On P List of Movie Reviews
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Pursuit (1972)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
9/21
9/21:
Shot on location in San Diego for eleven days, Pursuit is a dated, low-budget telefilm that lacks intelligence.
It may be Michael Crichton's initial foray into directing, but he's mediocre. Hence, he's better in generating ideas for
other directors to realize his vision. The first half of Pursuit is boring, but the second half is better yet is
full of illogical moments.
Why is Steven Graves careless to let two cops in the hallway, knowing full well the deadly effects of nerve gas? At the same
time, why not evacuate the building? Just announce something innocuous to get it over with. Earlier, Graves and his partner
were following James Wright but practically let him build the apparatus. Why? Just stop him already!
The last fifteen minutes bothers me. The apparatus is in one building, fifteen stories high, and the federal agents are
in another building, also fifteen stories high. They're probably 200 meters apart. Graves and the chemical researcher go
from the fifteenth floor to ground level, walk to the other building, take the elevator to the top, find access to the roof,
and do a lot of preparations for Graves to rappel down to the fifteenth floor. All of this takes place in the span of
thirteen minutes. Uh, yeah...that'll do. You can also forget about the guy running down for the sniffer and going back
up in three minutes flat.
After the agents find the bomb, they decide to toss it out of the window which eventually explodes in the air. As
a result, nobody is injured or dead. So, I guess it's the Disney version of terrorism. Meanwhile, the cast is
fine; all do a good job. E.G. Marshall is the most responsible for keeping the tension taut. It's amusing to learn of Martin
Sheen's role as a computer hacker which must have sounded alien during the early 70's although computers, especially the
internet, were heavily used in the military.
All in all, Pursuit makes a case of the earliest picture to use nerve agent as a form of bioweapon, but it's not
suspenseful in any manner.