The Big Brass Ring
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Actor: Ewan Stewart, Irčne Jacob, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Hawthorne, William HurtDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-01-11
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of The Big Brass Ring
DVD Review: I Failed To Grasp It
Summary: 2 Stars
This film's trailer informs us that 'Big Brass Ring' was written by Orson Welles three years before his death and it was his final unproduced screenplay. Seeing as how he never got to write/direct and act in it, perhaps it should have sat on the shelf. At it's core it's a twisty and complex political thriller about a man desperately trying to hide his past from a reporter who, aided by the man's former mentor, threatens to bust it wide open. But director George Hickenlooper and co-writer F.X. Feeney bury the story in too many complicated plot twists and odd touches like child pornography, drag queen spies headquartered on a riverboat, a pet monkey with terrible gas and other distracting elements that take away from an otherwise strong story. As a result the whole film seems unfocused and hard to keep up with let alone care about. This is especially true in terms of the acting. It's disappointing to see reliable actors like William Hurt, Miranda Richardson and Nigel Hawthorne going about their roles without a sense of passion or focus. This film is such a disaster that Welles and companion Oja Kodar's names should have been spared from it.
Missouri senator Blake Pellarin (Hurt) is running for Governor as an Independent candidate. With one week left before people go to the polls everyone is desperate to get a hold of him. This includes Democrats and Republicans who want him to join their side and the media who want to know if Governor is the first step on the way to a long term political career. Former political reporter turned entertainment reporter Cela Brandini (Irene Jacob) is especially eager to track Pellarin down. She has been interviewing his former mentor Kim Mennaker (Hawthorne in the role Welles intended for himself), a failed politician himself. Mennaker has emerged from a self imposed exile to reveal truths about Blake's childhood and how he may or may not have played a part in the disappearance of his younger brother. Blake's rich wife (Richardson) wants to silence Mennaker before he can do any more damage to her man but she soon finds out that her vast reserves of money are useless in shutting Mennaker up. He wants the public to know the truth about their candidate. When Pellarin and Mennaker finally meet face to face neither reacts the way you'd expect.
As the film progresses things get more and more complicated as the flashbacks pile up showing Blake, his brother and Mennaker over the course of the boys' adolescence. Serious stuff, like the child porn and switched identities, are shown but I could never distinguish one brother from the other due to the actors close resemblance to one another. Trying to watch the film a second time to solve all the unanswered questions, I finally gave up. Hickenlooper is a great documentary filmmaker who's directed films like 'Hearts Of Darkness', 'Mayor Of The Sunset Strip' and the docudrama 'Factory Girl', but at least you could follow those films since he focused on the characters and their inner thoughts rather than pile on the plot twists. It's a shame that previews touted this as some kind of event, Welles' last unproduced screenplay finally making it to the screen, since the end result is so unsatisfying. There's the possibility of a good film in here somewhere but I guess that part actually stayed on the shelf.
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Description of The Big Brass Ring
Orson Welles wrote The Big Brass Ring in the early 1980s--his last attempt to create a commercial Hollywood film--but the dynamic, rich screenplay was never produced. Nearly two decades later, independent filmmaker and documentarian George Hickenlooper (Hearts of Darkness) purchased and rewrote Welles' script, updating the tale of an independent presidential candidate in the cynical post-Watergate years to a more modest gubernatorial race in the media-saturated 1990s. The generally reserved William Hurt is excellent as the firebrand candidate whose secret, repressed past is dredged up when estranged father figure and political rebel Nigel Hawthorne (in a wry, flamboyant performance) reappears on the eve of the election. While the world's attention is focused on a political contest between two independents, Hurt searches his soul to come to peace with the compromises and sacrifices of his youth.Where Welles' script is suffused with the melancholy sense of loss of an old man looking back on past mistakes, the film is brightened with the hope and possibilities of a younger man looking ahead to unlimited possibility. Hurt gives his best performance in decades as a man whose confidence is cracked by guilt. Less convincing is French beauty Irčne Jacob as an international reporter while Miranda Richardson, though excellent, gets lost as the story sidesteps her sad alcoholic character. We'll never know what Welles could have done with his story, but Hickenlooper delivers a handsome, compelling drama. --Sean Axmaker
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