Product: The American Friend [VHS] (1977)
Rating: 5.0
Gripping, non-stop tension
The tension is so palpable here that it's a character in and of itself.Tom Ripley, as played by Dennis Hopper, feels truer to his EASY RIDER role than the character in the novel upon which the movie is based, as some critics have said. I say "feels truer" because I haven't seen the first or read the second, but I believe those critics.But that doesn't matter. Not at all. This movie is about Jonathan Zimmerman, as played by Bruno Ganz. Every time he's on the screen, which is most of the time, you're just gripped in both your mind and your gut and you can't turn away, reach down for a drink of water, hit pause and go to the bathroom, or anything.I'm one of those weird animals who's just as comfortable with Hollywood crap as I am with literary classics. My wife's non-American and anti-Hollywood. We were both equally blown away by this film.And by the way, the plot isn't predictable. Don't even think that. But it does organically unfold from the characters, so it's true. Gotta love it.