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152 Who?
Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2019 10:12 am
by MichaelB
WHO?
(Jack Gold, 1974)
Release date: 27 May 2019
Limited Blu-ray Edition (UK Blu-ray premiere)
Adapted from the novel by famed science fiction writer Algis Budrys, Who? is a fascinating cold-war thriller/sci-fi hybrid. Elliott Gould (Little Murders, California Split) is an FBI agent trying to determine the true identity of a top US physicist who was horrifically injured in a car accident in East Berlin. The scientist is returned to the West encased in a metal mask and body-suit, reconstructed via cybernetic surgery. Is the man behind the metal mask who he claims to be, or is he a Soviet dupe trained to infiltrate US security?
Who?, from director Jack Gold (The Reckoning, The National Health), is one of the most unusual and affecting science fiction thrillers of the 1970s – not least because of the extraordinary performance by Joseph Bova as the masked enigma at the heart of the story.
INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:
• High Definition remaster
• Original mono audio
• Kim Newman on Algis Budrys (2019): the writer and critic on the acclaimed science-fiction author
• Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by writer and critic Phelim O’Neill, an archival interview with director Jack Gold, a look at Algis Budrys’ source novel, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
• UK premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited Edition of 3,000 copies
• More extras to be announced...!
#PHILTD152
BBFC cert: TBC
REGION FREE
EAN: 5037899084007
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 9:19 am
by MichaelB
Full and final specs:
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 6:39 pm
by What A Disgrace
Ugh, I wasn't going to get this, and now I am. What a spectacular slate of extras.
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 7:11 pm
by KJones77
Great extras. Can anyone recommend this? I'm intrigued, but its reception seems to be generally mixed? I'm wondering if it's worth a blind buy.
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 7:27 pm
by swo17
I went into this hoping for perhaps some biting satire or a playful Elliott Gould performance and came away disappointed but YMMV
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 4:32 pm
by MichaelB
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Tue May 07, 2019 7:37 am
by MichaelB
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Mon May 27, 2019 6:10 pm
by MichaelB
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2026 7:53 pm
by therewillbeblus
This was pretty awful, which is frustrating given the talent involved. I'm not familiar with the source material, so unsure if its faithfulness just makes for a dull narrative, but the first half is simply people talking about whether or not someone is who they say they are. That's it - no intriguing context or anything. Then there's a little bit of brief spy action, which isn't exciting but at least it's something outside the walls of 'sci-fi theatre', though even that is undercut by Gould's point that it was faked. Any holds for character investment proposed are limp and shelved to the last act. Gould is phoning it in, in a way I've never seen from him before - either that, or he has no idea how to act in a movie like this, for which I can't blame him. The film should be retitled What?
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2026 8:57 pm
by Lowry_Sam
therewillbeblus wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2026 7:53 pm
The film should be retitled
What?
That would make a
What?/
What? double feature very confusing.
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2026 8:58 pm
by Drucker
Frustratingly, I watched this in 2022 and remember enjoying it. I apparently didn't post any thoughts here nor any thoughts on my abandoned letterboxed!
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2026 9:50 pm
by beamish14
Lowry_Sam wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2026 8:57 pm
therewillbeblus wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2026 7:53 pm
The film should be retitled
What?
That would make a
What?/
What? double feature very confusing.
Throw in (the actually pretty entertaining)
Why Me? (1990)
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2026 9:59 pm
by MichaelB
Back in my rep cinema days, we used to play a reasonably regular double bill of Él and M…
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2026 10:40 pm
by zedz
Lowry_Sam wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2026 8:57 pm
therewillbeblus wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2026 7:53 pm
The film should be retitled
What?
That would make a
What?/
What? double feature very confusing.
But I do like the theme song:
What What
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2026 12:40 am
by Lowry_Sam
Not finding a singular
When? or
Where?, but you can grace your rep house marquee with:
Who? What? Why?
from IMDB:
Why? [Detenuto in attesa di giudizio (original title)]
Giuseppe Di Noi, an Italian land surveyor who has lived in Sweden for the past seven years, goes to his native country with his Swedish wife and children for his holidays. At the border he is however jailed for no apparent reason. He thus begins a nightmarish kafkian experience while he's moved from one prison to another, subject to any humiliation and violence.
But it has a 7.5 on IMDB, so it might not be a good match, probably a good title for Radiance to consider.
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2026 1:41 am
by zedz
That sounds good, but not as good as my initial misreading of the plot as "He thus begins a nightmarish kaftan experience. . ."
Re: 152 Who?
Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2026 6:37 am
by pianocrash
MichaelB wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2026 9:59 pm
Back in my rep cinema days, we used to play a reasonably regular double bill of
Él and
M…
Next week's lineup:
Nope (2002) &
Q (1982)
