sgcim I was very disappointed by this adaptation of the great Borges short story. The choice of Peter Boyle for the lead role of the detective was an extremely poor one. He removed any of the irony of this send-up of Sherlock Holmes, and ruined any chance for this film to work. The overdone acting, direction, and additions to the plot also sent this film straight into the trash heap. The rock music used in the score seemed particularly out of place. Although I liked Repo Man and Sid and Nancy, the director seems out of his league when he tries to adapt a short story like this for the screen. I don't think there's any point in making a full-length feature out of any of Borges' work. A short film or a collection of short films on other short stories of his would have been better.

awalter1 Though "Death and the Compass" was reworked into a feature from a short project--and shows telltale signs of this--it might have succeeded better if only director Alex Cox had been content to allow the film's sound to come through clearly. The film has some great images and performances as well as funky avant-garde elements to both the visuals and story structure. However, when you're doing all that, you can only get yourself in trouble by also monkeying with the sound; here the dialogue is sometimes garbled, sometimes muffled, and sometimes mumbled (pick your poison).Based on the Jorge Luis Borges short story of the same name, "Death and the Compass" follows a detective who has chosen an "intuitive" path of detection, finally risking losing himself deep in a labyrinth of speculation as he attempts to guess, second-guess, and out-guess the criminal pattern unfolding before him. Unfortunately the film, largely due to the sound trouble, ends up nearly as jumbled as the story. The film is commendable for its referencing of many other Borges stories, but ultimately it leaves one wishing for a great deal more cohesion.One can look to Lars von Trier's "The Element of Crime" as a film that was, both in terms of story and stylistic flair, a comparable but far more successful venture. More obviously, one can look to Paul Miller's excellent "Spiderweb," a short film with a sort of "Guy Maddin" feel. "Spiderweb" is also based on Borges' "Death and the Compass" and stars Nigel Hawthorne. It is included on the DVD release of Cox's film (but somehow there is no reference to "Spiderweb" on the IMDb!).

Infofreak I've been looking for 'Death and the Compass' for quite some time, as I'm an admirer of the Borges story that inspired it, and I thought it would be another piece in the puzzle of Alex Cox's frustrating career. Unfortunately I didn't manage to watch it on DVD and wasn't able to listen to Cox's commentary, one which I really could have done with! On top of that I watched it in two sittings, something I don't usually like doing. I really would like to watch it a second time as I feel my concentration was wavering. Anyway, it's yet another fascinating but flawed movie from Cox, a description which describes almost all his output since 'Repo Man', which to me is still his most completely satisfying work. Peter Boyle stars as the enigmatic detective Lonnrot(he had previously worked with Cox in the unfairly maligned 'Walker'), with Christopher Eccleston ('Shallow Grave') and Cox regular Miguel Sandoval supporting. Another comment mentioned 'Element Of Crime' as a stylistic reference point and I can see that, only on presumably a much smaller budget. Of course '...Compass' isn't anywhere near as good as Von Trier's film, but it does give you some idea of what to expect. I can't say I don't have some reservations about this movie, but if you like offbeat films that play with genre and require a bit of thought, then give this a shot. Me, I want to watch it a second time and hear what Alex Cox has to say about it before I make up my mind.

cadar1729 I liked Boyle's performance, but that's about the only positive thing I can say. Everything was overdone to the point of absurdity. Most of the actors spoke like you would expect your 9-year-old nephew to speak if he were pretending to be a jaded, stone-hearted cop, or an ultra-evil villain. The raspy voice-overs seemed amateurish to me. I could go buy a cheap synthesizer and crank out better opening music. And what's with the whole 1984ish police torture stuff? It was totally superfluous and had nothing to do with the actual events of the story. Cox added a lot of things, in fact, that he apparently thought would be really cool, but had nothing to do with the story. That's a big disappointment because one of the things that makes Borges' stories so good is his minimalism -- they are tightly bound, with no superfluous details. This movie is just the opposite. I stopped watching after the scene where Lonnrot is questioning the guy from the Yidische Zaitung, or thereabouts. I wasted $4 renting this, but at least I can get some satisfaction from writing this review and hopefully saving others from making the same mistake.