uselesspsychicgarbage (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} nothing_inside) wrote,@ 2005-09-15 21:25:00 |
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The Omen (1976)
Directed by Richard Donner
Written by David Seltzer
Cinematography by Gilbert Taylor
Edited by Stuart Baird
Running Time: 111mins
Main Cast:
Gregory Peck .... Robert Thorn
Lee Remick .... Katherine Thorn
David Warner .... Keith Jennings
Billie Whitelaw .... Mrs. Baylock
Harvey Stephens .... Damien
Synopsis:
Robert Thorn is the American Ambassador to Great Britain who is forced to make a drastic decision when his wife has a stillborn child on 6th June at 6am. Replacing his dead child with a boy whose mother has died in childbirth Robert does not inform his wife of this tragic adoption and they raise the adopted baby as their own son. As Damien ages strange events begin to occur in his presence, and a priest claims that this is because he is the Antichrist.
Comments:
The 1970s did much to further the horror genre - Craven was ensuring exploitation received attention, Fulci continued to work with Zombies, Argento produced fear by manipulating the camera, and several others concentrated on the Satanic prophecies of fundamentalist Christianity. The Omen fits contently in the final category alongside defining films like The Exorcist, its haunting score and chilling use of demonic symbolism effectively creating a portentous and threatening movie.
Gregory Peck is suitably perplexed by the strange occurrences that have commenced taking place in Damien's presence, his powerful political position and its strict rigidity in sharp contrast to the turmoil that has found its way into his family life. Evil is personified without subtly through the replacement nanny, Mrs Baylock, following the suicide of Damien's previous carer, her tone and facial expression on her arrival instantly portraying the potential for malevolent developments. This stance represents perhaps the only weakness that pervades The Omen: the stern glares and dramatic camera movements undermine the complete sincerity that the film intends to generate resulting in scenes that are occasionally more humorous than they were inevitably meant to be. Harvey Stephens as Damien is also a culprit of purportedly troublesome and self-satisfying grins that are ultimately rather inept at conveying the correct emotion; although Stephens was only six at the time of The Omen's filming this rather ineffectual acting may explain why he has appeared in only two movies since - one straight to TV the other, a comedy short, entitled 'I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney'. Classy.
Despite these grievances what ensures The Omen stands out, and is indisputably unforgettable, is its overwhelming sense of foreboding and a series of ingenious death sequences. The musical score complements any cinematographic decision that Donner wishes to make: from a voyeuristic shot through undergrowth at a graveyard to the camera acting almost like a knife as it hunts down the damned priest. When the film chooses to decapitate one of its lead characters, in what has to be one of the most notable scenes in horror fiction, the camera dwells upon this moment depicting this death from several angles in a now cliched overlapping editing pattern. As relentlessly nefarious as Seltzer attempts to portray the devil in his screenplay, Donner manages to match this by representing this unceasing destructive power here.
The Omen was revolutionary at the time for its insistence of resolutely sticking to bible references as a guiding vision to its tale of the arrival of the Antichrist. While previous movies had reluctantly observed the threat of the devil from an external perspective none had specifically withdrawn its wicked details from the book that many ultimately choose to overlook the negative parts of. The 1970s apparently signalled the arrival of an era in which all aspects of religion should be discerned, a modern blockbuster audience far more open to stories of annihilation. While the film is admirable for its use of biblical scripture it is perhaps slightly frivolous, the prediction being that Satan will return when, amongst other prominent happenings, the Roman Empire rises again, an action sternly interpreted as being related to the European Common Market, an intuition that is totally risible. No matter for The Omen, despite its intellectual shortcomings, provides a delectable number of shocking and fun moments of horror, while the Oscar winning orchestral accompaniment is truly delightful.
Entertainment Value: 8/10
Potential for film-making analysis: 8/10
IMDB Vote: 8/10
Directed by Richard Donner
Written by David Seltzer
Cinematography by Gilbert Taylor
Edited by Stuart Baird
Running Time: 111mins
Main Cast:
Gregory Peck .... Robert Thorn
Lee Remick .... Katherine Thorn
David Warner .... Keith Jennings
Billie Whitelaw .... Mrs. Baylock
Harvey Stephens .... Damien
Synopsis:
Robert Thorn is the American Ambassador to Great Britain who is forced to make a drastic decision when his wife has a stillborn child on 6th June at 6am. Replacing his dead child with a boy whose mother has died in childbirth Robert does not inform his wife of this tragic adoption and they raise the adopted baby as their own son. As Damien ages strange events begin to occur in his presence, and a priest claims that this is because he is the Antichrist.
Comments:
The 1970s did much to further the horror genre - Craven was ensuring exploitation received attention, Fulci continued to work with Zombies, Argento produced fear by manipulating the camera, and several others concentrated on the Satanic prophecies of fundamentalist Christianity. The Omen fits contently in the final category alongside defining films like The Exorcist, its haunting score and chilling use of demonic symbolism effectively creating a portentous and threatening movie.
Gregory Peck is suitably perplexed by the strange occurrences that have commenced taking place in Damien's presence, his powerful political position and its strict rigidity in sharp contrast to the turmoil that has found its way into his family life. Evil is personified without subtly through the replacement nanny, Mrs Baylock, following the suicide of Damien's previous carer, her tone and facial expression on her arrival instantly portraying the potential for malevolent developments. This stance represents perhaps the only weakness that pervades The Omen: the stern glares and dramatic camera movements undermine the complete sincerity that the film intends to generate resulting in scenes that are occasionally more humorous than they were inevitably meant to be. Harvey Stephens as Damien is also a culprit of purportedly troublesome and self-satisfying grins that are ultimately rather inept at conveying the correct emotion; although Stephens was only six at the time of The Omen's filming this rather ineffectual acting may explain why he has appeared in only two movies since - one straight to TV the other, a comedy short, entitled 'I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney'. Classy.
Despite these grievances what ensures The Omen stands out, and is indisputably unforgettable, is its overwhelming sense of foreboding and a series of ingenious death sequences. The musical score complements any cinematographic decision that Donner wishes to make: from a voyeuristic shot through undergrowth at a graveyard to the camera acting almost like a knife as it hunts down the damned priest. When the film chooses to decapitate one of its lead characters, in what has to be one of the most notable scenes in horror fiction, the camera dwells upon this moment depicting this death from several angles in a now cliched overlapping editing pattern. As relentlessly nefarious as Seltzer attempts to portray the devil in his screenplay, Donner manages to match this by representing this unceasing destructive power here.
The Omen was revolutionary at the time for its insistence of resolutely sticking to bible references as a guiding vision to its tale of the arrival of the Antichrist. While previous movies had reluctantly observed the threat of the devil from an external perspective none had specifically withdrawn its wicked details from the book that many ultimately choose to overlook the negative parts of. The 1970s apparently signalled the arrival of an era in which all aspects of religion should be discerned, a modern blockbuster audience far more open to stories of annihilation. While the film is admirable for its use of biblical scripture it is perhaps slightly frivolous, the prediction being that Satan will return when, amongst other prominent happenings, the Roman Empire rises again, an action sternly interpreted as being related to the European Common Market, an intuition that is totally risible. No matter for The Omen, despite its intellectual shortcomings, provides a delectable number of shocking and fun moments of horror, while the Oscar winning orchestral accompaniment is truly delightful.
Entertainment Value: 8/10
Potential for film-making analysis: 8/10
IMDB Vote: 8/10
