Review of The Ninth Configuration (1980) by Alex W — 26 Aug 2012
30 years before the disappointing Shutter Island took viewers to a remote mental asylum with a world-turned-upside-down storyline, William Peter Blatty gave us this supremely fucked-up account of a Marine Corp Colonel (played rather brilliantly by the passive Stacy Keach) that is assigned to take over an asylum housing insane soldiers.
Col. Kane is especially tuned to the story of a USMC Captain that went nuts right before NASA was supposed to send him to the moon. Throughout all this, Kane recounts how his brother was a sadistic mass-murderer in Vietnam and the backstory only comes to him (and us) in dreams.
If you've seen Shutter Island, then you know where this one is going. After halfway through this movie, I hypothesized that this movie was either too fucking brilliant to be understood or too simple to enjoy.
Towards the end, I knew it was the former one. VERY quotable, but not for everyone. My wife hated it. I loved it.
This review of The Ninth Configuration (1980) was written by Alex W on 26 Aug 2012.
The Ninth Configuration has generally received mixed reviews.
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