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There is simply so much going on in this movie that I do not comprehend. I noticed that a few minutes into the movie, I was agitated because the film did not make sense and was failing to grasp my attention.
I am not saying that all films need to be perfectly logical. There are for sure films that do not make sense and are fun to watch at the same time, but a thriller is supposed to keep you at the edge of your seat, right?
As of September 2023, “The Osterman Weekend” does none of that. My first question was, what is happening? I have no one to blame, but myself thanks to the unique editing style used on the film. At this point, I am now collecting my thoughts. Sam Peckinpah was the one who directed the film and this iconic old man has directed some great pieces like “The Wild Bunch,” “The Ballad of Cable Hogue. It is almost like the direction of the film was left to him during the last minute. Well, it has been over 5 years since he directed a movie, so the rest of us do not blame him. But I do not think there is much left to defend. The claim that this is not a Peckinpah film could be dismissed on the basis that he directed it. The interviews deepen, however. In his defense, he stated that 20th Century-Fox edited his film after he was done with 20th Century-Fox. He is not proud of that cut. Still, his statement that it was a ‘damn good film’ is highly contradictory.
Let’s enumerate the things that can be told about the film. He portrays a talk-show host which he later assumes that is set for murder by his acquaintances. While doing so, he is approached by a CIA agent (John Hurt) who claims to be working for Burt Lancaster, head of the CIA. He, however, is also repeating the cycle of betrayal by ordering the assassination of Hurst’s wife. The primary issue that we see in this scenario is whether or not the friends are KGB agents and that is very elusive. Everyone appears to convene for one of those annual weekend get-togethers. This is where Hurt keeps an eye to everything that goes on through the set of games that the rest partake in using a closed-circuit TV. The ambiguity of the players opposition motives creates a lack of clarity about everyone’s goals and very few boundaries seem to exist between the parties involved.
What went wrong here? Perhaps the overly convoluted plotline of the book. Perhaps a writer who didn’t take their job seriously. Or perhaps a director who didn’t address the screenplay issues before the shooting. It is plausible that a studio or editors just took for granted the screenplay and the dailies got sent to them without a check because they got late to the game. The touching-up possibly emerged from when the editors resigned in exasperation. “The Osterman Weekend” is very similar to the hypothetical movie which at some point, was placed in a microwave then reattached chaotically.
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