The Osterman Weekend (DVD)

...When he is approached by the CIA, who tell him that three of his closest friends, with whom he has a reunion every year, are working for the KGB, he is cynical enough not to believe a word of it. But being presented with video evidence of their allegiance and nearly losing his wife and son in a kidnap attempt, he is convinced enough to realise that something is desperately wrong. A CIA agent and senior political figure persuade him to go ahead with ...
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At first, the weekend seems to go well. But eventually, the strain of the situation begins to show and the house party begin to suspect each other of stabbing them in the back. Monitored closely by the CIA agent, the weekend deteriorates into panic, fear and the fight for survival. Will John manage to persuade his friends to come back over? Or maybe things aren't quite as they seem....

I had never heard of this film, made ... more

John Tanner hosts an investigative TV show that regularly outs government officials. When he is approached by the CIA, who tell him that three of his closest friends, with whom he has a reunion every year, are working for the KGB, he is cynical enough not to believe a word of it. But being presented with video evidence of their allegiance and nearly losing his wife and son in a kidnap attempt, he is convinced enough to realise that something is desperately wrong. A CIA agent and senior political figure persuade him to go ahead with the yearly reunion as planned and to try and 'turn' at least one of his three friends into double agents.

At first, the weekend seems to go well. But eventually, the strain of the situation begins to show and the house party begin to suspect each other of stabbing them in the back. Monitored closely by the CIA agent, the weekend deteriorates into panic, fear and the fight for survival. Will John manage to persuade his friends to come back over? Or maybe things aren't quite as they seem....

I had never heard of this film, made back in 1983, but as it was a freebie in a Sunday newspaper a couple of weeks ago, I thought it was worth a try, particularly because it is based on a book by Robert Ludlum and it stars a number of well-known actors, including John Hurt, Rutger Hauer, Burt Lancaster and Dennis Hopper. And it was an entertaining enough watch, if a little confusing in parts.

John Hurt plays the mysterious CIA agent Lawrence Fasset. My first impression was how young he looks - I'm used to seeing a much more rugged looking actor. I've never yet seen John Hurt give a bad performance, and this was no exception, particularly as he has to play a man grieving for the murder of his wife. He did perhaps give away the fact that he is not all that he seems a little too early though.

Apart from the dreadful 1980s hairdo that he sports throughout the film, Rutger Hauer also gives a strong performance as John Tanner. He is definitely a better action star than he is an actor, but I found him wholly believable as a family man prepared to protect his family at any cost. His relationship with his wife and son are very sensitively portrayed.

The three friends - Bernie Osterman, Joseph Caldone and Richard Tremayne - are relatively mysterious characters, in that we get to find out very little about their personalities and their relationship with John. Once I'd got over the truly awful moustache, Craig T Nelson gives the best perfomance out of the three as Bernie, who initially seems bad through and through, but then starts to make you doubt what you have been led to believe. The other two friends, played by Chris Sarandon and Dennis Hopper have fairly low key roles and really didn't get the chance to show whether they had any acting skills or not.

Finally, a mention must go to Burt Lancaster, who plays a self-righteous politician with a hidden agenda. Apparently, Lancaster celebrated his 70th birthday during filming. I would never have guessed he was so old - the make-up department certainly did an excellent job in making him look 20 years younger. Again though, his role doesn't develop enough for him to really get his teeth into the role.

There is definitely a very strong 1980s feel to the whole film, which I found a little off-putting at times. It wasn't just the dreadful hairdos and clothes; there was awful piped music of the sort that used to be played in supermarkets all the way through and this really dated the film. The special effects, of which there were a few, were pretty well done though considering it was 20 years ago.

There is a lot of sex and nudity throughout the film, which I thought was a little over the top. Actually, it wasn't the sex that I found over the top, it was rather the fact that most of it was watched on video by the CIA agent - the pervy smile on his face while it was going on made me want to smack him. As the sex is accompanied by the dreadful piped music, I found myself thinking that I was watching a cheap porn film (not that I would know what one of those was of course!!). I was quite surprised that the classification of the film is only 15, but I suppose that the sex is fairly clean compared to some films these days.

What really spoiled the film for me was the rather confused, unrealistic plot. I can't explain the twist that comes towards the end without giving too much of the plot away, but it left me scratching my had at the pointlessness of it all. I have heard a lot about Robert Ludlum's work, although I haven't read any of it - all I can say is that if the plot is close to the book, I don't really have any desire to read this particular book.

Despite the complications in the plot, the director, Sam Peckinpah (of Straw Dogs fame) did keep things galloping along at a fair old pace and I can honestly say there weren't any dull moments and it whiled away an hour and a half quite pleasantly. I doubt very much that I will ever watch it again though. If it is on the TV, then I can just about recommend it as worth a watch, just don't go out of your way to rent or buy it though.

If you do want to buy it, the DVD is available from Amazon from £5.99. On play.com, it is only available as a Region 1 DVD – a sure sign that it’s not too popular over here!

Classification: 15

Running time: 103 minutes. 

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