Dennis Hopper plays a man shattered by his experience in war, though we don't realize that until we're already invested in him. Up until the second to last reel or so, he seems like just another Jaglomian awkward hero. But when we see just how deep a hole he is in, we realize how terrible the aftermath of battle is for so many veterans, and demonstrated in a way I've not seen before.
Madness in general is not a subject that is touched upon well in most movies, and certainly not from the perspective of the madman himself. When we are in their shoes, we see just how frightening the world is when we can no longer count on our minds to filter the real from the unreal. This is, quite frankly, the best film about madness I've ever seen.
But not all of the film is so serious and shattering. Because this is a Henry Jaglom film, there are the usual comic interludes of improv and quirky, likable characters along the way. Indeed, many scenes with Norman and Emil foreshadow their work in Jaglom's next film, Sitting Ducks. You get the impression that the actors went into many scenes with only vague directions as to where the scene is to go, letting them figure it out for themselves along the way. This means that most of the dialogue, though not terribly eloquent, is something more important-it's real.
Madness in general is not a subject that is touched upon well in most movies, and certainly not from the perspective of the madman himself. When we are in their shoes, we see just how frightening the world is when we can no longer count on our minds to filter the real from the unreal. This is, quite frankly, the best film about madness I've ever seen.
But not all of the film is so serious and shattering. Because this is a Henry Jaglom film, there are the usual comic interludes of improv and quirky, likable characters along the way. Indeed, many scenes with Norman and Emil foreshadow their work in Jaglom's next film, Sitting Ducks. You get the impression that the actors went into many scenes with only vague directions as to where the scene is to go, letting them figure it out for themselves along the way. This means that most of the dialogue, though not terribly eloquent, is something more important-it's real.