Up until now, the only Ken Russell film I'd
ever seen was TOMMY. That flick's weird as hell, and I've seen the dude in a
couple interviews and read enough about his other movies to know that that is
not an anomaly. So, going into 1971's THE DEVILS, I knew I was in for a crazy
time.
The original cut of THE DEVILS has apparently
never been released on home video. The version I rented was clearly a bootleg
with missing scenes spliced in. The reason for the censorship is the
combination of religious iconography with sexually explicit scenes. Warner
Bros. does not seem to be excited about ever releasing a definitive version of
this flick, and Ken Russell doesn't seem to be interested in releasing a cut
down version. So, it's rare.
THE DEVILS is an interesting companion piece
to last year's Horrorfest flick, MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS, because they're
both inspired by the same historical events. MOTHER JOAN is a much more subtle,
artistic picture, however – Russell's is over the top and crazy, as Russell
tends to be.
THE DEVILS stars Oliver Reed as a priest in
charge of a fortified town in 17th Century France. Cardinal
Richelieu (Christopher Logue) is grabbing for power and has taken over pretty
much every fortified town in France with the exception of Reed's town, which
Louis XIII (Graham Armitage) forbids him from destroying. In an attempt to
discredit the town and its leader, a plot is cooked up to frame Reed for
witchcraft and devil worship, particularly for bewitching the entire convent in
town.
Reed's set up for this because of his own sins
– even though he's a priest, he's quite the ladies' man, and even gets secretly
married. All of this is compounded by the fact that the abbess of the local
convent (Vanessa Redgrave) is sexually obsessed with him to the point of
insanity. She views his dalliances as betrayals of not just the church, but
also herself. So, she's quite happy to aide in his destruction.
Even though the movie is definitely crazy, it
gets off to a somewhat dignified start. It never looks cheap and has great
performances throughout, including a witch hunter (Michael Gothard) sent to
gather evidence against Reed.
Still, some of the scenes of excess just go on
too long. Like, we get it, the nuns like to strip and freak out and desecrate
holy things, etc. A little of that goes a really long way.
The best part about the movie is Reed's
committed performance – he doesn't chew the scenery the way he obviously could
if he wanted (see TOMMY, also a great performance) but he does make the most of
it, even undergoing a physical transformation towards the end of the film when
he's captured and tortured.
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