There are some fantasy, science fiction, and horror films that not every fan has caught. Not every film ever made has been seen by the audience that lives for such fare. Some of these deserve another look, because sometimes not every film should remain obscure.
Sometimes, though, we all lose sight of the important things when the big money gets put on the table…
The Formula (1980)
Distributed by: MGM
Directed by: John G. Avildsen
Nobody likes Big Oil.
The 1970s gave us many things, including Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, and Grease. Which didn’t really make up for also giving us the first crippling big oil stoppage.
The OPEC Oil Embargo of 1973 did more than just make it tougher to drive anywhere. As oil was a major contributor to inflation, the sudden economic shock to America’s self-image as a prosperous country would reverberate throughout the decade and beyond. The shock contributed to a mid-decade recession, making audiences dread going to the theater in fear of higher prices for a night out, along with other across-the-board price increases.
The new reality would not only give us stricter speed limits and smaller, more efficient (though less sexy) cars, it would also affect the public’s tastes in entertainment. Memories of ’73’s pain would make it easier for a film with a bleak view of big corporations in general to find an audience. As no company back then was bigger than big oil, it’s easy to think that any evil company found in the film probably had to have been in oil.
Though when we did get a film where the oil companies were explicitly the villains, the audience dried up…
We open as the credits roll over the scene in Berlin, 1945. The war is pretty much over, with elephants running through the streets thanks to Soviet artillery flattening the zoo.
Heading into a meeting as what’s left of the Nazis panic is General Helmut Kladen (Richard Lynch), for an important impromptu briefing with three Reich ministers. He’s been given one last order from Himmler himself: Accompany a truck full of Nazi scientific military secrets to Switzerland, from where the Third Reich hopes to bargain with the Americans to get them to go after the Soviets.
We then see how that went: Kladen and his truck are stuck in the snow (despite it being April of 1945, but hey…) where he’s been intercepted by an American tank. They bring in an American intelligence officer, Major Tom Neeley (Robin Clarke), who butters up his prisoner, while suggesting through his demeanor that Kladen may have gotten his documents into the hands of the Americans, but not the ones he’d thought he was going to work with…
We then slow fade into current times, where LAPD Lt. Barney Caine (George C. Scott) has his visitation with his son interrupted by Sgt. Yosuta (Calvin Jung). We hear that former police chief Thomas Neeley has been murdered, and LADP wants Caine on the case.
The two policemen start their investigation at Neely’s, where they find clues to suggest that he was rubbed out by the mob. The only clues at the scene that Caine thinks are important are receipts from a recent trip to Germany, a map of Germany with “Obermann” written on it, and his writing “gene” in his blood on a newspaper. The rest of the clues at the scene don’t add up, though, especially when Caine talks to Neely’s ex-wife Kay (Beatrice Straight) right after the murder, who’s evasive when he asks her some questions.
Caine’s investigation plods along, putting him in touch with Arthur Clements (G. D. Spradlin), whom Neeley was supposed to see the day he was killed. Through Clements, we get another name connected to the case: Adam Steiffel (Marlon Brando), the head of Titan Oil. In their first meeting, we find out that Neeley was a “bagman” for Titan, delivering bribes cash payments overseas as part of the company’s business dealings.
We also find out that before he was a cop, Caine had been working in intelligence, most likely CIA, which is good to know as the film decides to send him overseas. It’s also a good thing that he’s not trying to drive to crime scenes back in LA, as Steiffel is in the process of overseeing a hike in gas prices:
Caine’s going to Germany after getting Neeley’s service records, indicating that he was the major we saw in the film’s opening, and that among the intel he captured was something code-named “Genesis.” While there, he liaisons with West Berlin police detective Hans Leehman (John Van Dreelen), who helps Caine track down Obermann. He’s an engineer with the power company, who’s willing to talk to Caine at a rendezvous at the Berlin Zoo.
When Obermann (David Byrd) shows up, he explains what Genesis was: The Nazi’s had perfected a formula for turning coal into gasoline, and were willing to use that to bargain with the Americans, had not Neely and his oily accomplices gotten to Kladen first. There’s not mmuch more he can say, though, as Obermann is assassinated just as the meeting ends.
The trail is not cold, though, as Leehman and Oberman’s niece Lisa (Marthe Keller) are able to direct Caine to important people tied to Genesis. They’re all willing to speak about the work, with only one of them not being assassinated a few seconds after their interview. That lone survivor, Dr. Abraham Esau (John Guelgud), who despite having the name is not the historic Dr. Esau, is willing to make it all much clearer to Caine, as he gives him an important decision to make…
If you think that that decision involves what to do with the formula, you might not want to try and think too hard on this point. Is the work of Genesis really worth killing everyone over? It seems especially unlikely considering that the Nazis actually did have a synthetic fuel program, yet they still needed to seize the oil fields in the Middle East and the Caucasus to insure victory. The fact that when they tried to do that, the Germans lost the war at El-Alamein and Stalingrad, kind of undercuts the raison for having a synthetic petroleum formula.
Considering how muddy the film has gotten by this point, most of the audience had only one choice, to tune this one out. The twists and turns in the plot seem random, overwrought with contradictions that the film’s pacing won’t allow you to ignore. It’s a horrible mess made all the worse by all the tinkering in the lab.
The screenplay by Steve Shagan was based off his novel from the year before, most likely written with intent to make it a film. As producer as well as screenwriter, Shagan would have likely had approval of the final cut of the film, and the fact that Avilden wanted his name removed so badly that he sought sympathy in the letters pages of the Los Angeles Times suggests that his version was rejected for release.
To no one’s satisfaction, MGM screen tested both cuts of the film, and according to Variety decided to mash them up into one. If you had to guess, the spot where they spliced the one film onto the other was probably during the scene with the Nazi strippers (don’t ask; seriously, don’t…). But without either cut intact to compare this final version with, it’s hard to say who’s more to blame, the screenwriter or the director, for how this turned out.
Both camps have the luxury of being able to place a lot of the blame for their work on their two principals. Both Scott and Brando took the roles for only one reason: They were both desperate for money. Brando’s salary came in at $3 million dollars (around $13.5 million in today’s currency) for three scenes, for which he insisted on brining quirks to his character that caused consternation on the set. One of those quirks, having a hearing aid, was a practical effect, as it was actually a receiver used by Brando’s assistant to feed him his lines, thus allowing the actor to avoid the script altogether until the day of shooting.
(That said, his character is one of the few things from an older film that actually aged very well from that time into today. Brando claimed that his Steiffel was an attempt to channel Armand Hammer, but modern audiences will more likely see a nearly dead-on characterization of Dick Cheney…)
The film’s $13.2 million budget (around $55 million in today’s currency) was not recouped during its theatrical run, which for MGM coming just before starting its death spiral when it became MGM/UA was extremely bad timing. Brando would not take on another film for a decade after this, and Shagen would leave producing entirely to write full-time.
The rest of them did alright by themselves. Avildsen would direct The Karate Kid in four years, and Scott would transition into more television work, showing up there every now and then.
Speaking of showing up again, we got to see the return of crippling oil stoppages in 2021…
You must be logged in to post a comment Login