
Demme apparently made a real effort to make LAST EMBRACE with several specific homages to Hitchcock in mind. From several set pieces that will be familiar to Hitch fans on down to the kind of score that Demme requested of composer Miklos Rosza, the affection for the master of suspense seems to be firmly there on display. I love it. In addition to Hitchcock, Demme also seems to be channeling a bit of the frenetic moving camera and editing flourishes of Scorsese during this period as well.
LAST EMBRACE also slots in nicely with other paranoid thrillers of the era such as THE PARALLAX VIEW, KLUTE, THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, THE MARATHON MAN and ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN. That's another reason it bums me out that it's gotten lost in the shuffle. The seventies was such a fertile time for this kind of movie and all of them deserved to be remembered. LAST EMBRACE is unique though in that I combines the Hitchcockian elements and a more classic film-based approach with that sense of dread and paranoia that was unique to those thrillers and that period. It's a very winning combination for sure and the film is eminently watchable. It's one of those movies you may find yourself putting on late at night only to find to end up getting totally caught up in and staying up past the witching hour to finish.
One of the highlights of the movie is the depth of the remarkable cast. The faces of actors like Christopher Walken, Joe Spinnell, Mandy Patankin, Max Wright, Charles Napier and David Margulies pepper the film and really make it pop.
Speaking of popping, the transfer here looks excellent and I am always pleased to see a film like this looking as good as nice as this.
Special Features:
-included on this disc is a neat new 11-minute interview with the film's producer Michael Taylor. This is an amazingly welcome supplement for me especially considering how little I've heard about this film over the years. It was very cool to hear the producer talk about many specific things that Demme did as more or less direct homages to Hitchcock. It's clearly a film that befuddles Taylor a bit in terms of why it didn't end up connecting with an audience at the time it came out. I am personally shocked by that as well. Just shows that even really good films can fall through the cracks and disappear if circumstances don't allow for them to find their way. In some alternate dimension, LAST EMBRACE is a much beloved 70s classic as it deserves to be.
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