Review of The Devils (1971) by Stephen M — 20 Sep 2007
I don't know why I like this film so much; Ken Russell movies usually give me a headache so this, his most over-the-top feature, ought to send me running to the medicine cabinet before the credits are over! The relaxation of censorship laws at the end of the '60s/beginning of the '70s heralded a bunch of movies which pushed the boundaries of explicit content.
To give three examples: "Straw Dogs", "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Devils", all made in Britain for Warner Bros. Interestingly, while those other two films have lost most of their shock-value over the years, "The Devils" - even though it was hacked to pieces by the British and American censors - has lost none of its power.
This could be Oliver Reed's finest hour; everybody else in the movie is camp or hysterical (or both) and he glides through it with immense dignity as a priest wrongly tried for heresy.
This review of The Devils (1971) was written by Stephen M on 20 Sep 2007.
The Devils has generally received positive reviews.
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