Backtrack
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Movie Reviews of Backtrack
Movie Review: Totally inconsistent but two great actors
Summary: 4 Stars
[The present review refers to the full-length edition of the movie] Literally by accident succesful conceptual artist Anne (Jodie Foster) watches the mob (Vincent Price, Joe Pesci, Dean Stockwell) murder some of its own. The police is eager to use her as a witness, and the clumsy gangsters are just as eager to get rid of her before the trial. Anne flees and tries to build up a new identity. Enter sinister hitman Milo (Dennis Hopper) hired by the mob. Milo and the not too intelligent police officers use some of the same means to track her down, but Milo has a tool of his own - using Anne's art he tries to find out how she thinks. He succeeds and that leads him to her hiding place, but meanwhile he becomes obsessed with the image he has built up of her. After abducting rather than killing Anne Milo offers her the choice between death and becoming his - providing her with perfect freedom of choice in his opinion. Thus in the first and mot interesting hour of the movie Milo and Anne come to look more and more like Clegg (Caliban) and Miranda in John Fowles' book "The Collector". Then the movie totally loses direction. It seems like the director (Dennis Hopper, uncredited with good reason) has read too much about the much-hyped "Stockholm-syndrome", and the inconsistent message of the last 35 minutes of the movie seem to be, that women can only thrive, if they are put in their proper place by a firm and somewhat older alpha male - and behind their cool surface even the toughest alpha males are just fetishistic slaves of weird obsessions.
There are two good reasons to watch this movie: Dennis Hopper's chilling acting in the first hour or so (the temperature drops, when Hopper enters the screen wearing some of the largest sunglasses this reviewer has ever seen), and Jodie Foster's extraordinary acting throughout the movie where she shows even more different expressions and emotions than she did in "The Accused". Just don't expect to find any consistency in the story and don't waste your time wondering, why Jodie Foster looks much younger and even more beautiful when she gets abducted and raped, than when she succesfully pursues her career.
The DVD contains no extras except an outdated filmography for Foster, Hopper and Stockwell.
It is very difficult to decide, how many stars this movie deserves. The story is ridiculous and the camerawork etc. is not noteworthy, but Foster's and to a lesser degree Hopper's acting make the movie worth watching; but their combined efforts in front of the cameras just can't compensate for the ridiculous story line and the mistakes made later in the cutting room.
Movie Review: More than it seems: violent, disturbing... and oddly poetic
Summary: 4 Stars
Do not be put-off by the Editorial Review, which missed the point: this movie is about kindred spirits, the artist inside a contract killer (Hopper) recognizing the potential killer inside a conceptual artist (Foster).
Having reached the pinnacle of his profession, he is at a dead end; having witnessed a mob killing, she's dead meat. At the risk of his, he saves her life in exchange for her absolute obedience. Now they must trust each other to survive: to out-run, out-fight and out-wit both the mob and the Feds. A pre-Tarentino attempt to explore a killer's humanity.
I'm waiting for a good version Director's Cut to come out on DVD.
Movie Review: not bad.
Summary: 4 Stars
this movie has gotten a lot of poor reviews but i don't think it's that bad. i'm a huge jodie foster fan and while this isn't her best work, she definitely gave a solid performance. if you're a fan of hers it's def worth a watch!Movie Review: Sure, Buy It.
Summary: 4 Stars
The script is just okay, and the acting is just okay, but there is something about the gestalt of this film that has made me watch it three times.
Rent it first if you have to, then buy it for your DVD library.
Movie Review: Well acted but flawed
Summary: 3 Stars
Backtrack was directed by Dennis Hopper, who also stars. The movie was then recut and Hopper wanted to take his name off it. He later made a director's cut that runs at 116 minutes instead of the approximately 98 minutes.
Jodie Foster plays an artist who happens to witness a mob killing. She manages to escape but the mob fins out where she lives and kills no her but, by accident, her boyfriend (Charlie Sheen). She is offered to be taken into a witness protection program but instead goes into hiding on her own. Hopper plays the hitman that is hired to kill her. But he likes her and offers her her life in return for her company and obedience. Afer a while she starts to actually like the man. And here's the movie's main flaw. The relationship between Hopper and Foster develop from hostile to friendly much too quickly to feel realistic. I haven't seen the director's cut but maybe the character development feels more believable in that version. On the plus side, it's well acted. The cast also includes an uncredited Joe Pesci and one of the last performances of Vincent Price. Despite the flaw mentioned the movie is still watchabl and a decent way to spend an hour and a half, although I wouldn't spend too much money on it.