The 1970s are often seen as the greatest decade in the history of Hollywood because filmmakers of that time were most likely to enjoy and use creative freedom, which resulted in many interesting experiments. Some of those experiments included mixing New Hollywood paradigms with Classic Hollywood tradition, and one such example can be found in Last Embrace, a 1979 thriller directed by Jonathan Demme.
The plot, based on the novel The 13th Man by Noel Teigh Bloom, begins with a shootout during which US secret agent Harry Hannan (played by Roy Scheider) loses his wife. Deeply traumatised by the experience, Hannan suffers a nervous breakdown and spends the next few months in a psychiatric institution. Upon his release, Harry sees that his agency clearly doesn’t want to use his services any more and, to add insult to injury, it has had his apartment sub-let to a young anthropologist, Ellie Fabian (played by Janet Margolin). He wants Ellie out and also worries that the agency might assassinate him. His worries are increased when he receives a cryptic note in Hebrew. Ellie volunteers to help him decode it, and the two of them go to Princeton to visit Ellie’s friend, Professor Peabody (played by John Glover). There, Harry faces an attempt on his life and the realisation that he might be the only survivor among the men who had received the same note. In the meantime, he can’t help but start feeling an attraction to Ellie.
Last Embrace in many ways represents a mix of two distinctly 1970s genres – the rape-and-revenge film and the conspiracy thriller – with 1940s film noir, but most critics won’t fail to notice the more than obvious homage to the works of Alfred Hitchcock. Apart from many scenes in which Jonathan Demme shows the influence of the Master of Suspense and his work (most notably Vertigo), this film uses the somewhat anachronistic soundtrack of Miklós Rózsa, who worked with Hitchcock on his Spellbound and who tries to emulate Hitchcock’s favourite composer, Bernard Herrmann, but without much success. Demme in this film creates a couple of interesting scenes, especially at the beginning, and displays techniques and style that would be perfected before his Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs. Yet, all of his talents can’t compensate for the messy and incoherent script by David Shaber. Many subplots and characters are undeveloped; that includes Christopher Walken being tragically underused in the role of Hannan’s boss. Roy Scheider is, on the other hand, very good despite his role being nothing more than a variation of Jimmy Stewart’s character in Vertigo. The most impressive work is done by Janet Margolin, one of the muses of New Hollywood, in the thankless role of a woman who switches from a liberated 1970s female professional to a fatal seductress, including some scenes that require her to be naked. Despite the flaws, Last Embrace could have been an interesting exercise in Hitchcockian style if not for a spectacular but overlong and too melodramatic finale that would make the audience yearn for better neo-Hitchcockians like Brian De Palma or even the old Master of Suspense himself.
RATING: 4/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
