly low-key and playing a fairly bland character in this one. He’s fine, but you keep expecting a patented Hopper freak-out that never arrives.

 

The great Sam Peckinpah’s last film was a typically troubled production that saw him fired for not the first time in his career and the film supposedly edited without his consent or input. With all of that mess in mind, this no classic but it’s a lot better and more coherent than I expected. That said, given the talent involved in front of and behind the camera, one can’t help but think it should’ve been even better than it is. Still, with a great cast and an interesting and still-relevant story, this one really doesn’t deserve its negative reputation. Time for a re-evaluation as far as I’m concerned. The screenplay is by Alan Sharp (“Billy Two-Hats”, “Rob Roy”) and Ian Masters (his only significant screenwriting credit) from Ludlum’s novel.

 

Rating: B-