Badmovies.org Forum

(http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/5729/snapshot20090615155521.jpg)

(http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/7644/snapshot20090615172934.jpg)

Plot: Two convicts escape from prison in some forgotten country. They have a long trek in order to reach the frontier, and at first their different personalities colide. One of them (Malcolm McDowell) is young, lacks survival skills and considers himself sort of a playboy. The other one (Robert Shaw) is older, rugged and determined. But soon they have other problems: a black helicopter appears from nowhere and starts playing with them a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Comments: I'm so happy I could get a hold of this one... I remember watching it on TV as a kid and finding it captivating. It's not an straight-forward action movie, but some sort of exercise of style, a sort of thinking man's action flick, pretty much like "Vanishing Point". Director Joseph Losey strips the film of most recognisable references, aiming for some sort of abstraction, and stages some memorable suspense scenes where the prisoners and the helicopter crew play off each others.

Not all is good, though. I certainly can buy Robert Shaw's character developing an Ahab-like obsession with the helicopter and its pilot, but his ramblings once he crosses the limits between obsessive behaviour and full-on madness can become rather annoying.

Still, this is some great film worth checking out, and I'm surprised it didn't get any cult following, unlike the too similar "vanishing Point".

Neville, you've peaked my interest, so I had to do some research.  Figures in a Landscape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figures_in_a_landscape)  was British author and playwright Barry England's first novel.  In the novel the two men are escaped POWs.


They have the movie in parts on Youtube (although I don't think they have the entire movie).    I'll be looking for the a copy of the movie to view.  It sounds very powerful. 

As I said, it's imperfect but worth checking out, if only for the talents involved and the nail-bitting suspense of the scenes in which the helicopter appears.

I'm not familiar with Barry England's work, but I was surprised to notice the film gives the adaptation credit to... Robert Shaw! That is the first time I hear the guy wrote scripts too.