Winter Kills (1979) is the absurdist extension of the conspiracy thriller in vogue during the 1970s. Imagine The Parallax View, a riff on imagined counter narratives to the official record of the JFK assassination, but exaggerated with a strange comedy, not quite spoof or parody. Each scene in Winter Kills is eventually marked by a performance, a gag, a dialogue exchange or a visual that leaves the viewer off-balance: “What is going on here?” Comparisons to Thomas Pynchon provide a way of understanding the movie, alongside the wacky character names like Gameboy Baker or Irving Mentor. And yet, it’s an adaptation from a novel by Richard Condon (The Manchurian Candidate, Prizzi’s Honour) and directed by William Richert; a scan of behind-the-scenes trivia indicates a stop-start production marked by issues revolving around having drug dealers as movie producers.
A young, foxy Jeff Bridges plays Nick Kegan, stationed on a boat and longing for his lover Yvette Malone (Belinda Bauer) by calling her answering machine and listening to her voice. Ferried in by helicopter is a man badged from head to toe, and Bridges’ character is informed, this is one of the shooters responsible for his brother’s death. His brother? Well, he was the President of the United States. As evidence builds that the ‘one gunman’ theory was wrong, Bridges involves his Joseph Kennedy esque industrialist father Pa Kegan played by John Huston, in a wickedly garrulous performance, a quick-talking, horny, foul-mouthed and well-connected force. As Bridges runs in circles, with every new clue and contact in the mystery leading to another dead body, the film hits you with an extensive cast of actors, some of which who only show up for a scene or two like Toshiro Mifune and Elizabeth Taylor. Making the strongest impressions include Eli Wallach as this movie’s equivalent of Jack Ruby, Sterling Hayden as another militaristic nut job ala Dr Strangelove, and Anthony Perkins as the architect behind the scenes, head of a global intelligence gathering arm.
As the mystery spins in circles, diverting to flashbacks, I liked the way the privileged life of Jeff Bridges’ character is coloured in for the viewer, a live-in butler to fetch him a drink, and his quest for justice for his brother gets distracted by his love for Belinda Bauer. Even with the movie not taking this mission seriously, it still builds a sense of people shifted around on a board, sacrificed to a greater power, a corrupt global system.
Available to stream on SBS On Demand. Kind of a goofy trip. Shot by Vilmos Zsigmond and scored by Maurice Jarre. Recommended.
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