At last we will be able see what was made to destroy Brian Wilson!

[astroray]

The movie Brian was sure Spector made to get to him!
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/seconds-movie-criterion?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_mtv_non_053113_seconds-movie

[The Shift]

The movie Brian was sure Spector made to get to him!
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/seconds-movie-criterion?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_mtv_non_053113_seconds-movie

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,15719.0.html

[Mike's Beard]

I already have this movie, it's great. Classic paranoia film. Brian shouldn't have walked out.

[Summertime Blooz]

It's crazy that you started this thread today because I just watched this movie all the way through 3 nights ago for the first time. I had some vague notion that Brian Wilson had seen it while working on Smile (while high?) and had a very strong negative reaction to it. I had some memories of seeing at least some of it on network TV as a kid, (Rock Hudson looking in the mirror at his new face for the first time) but something compelled me to suddenly want to see it. For me, the test of whether a movie is good or not is what happens AFTER the movie is over. Do I think about it on the drive to work, Question it's intent? Do I wonder about it's themes, possible subtexts, it's similarities to things I've seen before- how it contrasts to or influenced other's subsequent work. By this test, Seconds is definitely a good movie because several days later it still hasn't exited my system. In a strange coincidence, immediately following the movie, I go to another room, turn on the TV, and John Randolph who plays Rock Hudson's former/real identity in Seconds is on the TV in an old rerun. I recognized the face of the veteran character actor while watching Seconds but never knew his name before that, and I'm one of those people who pays attention to the names of supporting players so that was surprising to me. This coincidence added to the mystique already created for me by the weirder surreal scenes of Seconds. I watched Seconds a night after watching a Mad Men episode featuring Don Draper at an extreme drug-filled 60s LA party that had the same surreal quality as Seconds and couldn't help but be struck by the similarities and coincidence of it all. It also got me to wondering just how much of an influence this movie might have been on Matt Weiner and the creation of the Mad Men series inasmuch as both works are about assuming new identities in search of some happiness that always seems out of reach. Long story short, Seconds is a movie that may get under your skin or you may think it is a silly Twilight Zone trifle, but it got under my skin for sure. Definitely not something you'd want to watch if you're in an altered state.

[PhilSpectre]

'Come in, Mr Wilson.' 

[rn57]

Two threads about Seconds already? Well anyway....

I watched this on AMC about eight years ago - and taped it back then - but never have watched the tape. Even now a lot of it is pretty vivid in my mind and I'm not quite up to seeing it again.

Harlan Ellison, at his website some years back, said Seconds really scared him when he first saw it - and it sures takes a lot to scare Harlan, so you really have to feel for Brian, because I can't even begin to conceive what it would be like watching the film on acid like he was reported to have done. Even on pot it might still be too heavy.

And also, it probably didn't help that apparently Brian came in late and missed nearly everything involving John Randolph. The movie would hardly make much sense anyway if you hadn't seen that part.

Seconds initially came out on DVD about a year before its director John Frankenheimer died, and he did a commentary for the disc; don't know if Criterion's issue will include that.  I remember reading an interview with Frankenheimer in which he said that for the disc, they wanted to have as a bonus a scene cut from the film; it came immediately before Rock Hudson's scene visiting his wife, and involved him seeing his daughter and son-in-law.  Since the scene with the wife is easily the most moving part of the film - Rock really displays powerful chops as an actor there - it would have been nice to see the other one, but it couldn't be found.  So I wonder if Criterion's had better luck with that.

Another film from around that time, which Brian liked rather better, was Mirage with Gregory Peck - and although that one is a quasi-Hitchcockian thriller with some folks getting bumped off, compared to Seconds it might as well be The Love Bug.

(Though Seconds does have a couple of very delicious comic moments, such as the one where Kheigh Deigh, more or less playing his beloved Wo Fat character, offers Rock some career counseling.  Students of 20th century American literature may also note the strange degree to which John Randolph and Will Geer, respectively, look and talk like the middle-aged Gore Vidal and Truman Capote.)

[Dr. Tim]

(Meant to post in this thread, sorry)

There was a good laserdisc version of this a few years back, with a Frankenheimer commentary (the movie is clearly a favorite of his).  Rock Hudson thought this was his best acting performance.  I presume Criterion will be using the  restored "European version" which contains a lot of nudity for the time, all cut from the US version just before the ratings system was launched (everyone getting naked to stomp grapes at a love-in-type party).  Frankenheimer knew Hudson would only do it once so he had a bunch of cameras shoot the action, then wild-tracked in dialogue as needed.

Given how unsettling this movie is, even  45 years later (like Night of the Hunter or Psycho), the enduring mystery is who would have recommended this movie to Brian, or what motivated him to go see it, especially in light of his reaction to it.

[rn57]

Given how unsettling this movie is, even  45 years later (like Night of the Hunter or Psycho), the enduring mystery is who would have recommended this movie to Brian, or what motivated him to go see it, especially in light of his reaction to it.

I would guess that Brian might well have thought this was just another amiable, relaxing Rock Hudson comedy...like the three movies with Doris Day....or Man's Favorite Sport which had been released a couple years before.   Which expectation, if he had it, would have multiplied its shocking character.

Indeed, a lot of first-run theaters, especially between the two coasts, just would not show it because it was so far removed from what people expected from a Rock Hudson movie.  In the days before home video, studios used to have their flops play over and over on the drive-in circuit to try to earn their budgets back, and I can remember Seconds showing up in drive-in ads right up to about '73 or '74, usually last on the bill.  Man, it was one movie guaranteed to wake you up enough that you could drive yourself home.

[Kurosawa]

Not a movie that a man who has auditory hallucinations needs to see, much less be on LSD when he sees it.

[Summertime Blooz]

(Meant to post in this thread, sorry)

There was a good laserdisc version of this a few years back, with a Frankenheimer commentary (the movie is clearly a favorite of his).  Rock Hudson thought this was his best acting performance.  I presume Criterion will be using the  restored "European version" which contains a lot of nudity for the time, all cut from the US version just before the ratings system was launched (everyone getting naked to stomp grapes at a love-in-type party).  Frankenheimer knew Hudson would only do it once so he had a bunch of cameras shoot the action, then wild-tracked in dialogue as needed.

Given how unsettling this movie is, even  45 years later (like Night of the Hunter or Psycho), the enduring mystery is who would have recommended this movie to Brian, or what motivated him to go see it, especially in light of his reaction to it.

The version I just watched had the nude Bacchanalia scene- it was probably the most intense part of the movie. Pretty essential to the story I thought- Wilson gets his mojo back. It would be a shame to see the movie without it.

[?]

Now we can only hope Criterion will release Norbit.  I'll be praying for an announcement soon.

[KittyKat]

Was there another movie on the bill? Until the 1970's, just about every movie was a double bill. Maybe Brian was there to see the other movie and just happened to walk in to "Seconds."

[Jay]

I have to admit, this thread has me very curios about this movie.  What's it about? Judsing by the remarks in this thread it seems like not a lot can be said without ruining the plot of the movie.

[Summertime Blooz]

I have to admit, this thread has me very curios about this movie.  What's it about? Judsing by the remarks in this thread it seems like not a lot can be said without ruining the plot of the movie.

From IMDB:
Middle-aged banker Arthur Hamilton is given the opportunity to start a completely new life when he receives calls from his old friend Charlie. The only problem is that Charlie is supposed to be dead. Hamilton is eventually introduced to a firm that will fake his death and create an entirely new look and life for him. After undergoing physical reconstruction surgery and months of training and psychotherapy, Hamilton returns to the world in the form of artist Tony Wilson. He has a nice house in Malibu and a manservant, a company employee who is there to assist him with his adjustment. He finds that the life he had hoped for isn't quite what he expected and asks the company to go through the process with surprising results.

If you're a movie buff I think it's definitely worth your while to give it a go. It's a very tense and creepy movie with fine performances from Rock Hudson and John Randolph as the same man but with different faces. The cinematography is top notch too.