The Adventurers
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Movie Reviews of The Adventurers
Movie Review: Mismarketed?
Summary: 4 Stars
Taking a look at the DVD case for this, you read a whole different text than what this movie actually is. The DVD case presents a movie that is a romantic action adventure, a children's movie (rated PG) or at least family movie about a hero who gets the girl and everything turns out all right in the end.
This movie is rated PG.
We open on a boy and his dog, idyllic, playful, nothing to worry about. The music is friendly, the colors are friendly, the land is friendly, everything is perfect. Then a gunshot rings out and the dog falls dead. The boy runs to a villa, where he watches his family get raped and murdered, all very bloody, violent, and horrifying (much like the same type of violence in A Clockwork Orange, actually).
This movie is rated PG.
We follow this boy's journey through life, not as an action adventure, but as an epic... the story of a man who, after the trauma of his family's near complete distruction, is sent away to Rome to escape the made-up South American land of Corteguay, where he transistions between being an adulterist playboy (much like a less liked and less proactive James Bond, which is interesting because the director made Moonraker), to an apathetic, bitter nigh-rapist, to the potential savior of Cortequay who is only used and abused by its leaders until he himself falls victim and nothing changes for the better.
This movie is rated PG.
We follow a whole melange of extra characters as they move through their either abused, poor life without happiness, or their empty, corrupted life as the rich, and how they all intermix and intermingle to create a land, Corteguay, that is constantly at war with itself, and how they all add to it their own violence.
This movie is rated PG.
We follow playboys into S&M dungeons (again, imagery very alike A Clockwork Orange), young boys becoming men by shooting down rows of prisoners with automatic machine guns, women without control of their independence, civil leaders claiming that "There must be a cohesion of evil and politics," revolutionaries who rape, pillage, plunder, and massacre; prostitute nuns, apathetic heroes, unstimulating sex (and lots of it), children getting killed, and the beauty of civilization and nature juxtaposed with explosions and grimacing Gothic architecture, idealistic moments ALWAYS ended suddenly with pronounced, crippling pain.
This movie is rated PG.
I'll go out on a limb here and say that it's probably likely nobody likes this movie. It's not likeable. It's well done, but clocking in at just over 3 hours of watching the horrors of humanity being committed again and again while our unsympathetic hero has sex with everything with two legs and makes a living off of it... Even if it was marketed correctly, it wouldn't be approached correctly.
--PolarisDiB
Movie Review: An entertaining film about the international jet set of the 70s
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie came out in 1970 and I enjoyed it greatly as a college freshman. It was a very revealing hot film even if it was not a financial or critical success. I decided to take a second look after 40 years and despite the criticism, the film really is good entertainment. It is an extremely ambitious film, full of characters, and full of European jet set dynamics and South American politics. The cast is very good with Candice Bergin demonstrating her considerable abilities early in her film making career. The depiction of the sexual appetites of the international jet set was ahead of its time. This is also one of those rare films where the film is much better than the book. Harold Robbins wrote the Adventurers based on the life story of a polo playing playboy, Porfirio Rubirosa, from the Dominican Republic who marries heiress Barbara Hutton and then later Za Za Gabor. The film captures the foreign intrigue and double dealing and the drugs and alcohol and parties of the beautiful people. Dax Xenos, the main character, based on Rubirosa, undergoes many traumas as a child which retards his emotional ability to love but certainly does not retard his ability to seduce and marry wealthy women. Dax gathers considerable wealth, slowly matures and becomes a responsible adult, which is a primary theme of the film. However the corruption of power, especially evident in South American politics, is also the context in which Dax lives and which he eventually gains the maturity to try to impact for the better. So we see a child, traumatized by violence and the murder of his mother and sister, become an international playboy seducing every attractive and wealthy woman he meets, only to finally be confronted with his personal power to impact injustice and maybe correct some of the wrongs he himself has committed through omission and commission. The film is highly entertaining.Movie Review: a stylish guilty pleasure
Summary: 4 Stars
My vague memory of THE ADVENTURERS was that it was a campily bad studio flick--one I'd never bothered to see when it came out in 1970. Nearly 40 years later, it turns out to be extremely entertaining as a DVD experience. On the big screen during the era of EASY RIDER and M*A*S*H, it's easy to see that this would be considered an overproduced, overblown bore. But with a pre-CGI cast of thousands and extravagant sets, it's now truly impressive.
I haven't been a reader of Harold Robbins, but this film explains his popularity. The fantasy elegance of the rich and ambitious is tremendous fun, and he crams more plot into his story that a whole shelf of Galsworthy. Except for a 4-yr-old in the second part of the movie (yes, there's actually an intermission!), even the kid actors are good in their roles.
I'd expected VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and instead found the epic sweep and sturdy dialogue of the Taylor-Burton CLEOPATRA. True, a number of the sex scenes look like PLAYBOY (not PENTHOUSE) layouts from the '60s (James Bondy but even more lavish), and a couple of daringly camp touches after the intermission are a hoot: a VALLEY OF THE DOLLS fashion show, and an UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE lothario's lair.
All in all, however, this DVD is a good investment and, of course, after large portions of such rich scenes and scenery, one can turn off the DVD for a while to recupe before plunging again into its fabulous excess!
Movie Review: Well worth a look
Summary: 4 Stars
Saw this when I was seventeen. Was a real eye opener. Just watched it again. Was excited by the fact that after a few minutes into it realised that this was a well directed film, with great photography and editing. Lotsa money was thrown at this production. Real locations...Columbia, Rome, New York. Lotsa good actors. Even the unknown lead does a good job. Some, for the time, over the top sex and violence. The soundtrack was a real find: Antonio Carlos Jobin and Deodato. Two first class Brazilian composer's at the top of their game. The story is basically exploitive trash...but it is presented in such a most professional and engaging way that you can't help but be sucked in. There is also an underlying soul to the tale that makes it rise above itself.Movie Review: harold robbins' "adventurers" is 70's cheesey look at jet set and politics
Summary: 4 Stars
this THREE HOUR MOVIE,REPEAT THREE HOUR MOVIE, is based on the harold robbins novel of the same name and is one of those all star cast soap movies that along with disater movies ruled the box office in the 70's. as for the review that questioned the rating,well in the 70's this was rated MA or the same as an R today, but really this trash movie isn't as bad as people make it out to be. for one the running time isn't that bad as the movie moves at a quick pace and is always engageing and fun. much like all of mr. robbins novels this is high class junk food and if taken as such this tale of vengeance,greed,sex,power,love,hate,and great 70's sex scenes is quite a good time. just don't expect "gone with the wind"! just sit back eat some popcorn and enjoy!