{"id":6369,"date":"2016-03-30T07:45:49","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T06:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=6369"},"modified":"2016-04-24T08:20:36","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T07:20:36","slug":"eureka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2016\/03\/30\/eureka\/","title":{"rendered":"Eureka"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Eureka\"<\/a>
Eureka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Dual Format (DVD + Blu-ray)

\nRelease date:<\/B> 28 M\u00e4rz 2016

\nDistributor:<\/B> Eureka Entertainment

\nDirector:<\/B> Nicolas Roeg

\nWriter:<\/B> Paul Mayersberg

\nBased on the book Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes?<\/i> by:<\/B> Marshall Houts

\nCast:<\/B> Gene Hackman, Theresa Russell, Rutger Hauer

\nUK, USA 1983

\n130 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Nicolas Roeg\u2019s overlooked saga about the spectacular rise and fall of a gold prospector is a rich and audacious masterwork.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

English literature sprang from two works of the 17th century, the plays of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible. One tradition is opulent, chaotic, luxurious and indulgent; the other is disciplined, austere, skinny and sharp. One is a meadow; the other\u2019s a lawn. And so it is with British cinema. We have the lawn cinema of David Lean, Merchant Ivory and The King\u2019s Speech<\/i>, and we have the wild flowers and nettle stings of Lindsay Anderson, Ken Russell and Ben Wheatley. The outstanding artist of the latter tradition is Nicolas Roeg, who from his collaboration on Performance<\/i><\/a> in 1970 went on to direct a string of bizarre, crotchety, uncomfortable and fiercely odd masterpieces. Following the acknowledged brilliance of Walkabout<\/i>, Don\u2019t Look Now<\/i><\/a> and The Man who Fell to Earth<\/i><\/a>, Bad Timing<\/i><\/a> saw Roeg entering the 80s with a fractured sexual relationship and a typically daring play on chronology. The obstinate insistence on originality was not well received in a decade that would prize muscles and franchises. <\/p>\n

His follow-up Eureka<\/i> in 1983 likewise sailed against the prevailing winds of capitalist triumphalism and nascent yuppiedom. Gene Hackman plays Jack McCann, a prospector in the frozen Yukon, battling against the elements and whose cussed stubbornness is finally rewarded with a gold strike. If things spill and smash in the dirty Venice of Don\u2019t Look Now<\/i>, here in Eureka<\/i> everything bursts. It might be the back of a suicidal man\u2019s head as the bullet smashes through it, or it could be the wall of a cave as it collapses and almost drowns Jack in a gold-laden torrent. The irreversible suddenness of the now is caught by the title \u2013 an instantaneous revelation of how the universe operates \u2013 and Roeg\u2019s interests are a deep consideration on the hidden cogs and wires that pull at life and fate and the violence that can at any moment flare up. <\/p>\n

With the gold found and riches won, Roeg and screenwriter Paul Mayersberg overleap Jack\u2019s success and land once more in failure decades later. Now Jack is the richest man in the world, living on a Caribbean island surrounded by natives he holds in racist contempt, a wife he largely ignores and a sycophantic and untrustworthy friend Charles (Ed Lauter), who is conspiring against him. His one consolation might be his daughter Tracy (Theresa Russell) with whom he shares a close friendship, but her elopement and marriage to playboy Claude (Rutger Hauer) suggest that Jack is being destroyed by the gold that has made him rich. Mickey Rourke and Joe Pesci are two mobbed up accountants seeking, with the sneaky aid of Charles, to open a casino on the island and slowly realizing that Jack is an immoveable object with too much \u2018fuck you\u2019 money to be bought. <\/p>\n

[SPOILER ALERT]<\/b>
\n\u2018Once I had it all. Now I just have everything,\u2019 Jack says. His self-mythologizing as the ultimate self-made man \u2013 \u2018I never lived off the sweat of another man\u2019s brow\u2019 \u2013 and his Croesus-like wealth don\u2019t however make him invulnerable and there is a weary acceptance to his fate as he, like Kurtz in Apocalypse Now<\/i> <\/a>(Roeg would later make a TV movie adaptation of Heart of Darkness<\/i>), welcomes his murderers into his lair either as a blessed relief or a longed-for challenge. But when it comes Jack\u2019s murder is no soft euthanasia but one of the most brutal and violent slaughters ever put on screen. With the rain pouring outside and a blow torch brought into play, it is almost as if Jack is an ancient God who needs not simply to be killed, but to be cleansed, defaced and utterly destroyed. His murder is preceded by a black magic orgy that Claude participates in. Sex bursts through Eureka<\/i> as a violent compulsion, an appetite to be assuaged, but also a link to life and death moments. Jack will be guided to the gold by a brothel-keeper\/soothsayer and Claude\u2019s orgy is an attempt to establish an alibi and also cleanse the would-be assassin. <\/p>\n

The remaining court scenes are an extended coda as the legal formalities of blame and aftermath insufficiently wrap up the violent eruption while the money men sit at the back. It is now Tracy who shows that her father\u2019s obstinate will has lived on in her, but now graced by her own continued zest for life and capacity to love.
\n[END OF SPOILER]<\/b><\/p>\n

Eureka<\/i> is a bold uncompromising work by a filmmaker at the height of his powers who seems intent on throwing it all away. Its influence can be seen throughout Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s masterpiece There Will Be Blood<\/i><\/a>. Today more than ever it seems a prescient critique of a philosophy that places so much value on a rare but practically unaccomplished metal.<\/p>\n

John Bleasdale<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nicolas Roeg\u2019s overlooked saga about the spectacular rise and fall of a gold prospector is a rich and audacious masterwork.
\nReview by John Bleasdale<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[133,121,1339,1338,885],"class_list":["post-6369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-check-it-out","category-dvds-and-blu-rays","tag-american-cinema","tag-british-cinema","tag-capitalism","tag-greed","tag-nicolas-roeg"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/surUP-eureka","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1596,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2011\/04\/01\/the-man-who-fell-to-earth\/","url_meta":{"origin":6369,"position":0},"title":"The Man Who Fell to Earth","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"April 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Bowie, rarely as effective again on screen, completely inhabits the role of the fallen angel, his otherworldly persona and physical frailty perfectly meshing with Newton's own. Review by Jason Wood","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/review_TheManWhoFellToEarth-594x383.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/review_TheManWhoFellToEarth-594x383.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/review_TheManWhoFellToEarth-594x383.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":73,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2007\/05\/03\/bad-timing\/","url_meta":{"origin":6369,"position":1},"title":"Bad Timing","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"May 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The truth is that Bad Timing, billed as 'a terrifying love story', is an uncomfortable experience filled with pain, obsession and bitterness. And, with its alienated characters, fractured timeframe and plenty of sex, quintessential Roeg cinema. Review by Ben Cobb","rel":"","context":"In "Home entertainment"","block_context":{"text":"Home entertainment","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/dvds-and-blu-rays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bad Timing","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Bad-Timing-594x331.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Bad-Timing-594x331.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Bad-Timing-594x331.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":377,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2008\/07\/01\/puffball\/","url_meta":{"origin":6369,"position":2},"title":"PUFFBALL","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"July 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Messy is probably the best word to describe Nicolas Roeg's Puffball, his first theatrically released feature in twelve years, and by far the most questionable and simplistic film in the director's canon so far. Review by Pamela Jahn","rel":"","context":"In "Cinema releases"","block_context":{"text":"Cinema releases","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/cinema-releases\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2522,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2012\/11\/30\/die-nibelungen\/","url_meta":{"origin":6369,"position":3},"title":"Die Nibelungen","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"November 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Fritz Lang's five-hour hallucinatory epic take on mythic tale Die Nibelungen is available now from Masters of Cinema (Eureka) in a spectacular new HD restoration DVD\/Blu-ray set. Comic Strip Review by Alex Fitch, Charles Cutting and Timur Hassan","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/siegfried_comic_900-594x924.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/siegfried_comic_900-594x924.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/siegfried_comic_900-594x924.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":231,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2007\/12\/02\/the-shout\/","url_meta":{"origin":6369,"position":4},"title":"THE SHOUT","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"December 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Although less well-known than some of his compatriots, Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski has built a unique, although little seen, collection of films both in his native Poland and elsewhere. Early in his career he served as a screen writer for both Andrzej Wajda and Roman Polanski (co-writing Knife in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Home entertainment"","block_context":{"text":"Home entertainment","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/dvds-and-blu-rays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2007\/03\/04\/performance\/","url_meta":{"origin":6369,"position":5},"title":"PERFORMANCE","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"March 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"There are so many myths and stories about the film's troubled production (and after-effects) that it is hard to know what to believe. Did James Fox (Chas) take his performance too far and become involved with real gangsters before becoming a born-again Christian? Review by Paul Huckerby","rel":"","context":"In "Home entertainment"","block_context":{"text":"Home entertainment","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/dvds-and-blu-rays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6369"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6378,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6369\/revisions\/6378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}