underated movie

I haven't seen The Domino Principle yet but I have a related tale:

In spring of 1976, my family and some out-of-town relatives took a day trip to San Francisco. I was around seven years old.

I remember at some point during the day we were at Fisherman's Wharf. There's a huge crowd of people standing around looking at something. My mom gets really excited and with my dad, me, and the rest of our family we push our way to the front of the crowd where my dad proceeds to excitedly snap photos. Everyone else in the family is excited too.

I remember hearing the words "Gene Hackman", "movie star", "domino principle" but what did I know? I was a seven year more interested in the live crabs, the ocean, and the wax museum than a crowd of people.

Flash forward to a few weeks ago. I'm digging through a huge box of my mother's old photographs. Can you imagine my surprise at what I find? A handful of photos of Gene Hackman filming a scene from this movie at Fisherman's Wharf!There's even a photo of Hackman with Stanley Kramer and a crew person holding a microphone or light in the background.

That's what compelled to me to look this up here. Now, if I can only get Hackman to autograph them...

I finally saw this last night. While I liked it quite a bit, I still found some of the weaknesses a bit too much to take.

The ending, for example, all seemed a bit rushed, and not too well thought out. Why would Hackman and his wife return to that same South American town and house? Seems like they should have gone on the run to somewhere unknown. They honestly never thought that there would be repercussions from Hackman's actions?

If I start to think about the plot too much, I start to notice that the whole thing is a maybe a bit too convoluted for its own good. But, with that said, Hackman was great to watch! It's a fun, suspenseful film worth seeing.

Completely underrated, absolutely. The movie has to be viewed in the context of its time, that post-Watergate disillusionment and malaise where people didn't feel they could trust in anything anymore. Hence that fantastic scene on the plane, with Candice pleading with Gene to stop trying to protect her from the truth, and then Gene's voiceover at the end, challenging the audience to never give up the fight, even in the face of demoralizing defeat. It's a powerful, occasionally flawed but mostly fantastic thriller, brimming with subtext and bursting with great performances. A smart and unappreciated film, for sure.

A lot of strange things happen in this world. Things you don't know about in Grand Rapids.