The flesh and the fiends

Rating: Null/10 (27 November 2014)

In all my entire movie buff life, I have NEVER seen such a cynical, ruthless, disgusting, immoral character. Even Zachary Scott at his peak. Even gangsters lead characters such as likes of Tony Montana in Scarface were far more sympathetic. I mean lead characters, heroes, not evil supporting ones...Yes, yes folks, I couldn't even imagine such characters could exist on a screen. In actual life, sure, even worst, but on screen, especially from Hollywood studios, certainly NO !!! In this picture, Jack Gyllenhall's character reminds me a little Kirk Douglas's one in Billy Wilder's ACE IN THE HOLE aka THE BIG CARNIVAL, where he played an ambitious reporter who stopped at nothing to get the best scoop possible, at any cost. And the most interesting in both movies is that at the start, those heroes seem very sympathetic, but as the films go on, the things, the events change rapidly when the audience find out that those reporters are chasing bloody scoops, pushing themselves to finally provoke them, such as in THE BODY SNATCHER, remade two decades later by THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS did, concerning no more reporters but undertakers of a special kind...It also reminded Sidney Lumet's NETWORK. I was also pleased to watch here Rene Russo. I hardly recognize her, the female co star of Mel Gibson in LETHAL WEAPON 3 and 4. Run for this movie. A real must see !!!