mayamax John Frankenheimer hallucinated sci-fi thriller director I had the pleasure of meeting at Hotel Imperiale Cipriani in Venice in September 1998 where he presented Ronin. Professionally I took care of the transport of his luggage (8 giant trunks) to Los Angeles, while he and his wife would leave for Japan. I have not seen many of his films but after watching this masterpiece I think I will continue with his filmography. I thought of him as a very classic director of action films, detective films, Hollywood and spectacular instead here from all the essence of a very high artistic, visionary, symbolic and introspective ability of which I did not imagine minimally with juxtapositions to German expressionism and tributes to pagan art. Hudson gives the best of himself in a performance of yesteryear, while the whole film is still very topical today compared to the time of creation, especially in the scene of the wine festival. Superlative film of which I recommend the vision to the most experienced. Masterly photography. View version in original audio in blu ray quality 1080p probably a restoration and I believe not cut from the censorship. 9

antoniocasaca123 Summarizing what I found from the film: a good idea, almost always poorly developed throughout the narrative, with many annoying moments. Despite having some merits, the best of the film is still the first 35/40 minutes, still without the main character "transformed" into a new identity. I was a little disappointed, because the film is from the same director (John Frankenheimer) of the fantastic "manchurian candidate", made just 4 years earlier. I can only rate it with 6/10.

lasttimeisaw The final chapter of director John Frankenheimer's paranoia trilogy (after THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE 1962 and SEVEN DAYS IN MAY 1964), SECONDS posits the possibility of a second chance to start one's life with a clean slate, through proper plastic surgeries and a fake death, and our protagonist is a 51-year-old bank manager Arthur Hamilton (Randolph, cogently laying bare his ambivalence concerning the wacky proposition), who is consequentially, reborn as Tony Wilson (Hudson), assumes his hobbyhorse as an amateur painter, lives in his seaside studio and falls in with new female acquaintance. But soon his past catches up with him, because needless to say, plastic surgeries can only offer a new physiognomy and there is the conspicuous loophole in the undertaking if a reborn's previous memory wouldn't be obliterated, the promised new life would very probably ends up like Fata Morgana. With the missing link of amnesia, the story doesn't live up to the scrutiny of its intrinsic logic, for one thing, there is no clear justification of why Tony insists on taking another new identity in the third act, it is not the mutable outlook which hinders a reborn's fresh start, but some ingrain factors that cannot be modulated by surgeries, which renders Tony's desperate action arbitrary and its consequence moot. Also, the story heedfully skirts around the process of rejuvenation, Hudson is a decade younger than Randolph, so what special regiment does Arthur must undergo in order to attain the corporeal sea change (no liposuction is mentioned)? We would never know.Above-mentioned gripes aside, SECONDS is commendable even it is solely for the avant-garde monochromatic cinematography from Hollywood doyen James Wong Howe (justly accorded with an Oscar nomination even the film was tanked upon its release), his camera angles are often oddly askew and heightened close-ups are put into extensive use in conveying through a distorted point-of-view that something is terribly amiss, underpinned by Jerry Goldsmith's mind-bending incidental music, together they constitute a sterling oracular-and-aural combo to stagger the audience witless. Rock Hudson, mining his own faculty in a genre he rarely sinks his teeth into, stoutly brings about a sympathetic commitment to the downward spiral of Tony's mental agony on top of the tall-tale's ineffectual effort to purport its legitimacy, and a grace note is the sign-of-the-times grape-stomping hippie frolic when Tony whiles away time with Nora Marcus (a mettlesome Salome Jens) in his ephemeral embrace of euphoria, which only to be dashed a moment later, to ascertain that living the life of Riley has its insurmountable underside, a mythos forcibly culminated in its preposterous finale (a lingering question is why Tony cannot just decamp and live somewhere else afresh?), for what it is worth, SECONDS is erring on the side of its cautionary-tale tantalization to mire its protagonist in the venal corporation whereas ostensibly astute alternatives are conveniently on tap elsewhere.

vincentlynch-moonoi I don't usually review films that over 100 others have reviewed, but occasionally -- when I feel strongly about a film, either positively or negatively -- I will waive that guideline. And I obviously feel strongly about this film.For starters, the initial premise that a businessman will voluntarily get into a completely dark meat truck to be taken to some secret location for a purpose he doesn't know. Ridiculous. The only thing good about the film's early scenes is the performance by character actor John Randolph.And then we have the nude hippie wine festival. To what purpose? I'll tell you what purpose -- merely to slip some pop culture into the film.The beginning and end of the film is very Rod Serlingish, which reminded me that this film had all the substance of a half-hour teleplay...well, okay, maybe an hour.The supporting actors are mostly from television...and it shows. Salome Jens...really...the female lead??? It was slightly interesting seeing Will Geer in a non-"Waltons" role.You may think I'm not into Rock Hudson films. Not true; Hudson made many fine films; this is not one of them. Similarly, director John Frankenheimer made a number of particularly fine films; again, this is not one of them.This is just a film that had potential, but never quite made it. Hudson was beginning his career decline right about this time, hence the better films were not going in his direction. I'm not into cult films...and this is a cult film that was unsuccessful upon release. And it's clear why.