George C. Scott was a man in total command of his screen presence and always a pleasure to watch. So that is how I took a chance on "Rage." I know some people have defended this film as kind of brave for not following the typical logic of a Hollywood suspense / revenge potboiler, but I don't see it that way. From the bucolic opening to the final tragic airlifting of the corpse, there is hardly a moment of effective story development. I didn't time the first act but someone else here timed it out to around 50 minutes. Given the running time of the film, that is entirely too much time for farmer Logan to finally figure out what has happened and move into act two.
One might write this whole thing off as a reflection of the distrust of government in the Vietnam era but if that is the point, then for goodness sake, at least let the protagonist do more than kill a security guard and two cops responding to the scene. The air base that is a chemical weapons testing facility has basically no real security at the gate. What the hell? The military people are introduced and then you barely see them. His family doctor told him that he was going to die but you only learn this in exposition... What? You have Richard Basehart and George C. Scott and you don't shoot the scene? What the heck? This is an unfunny version of that Ed Wood film where Legosi died during filming and Wood had to fill the blanks. I am guessing that they ran out of money while shooting and patched together the thing. If this is really what the screenplay called for, then how the hell did it get the green light?
Even Lalo Schiffrin's score is off. The folksy Americana opening is followed by endless dreary intensity only to reprise the folksy bit at the end, despite the actual outcome of the plot.
I suppose you could say that the theme of government's tendency to cover up its misdeeds lends merit to the film, but if that is the theme, then really give a full kick-the-audience-in-the-pants treatment of the theme. Some reviewers have called this film low intensity. Not in my book. Poorly written and/or directed is more like it.
One might write this whole thing off as a reflection of the distrust of government in the Vietnam era but if that is the point, then for goodness sake, at least let the protagonist do more than kill a security guard and two cops responding to the scene. The air base that is a chemical weapons testing facility has basically no real security at the gate. What the hell? The military people are introduced and then you barely see them. His family doctor told him that he was going to die but you only learn this in exposition... What? You have Richard Basehart and George C. Scott and you don't shoot the scene? What the heck? This is an unfunny version of that Ed Wood film where Legosi died during filming and Wood had to fill the blanks. I am guessing that they ran out of money while shooting and patched together the thing. If this is really what the screenplay called for, then how the hell did it get the green light?
Even Lalo Schiffrin's score is off. The folksy Americana opening is followed by endless dreary intensity only to reprise the folksy bit at the end, despite the actual outcome of the plot.
I suppose you could say that the theme of government's tendency to cover up its misdeeds lends merit to the film, but if that is the theme, then really give a full kick-the-audience-in-the-pants treatment of the theme. Some reviewers have called this film low intensity. Not in my book. Poorly written and/or directed is more like it.