What do you think of this film?
CaboBlanco has got to be one of the oddest Bronson movies ever. After the first sequence, and action scene underwater that doesn't feature star Bronson, the rest plays out almost like a stage play.
The editing is also strange. For example, leading man Bronson's initial appearance in the film happens so nonchalantly--in the middle of a bland coversation with Simon MacCorkindale--that he seems to be a minor character in Dominique Sanda's flick. That's how you introduce the main character in a star vehicle? It almost seems as though a bit was left out.
The story is obstensibly about the search for missing treasure, but, after the first scene, there are no more undewater searches for the treasure--just characters endlessly talking about it. Bronson, as always, seems in control, fit, and itching for action--but none comes. Without his inimitable watchability, this flick would have been even more obscure than it already is.
Then there's Jason Robard's sleepy, drunken ex-Nazi who has a variety of accents and doesn't really seem to care what's going on, even though he keeps insisting he does.
Instead of action or even plot movement, the film is peppered with very, very odd details and "suspense" sequences. For instance, during one pivotal scene in which baddie Robards has hero Bronson et al at the point of a gun, the juke box in the bar starts skipping. Thinking quick (?), Bronson hollers "It's rigged! It's gonna blow!" and jumps behind the bar as everyone scatters in fear of an explosion. Why would anyone just accept such an odd proclamation? The jukebox is going to blow up? He might as well as said "Space aliens are attacking!" and jumped behind the bar. But in this film, this lunatic action is taken at face value.
Also, who made the choice to bookend this mild potboiler with minor character MacCorkindale's voiceover proclaiming in fairytale language that Caboblanco is a place "where dreams are born" and claiming that the story we are about to see (and at the end, the story we just seen) is the stuff of legend.
What the f is up with that? Who thought that was a good idea?
What was the intention of this flick? Does anyone know it's history? Was the original screenplay so stage-bound and strange? Or did director J. Lee Thompson have to rework it at the last minute due to unforseen bugetary constraints? Why did the investors think this was a story that needed to be told?
Who else has seen this and thought it was weird?