The Ninth Configuration
USA 1979
Reviewed by Mark Kermode
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
In a gothic castle in the Pacific northwest of America called Center 18, the US military attempt to establish whether a group of apparently deranged servicemen and one astronaut, Billy Cutshaw, are faking their insanity. When psychiatrist Hudson Kane arrives to take charge, he is subtly persuaded by Cutshaw and fellow inmate Lt. Reno (who is adapting the works of Shakespeare for dogs) to indulge the men's delusions and engage in extravagant play therapy.
As Center 18 descends into insanity, Cutshaw challenges Kane to prove the existence of God by showing him one single act of genuine self-sacrifice. Kane reveals to medic Dr Fell that he is haunted by murderous dreams belonging to his brother, the infamous marine 'Killer' Kane. One day, new inmate Gilman arrives and recognises Kane as 'Killer' Kane, causing Fell to reveal to his fellow officers that he is in fact Hudson Kane, brother to Vincent, who has actually been a patient during his stay. Outside, Kane tracks a fleeing Cutshaw to a nearby roadhouse where he rescues him from a gang of bikers during a murderous fight. Back at the Center, the wounded Kane allows himself to die, thereby giving Cutshaw his "one example" of self-sacrifice. Some time later, a cured Cutshaw revisits the abandoned castle, and finds a St Christopher medal he gave to Kane which he interprets as a sign of life after death.
Review
The second part of a 'trilogy of faith' which began with The Exorcist, both novel and film, and concluded with Legion (a novel, which formed the basis of The Exorcist III), this extraordinary theological thriller finds God's own comic, novelist-turned-director William Peter Blatty, in his element, combining scabrous satire with sanguine spirituality in one of the most genuinely bizarre offerings of modern US cinema. Gesturing towards Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) in terms of narrative, but closer in its cracked tone to Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor (1963) or David Lynch's Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me, The Ninth Configuration presents a breathtaking cocktail of philosophy, eye-popping visuals, jaw-dropping pretentiousness, rib-tickling humour and heart-stopping action. From exotically hallucinogenic visions of a lunar crucifixion to the claustrophobic realism of a bar-room brawl, via such twisted vignettes as Robert Loggia karaoking to Al Jolson and Moses Gunn in Superman drag (don't ask), Blatty directs like a man with no understanding of, or interest in, the supposed limits of mainstream movie-making. The result is a work of matchless madness which divides audiences as spectacularly as the waves of the Red Sea, a cult classic that continues to provoke either apostolic devotion or baffled dismissal 20 years on.
For those caught within its spell, much of the power of The Ninth Configuration derives from its Golden Globe-winning script, a reworking of Blatty's 1966 novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane, which expands an insightfully quirky comic conceit into an emotional melodrama packed with oddly erudite one liners. ("You remind me of Vincent Van Gogh - either that or a lark in a wheatfield," says Fell.) Armed to the teeth with such insane and quotable dialogue, the cast are allowed to spiral off into their own individual lunacies, with Stacy Keach playing catatonically straight to Scott Wilson's Marx Brothers madcap and Ed Flanders' lip-twitching deadpan, while George DiCenzo and Robert Loggia chew up the scenery and Jason Miller and Joe Spinell do Abbott and Costello on acid. Gently corralling the marauding herd, cinematographer Gerry Fisher sneaks and snoops around the castle's corridors to the faltering steps of Barry DeVorzon's eerie score, creating an air of intimacy that casts the audience as both inmate and observer. Miraculously, from this chaos comes order, as Blatty (cameoing as Fromme) urges us to "follow the yellow brick road" and be swept away by this whirlwind of parody, passion and prayer.
Famously cited by Leonard Maltin as a classic only in its director-approved 118-minute cut, The Ninth Configuration has actually emerged over the years in numerous formats, most of which were constructed by Blatty himself. Refined from an unwieldy first assembly of over three hours, the film was originally issued in the US in two distinct versions: a longer cut first released by Warners in early 1980, and an abridged version retitled Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane which United film Distribution put out subsequently and which was nominated as Best Picture at the Golden Globes. In the UK Lorimar's 109-minute international version was theatrically released by ITC with an 'X' Certificate, with Guild video subsequently issuing an alleged 108-minute cut for home video. Although this may in fact be the same cut, small differences between the Guild video and British television versions suggest that distinct 108- and 109-minute cuts could indeed have circulated. Variety simply added to the confusion by citing 105 minutes as correct.
Unsatisfied with all the extant versions, Blatty finally decided to definitively recut The Ninth Configuration for a New World rerelease in 1985, creating the 117-minute, 37-second cut which now stands as his approved assembly. This final cut includes much comic dialogue variously absent from other versions (Cutshaw and Reno discussing Spellbound, Reno and Spinell arguing about casting Hamlet, Groper complaining to Kane about Cutshaw's mischievously randy missives), and notably adds a haunting pre-credits overture in which Barry DeVorzon's lament 'San Antone' plays out in its entirety over a montage of images of the castle. Most radically, however, this version also crucially transmutes a final act of suicide, whose potentially sinful overtones long troubled the writer-director, into one of unambiguous self-sacrifice. By removing a single shot of a knife falling from Kane's grasp which existed in all other versions, and having Stacy Keach revoice Kane's parting words to Cutshaw, Blatty finally achieves a conclusion which reconciles his dramatic and religious concerns.
Credits
- Producer
- William Peter Blatty
- Screenplay
- William Peter Blatty
- Based on his novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane
- Director of Photography
- Gerry Fisher
- Supervising Film Editor
- Peter Taylor
- Production Designer
- William Malley
- Music
- Barry DeVorzon
- ©The Ninth Configuration Company
- Executive Producer
- William Paul
- Associate Producer
- Tom Shaw
- Production Co-ordinator
- Anne M. Shaw
- Production Consultant
- Frank McKevitt
- Assistant Director
- Tom Shaw
- Script Supervisor
- John Franco
- Casting Consultant
- Jack Baur
- Special Effects
- Willard Flanagin
- Editors
- T. Battle Davis
- Roberto Silvi
- Peter Lee-Thompson
- Art Director
- J. Dennis Washington
- Set Decorator
- Sydney Ann Kee
- Costumes
- Tom Bronson
- Optical Effects
- Pacific Title & Art Studio
- Music Editor
- John Caper jr
- Soundtrack
- "San Antone" by Barry DeVorzon, performed by Denny Brooks; "There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" by Al Jolson, Billy Rose, Dave Dreyer, performed by Al Jolson; "Ah Sweet Mystery of Life" (trad), performed by Walter Scanian; "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)" by A.J. Neibury, D. Dougherty, E. Reynolds; "You Are My Sunshine" by Jimmie Davis, Charles Mitchell; "When You Were Sweet Sixteen" by James Thornton, arranged /adapted by Barry DeVorzon; "Till We Meet Again" by Raymond B. Egan, Richard A. Whiting; "Dancing in the Night"
- Production Sound
- Colin Charles
- Re-recording Mixers
- Robert L. Harman
- James Cook
- Bud Grenzbach
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Gordon Ecker Jr
- Sound Editors
- Marvin Walowitz
- Andrew London
- David Pettijohn
- Dialogue Editor
- Stan Gilbert
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Bobby Bass
- Cast
- Stacy Keach
- Colonel Vincent Kane, 'Colonel Hudson Kane'
- Scott Wilson
- Captain Billy Cutshaw
- Jason Miller
- Lieutenant Frankie Reno
- Ed Flanders
- Colonel Hudson Kane, 'Colonel Richard Fell, M.O.'
- Neville Brand
- Major Marvin Groper
- George DiCenzo
- Captain Fairbanks
- Moses Gunn
- Major Nammack
- Robert Loggia
- Lieutenant Bennish
- Joe Spinell
- Lieutenant Spinell
- Alejandro Rey
- Lieutenant Gomez
- Tom Atkins
- Sergeant Krebs
- Steve Sandor
- Stanley, 1st cyclist
- Richard Lynch
- Richard, 2nd cyclist
- Mark Gordon
- Sergeant Gilman
- Bill Lucking
- highway patrolman
- Stephen Powers
- Sergeant Christian
- David Healy
- William Paul
- generals
- Tom Shaw
- priest
- Gordon K. Kee
- 1st inmate
- Bruce Boa
- sergeant in combat shack
- Linda Blatty
- waitress
- Marilyn Raymon
- girl cyclist
- Hobby Gilman
- marine corporal
- Bobby Bass
- driver
- Billy Blatty
- young Kane
- [uncredited]
- William Peter Blatty
- Fromme
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Blue Dolphin Film & Video
- 10,585 feet
- 117 minutes 37 seconds
- Colour by
- Metrocolor
- A differently edited version of this film was reviewed in MFBNo.566, March 1981