I'm mildly obsessed with this film

When I was about 4 years old, this film came on TV and for some reason I loved it. I think its because the man was made of metal, and I liked that it looked grown up rather than silly and animated. Literally from that age, the opening shot of the cars is absolutely burned into my brain.

Every single time it came on TV after that, I recorded it and watched it the next day, super excited. I remember being 6 (and I know I was this age, because it was a while before my parents moved house which wasn't long after), and sitting in front of the TV watching that opening scene again, super-excited. Even the credit sequence, super-imposed over the shots of them waiting for him at the border, are burned into my brain, and I distinctly remember the title card showing "WHO?" just between the actors as they're waiting.

Anyway, there was a period of my life where I wasn't able to see it (pre DVD, it stopped showing on TV), but then in recent years I bought the excellent DVD release and tend to watch it at least once a year.

The film itself isn't amazing, but there IS something brilliant about the story and the structure of it. I read the story it was based on, and loved that too. I think the film does a great job of adapting the story, especially with the structure and how it plays with your perceptions of whether he is or isn't Lucas Martino. Deep within all that though is a really deep and interesting story about who you really are, what identifies you, what couldn't be copied or known by someone. Elliot Gould is pretty rubbish, but that helps Bova's performance really anchor the film even more - which he does a fantastic job of, considering we never even see his real face. The ending is also brilliant, it manages to be pretty interesting on a few levels despite the actual content being pretty dull.

So yeah, I love this film and will continue to watch it every year. I'm probably the only fan it has. One day I'll be an old man and will watch it and burst into tears at how life just passed by between being a four year old and now being an old man waiting to die.