Echos

Rating: Null/10 (11 June 2003)

Spoilers herein.
Scott understood that this was not a film about a simple character, which is why he was attracted to it and others turned it down, unsophisticated actors like John Wayne and Robert Mitchum.
He knew that this was an opportunity for an actor to play a man who was playing a role - a role that was foreordained because he had played this role in past lives.
He knew that it was not about the man, but most viewers will not. The DVD has a commentary, in fact, by the president of some Patton appreciation society who fawningly prattles on in a parody of patriotism.
Scott knew that is was not even about himself as an actor, which is why he refused his Oscar. It was about stepping into the cloak of echos, of animistic determinism, of Persian notions of self. It was about visiting borrowed beings and using them to destroy borrowers of lesser beings. It was about acting as life and life as a command performance. That?s why we first see him performing on a stage.
Jerry Goldsmith, who did the score, was also tuned in to this. Check out his Patton theme. Echos. All of Schaffner's films have this subtext.
Ted?s Evaluation -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements.