MartinHafer
George C. Scott plays a rancher who, along with his son, is exposed to a chemical weapon due to a mistake the Army made. However, instead of being up front about it, the military places doctors on the case (Barnard Hughes and Martin Sheen) who lie continually to the man...not letting him know that his son had died and that his prognosis is grim. When he does discover they've been lying to him, he decides to go out in a blaze of glory...with a series of violent attacks in order to try to get the faceless military to pay for their crimes.While the plot is good, the execution isn't. It's simply a guy going Rambo and killing a few people in a somewhat pointless rampage. The overall feeling is grim and awful and it's a movie no one can enjoy. Now I am NOT saying a film about chemical weapons need to be fun....but it should have more depth than this. Violent and depressing.
Coventry
I've been looking forward tremendously to "Rage" and pretty much knew for certain that I would like it, even though the film is rather obscure, unsung and quite difficult to come across. It certainly isn't a hidden gem or undiscovered classic, but I have a personal weakness for "rural" and politically themed drama/thrillers from the early seventies period; especially when a few interesting names are involved. In this case, it's one of the rare movies that George C. Scott directed himself, next to also starring in the lead role. Scott stars as Dan Logan, a widower and sheep herder living on an enormous ranch in the secluded countryside of Wyoming together with his teenage son Chris. During a crystal clear summer night, father and son decide to camp on their estate, but the next morning Dan finds his son in a critical unconscious condition. At the local hospital, Major Holliford already knows that they were both accidentally contaminated by a new type of military chemical/nerve gas due to a leak in the tank of a plane. The whole situation is covered up and handled with deep secrecy; so much even that Dan Logan isn't informed about his own son's death. Although suffering from the symptoms himself, Dan escapes from the hospital and sets out on a violent journey to unravel the ugly truth. The subject matter of "Rage" is truly compelling and also quite unsettling, since the events don't seem too far-fetched or unimaginable at all, but it doesn't result in the most spectacular action movie. The entire first hour is mainly talkative and slow, with protagonist George C. Scott lying sedated in a hospital bed and military doctor Martin Sheen professionally misleading Logan's regular physician and the rest of the medical staff. The final half hour is more lively and exciting, but it nevertheless remains somewhat unsatisfying. Dan Logan goes out on a furious John Rambo type of quest for vengeance, complete with stealing dirt bikes and setting off explosives, but eventually never achieves his mission. He kills a bunch of people, but they are all innocent marionettes (like policemen, security guards and even a playful ginger kitten!) while the real military harm-doers remain untouchable. As the director, Scott most certainly demonstrates that he's able to insert stylish little details and visionary touches, particularly through unexpectedly odd camera angles and enchanting slow-motion shots. "Rage" certainly isn't fundamental viewing, but still comes warmly recommended in case you enjoy conspiracy thrillers and/or the works of George C. Scott.
nadase
This film, as did a lot of 70's films, works best at the symbolic level. When I finished watching this, I felt director Scott had tried to channel Italian director Antonioni ("L'avventura," "Blowup," etc.). This is a courageous move, as this is billed as an action-revenge movie, a genre which tends not to require too much mental engagement from the viewer but the willingness to get to the cheap-thrill roller-coaster ride. As a three-act screenplay, its effect is much more subtle. It actually may be said that this is an anti-action film due to its subtle character development dynamic. The faces carry it, the dialogue contributes very little. I won't spoil the movie much as most reviewers have already disclosed the critical plot-points. Logan, a loving and friendly widower, raises his son--as God would raise his own son--in his image to love nature and love animals (interestingly, the otherwise dreary Tom Laughlin film, "Born Losers" opens with similar wide-open-spaces, "Adam-in-nature" imagery). The opening shot of the camera coming down from heavenly clouds to a bucolic, edenic earth says it all. We're foreshadowed "wrath-of-God-unto-the-unrighteous" stuff here. The father-son relationship is conveyed via images rather than through dialogue. The latter serves to characterize, rather heavy-handedly, the heavies from the quietly burgeoning military-industrial complex (more on this below). The dad watches over his son, patiently and indulgently teaches him how drive a stick (try teaching someone sometime in _your_ car and note how aggravating, if not damaging to your gearbox, the process is!), and his bond with his dog is evident. The dog, Lassie-like, abides by one of Logan's words! So, this guy is even a friend to animals... The plot takes off when Logan and son go in for some overnight, father-son bonding-camping. Absolutely, there exist credibility gaps in the plot. Is Logan a bit denser that most of us? His IQ, reasoning process is never established. His heart, big as all Wyoming outdoors, is. He is a tender, trusting human being, perhaps one not given to cold rational thinking(unlike the calculating heavies), but one whose mind appears dedicated to raising his son in a bucolic, wholesome environment. Enter the US Army and its CYA thinking. This is an institution we have been bred to trust to _protects us_, like a loving, trusted father (get where this is going?) Two worldviews collide. Logan allows himself to believe what he wants to believe. He even trusts Dr. Holliford's (Martin Sheen) Army-led medical team, which eventually begins to sedate him. Only Logan's long-time friend, the family doctor, Dr. Caldwell, portrayed by long-time veteran, Richard Basehart, watches out for Logan. The conspiracy of silence expands as even the Health Department doctor, Dr. Spencer, gets co-opted to lie to Logan about his condition and his son's death. The slow disintegration of trust ends when Logan finds his son's corpse in the hospital morgue. A slow rage due to betrayal begins to simmer. Logan strikes back the only way he knows how. The careless killing of Spencer's cat foreshadows Logan's loss of love for animals (eventually men), a behavior learned from his new nemesis, the MI-Complex. Logan goes on a blind, rage-fueled destruction and killing spree. The MI Complex has nothing on him. Logan has quickly learned to kill arbitrarily, security guards, policemen, sentries--whomever stand in his way. Even innocent, caged animals die by his hand--the very same victims of the MI Complex. Logan, as Nietzsche warned, has become just like his enemy... It all comes to naught as we, and he, learn. There really was nothing to destroy. It's a _worldview_ Logan took on. He comes to understand that the MIC's nihilism has transformed him into a spiteful killing machine and spares a truck-drivers life. He no longer fires at anyone in the base. He waits to die a painful death. The man of nature (God?) is dead. His long-time friend left, Dr. Caldwell remains, grieving. Basehart's face says it all... Overall, I did not know whether the flaws in this film were due to a lack of rewrites in the script, or too many. Wish I could read it to compare to the film. Scott has an interesting directing style, but definitely not one that fits the Hollywood formula. The clever camera-work "edits" in the early father-son scenes mystified me. They brought too much attention to themselves and added little to the narrative. One reviewer complained about the lighting. I find that hard to believe--as the noir style and in one sequence Logan walking into the darkness as his character sinks into nihilism and rage adds so much to the narrative and character development. Even Lalo Schifrin's clichéd, corny, bucolic harmonica in the opening sheep-farm scenes invites us into Logan's, un-thinking, all-feeling, clichéd Americana, "one-with-nature-in-the-farm" world--one that will soon perish, destroyed by you know who... Be well.
jmillerdp
(FULL SPOILERS)A lot of potential, but little worth watching. George C. Scott's first directorial effort is about a father who loses his son to the Army's chemical weaponry. He is also dying, and goes on a rage-filled tirade against the chemical factory. He ends up dead at the end, destroys the factory (although the chemicals were already removed), and the Army remains unaffected. Nothing comes to light, and no one is prosecuted for what happened.So, what's the point? Don't know. Too bad, when you have a great actor like Scott on screen and at the helm.***** (5 Out of 10 Stars)
