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The Revolutionary (1970)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
4/22
4/22:
Showing shades of 1984, The Revolutionary has a terrible script to begin with, but Jon Voight nearly saves it.
What's remarkable about Jon Voight is he can make something out of nothing as if it's second nature to him. I was pretty
much with the film. Then, it fell apart by the time his character was drafted. The rest of the way is bad, especially when
Seymour Cassel got into the act by being a jackass. I hate the ending which tried to force me to answer: Will he, or not?
Forget it...I'm not playing that game.
Thinking back, I think A is a wannabe revolutionary. He is like a small bough floating on a river that's almost moving
south. Nothing can make him be stuck for a while, so he's always on the move. Every time A faces a momentous decision, he's
vague about committing himself and then drifts along until something else is happening. Eventually, he'll reach the point of no
return and must ask himself: was this all worth it? There's a good scene with his father, offering plenty of layers to unearth.
That's when I thought Jon Voight was the perfect casting choice; amost nobody would've done the part justice.
Unfortunately, he had a bad director to begin with, hence the film's burial in complete obscurity.
At one point, I was scanning faces in the crowd, and there he was: just stood out as plain and clear, Jeffrey Jones in his
first movie. He wouldn't appear in another for a decade. Jennifer Salt isn't much of an actress who probably got the role by
virtue of her dating relationship with Jon Voight which started shortly before the filming of
Midnight Cowboy. Seymour Cassel is too silly to be taken seriously while Robert Duvall
is wasted in a thankless role as if he only showed up to pay his dues.
All in all, Jon Voight's performance is the only worthwhile aspect of The Revolutionary.