Michael O'Keefe ("Caddyshack") plays Danny Stetson, a college student / champion gymnast, and a nice guy from a good family. He falls for new acquaintance Rebecca (Karen Allen, "Raiders of the Lost Ark"), and follows her into Homeland, a religious cult led by the charismatic Neil Kirklander (Peter Fonda, "Race with the Devil"). There he is soon brainwashed into abandoning his former life. His distraught father Kevin (Brian Dennehy, "First Blood") hires a sleazy deprogrammer, Charles Pratt (James Woods, "Videodrome"), and his "operatives" to kidnap Danny and try to make him see the light again.
While producer-director Ted Kotcheffs' other 1982 film, the aforementioned "First Blood", is still very well remembered 42 years later, this one has kind of fallen through the cracks. Not that it deserved this fate, as it's pretty good and interesting. Following on the heels of a 1981 Canadian film titled "Ticket to Heaven", it tells a good story that is given some potency by its excellent cast. O'Keefe does an effective job in the lead, Allen is adorable as always, Fonda is amusing and subtly sinister, Dennehy & Elizabeth Ashley ("Happiness") aces as the parents. Woods, in his inimitable style, very much steals the film as Pratt, and his "deprogramming" scenes with O'Keefe have a memorably surreal quality to them, as Pratt works to "break" the impressionable youth.
While I myself wasn't terribly convinced by Danny's transformation at the camp, and felt that the "upbeat" finale was too rushed and unsatisfying, overall I quite enjoyed it. Not that it offered any real surprises, nor was the direction ever really inspired, but it hit its buttons pretty well. One asset was the affecting music score by Bill Conti.
Familiar faces among the supporting cast include Ronnie Scribner ('Salem's Lot'), Pamela Ludwig ("Over the Edge"), John Dukakis ("Jaws 2"), Lee Montgomery ("Burnt Offerings"), Michael Sacks ("Slaughterhouse-Five"), Deborah Rush ("In & Out"), Peter Horton ("Children of the Corn"), Irma P. Hall ("Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"), and comedian Bill Engvall ("Delta Farce").
If you like discovering movies that have been forgotten over time, then give this one a try. If nothing else, you can't say that it isn't well-acted.
Eight out of 10.
While producer-director Ted Kotcheffs' other 1982 film, the aforementioned "First Blood", is still very well remembered 42 years later, this one has kind of fallen through the cracks. Not that it deserved this fate, as it's pretty good and interesting. Following on the heels of a 1981 Canadian film titled "Ticket to Heaven", it tells a good story that is given some potency by its excellent cast. O'Keefe does an effective job in the lead, Allen is adorable as always, Fonda is amusing and subtly sinister, Dennehy & Elizabeth Ashley ("Happiness") aces as the parents. Woods, in his inimitable style, very much steals the film as Pratt, and his "deprogramming" scenes with O'Keefe have a memorably surreal quality to them, as Pratt works to "break" the impressionable youth.
While I myself wasn't terribly convinced by Danny's transformation at the camp, and felt that the "upbeat" finale was too rushed and unsatisfying, overall I quite enjoyed it. Not that it offered any real surprises, nor was the direction ever really inspired, but it hit its buttons pretty well. One asset was the affecting music score by Bill Conti.
Familiar faces among the supporting cast include Ronnie Scribner ('Salem's Lot'), Pamela Ludwig ("Over the Edge"), John Dukakis ("Jaws 2"), Lee Montgomery ("Burnt Offerings"), Michael Sacks ("Slaughterhouse-Five"), Deborah Rush ("In & Out"), Peter Horton ("Children of the Corn"), Irma P. Hall ("Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"), and comedian Bill Engvall ("Delta Farce").
If you like discovering movies that have been forgotten over time, then give this one a try. If nothing else, you can't say that it isn't well-acted.
Eight out of 10.