This is one of those numerous films that claims to be 'based on a true story', an invitation of course, to sink comfortably into one's couch ready to enjoy a complete work of fiction. The central character and author of the screenplay of this film is himself a well-known producer of fiction - Whitley Strieber a best selling horror novelist and essayist who lives in New York. The American version of the film begins with the caption: 'based on the true experiences of one American family'. No such caption appears on the international version of the film. Perhaps the director thought international audiences might be somewhat more sceptical about the truth claims of what he was showing? Be that as it may, controversies continue to rage about the truth or otherwise of the experiences Strieber describes in his best selling work Communion which are rendered in attenuated form in this film.

At the beginning of the film, Strieber (Walken) sits down to work on his latest effort, a novel called Wolfen, but the computer crashes. Later, when his wife Anne (Lindsay Crouse) returns home in the evening with their young son, in typical writer's angst mode Whitley tells her that perhaps the computer switched off because he felt the book he was working on was no good. His wife, not being a writer, fails to understand that this is standard writer's rhetoric and as such should be ignored. Instead, in exasperation, she asks why he does this to himself.

Later, the Strieber family and friends head off to the Striebers' country house. During the night all hell breaks loose complete with bright lights and aliens. From Whitley's rather sinister demeanor during this disturbing incident, we get the impression that this is familiar territory to him and he has seen it all before. One also gains the impression that he is not an innocent bystander or victim whether he consciously admits this or not. He is complict in his own fate. But Whitley remembers nothing the next morning except for his son Andy screaming after an apparent nightmare. His guests however, awoken by the bright lights in the night are less than impressed by Whitley's attempts at rational explanation and demand to be driven home.

Back in New York, Whitley continues to have problems writing and scares everybody to death when he starts shouting at a boy at a Halloween party, after he mistakes the boy's mask for something real. Cut to Christmas: Whitley and his family are celebrating in true kitschorama middle-American style complete with school nativity play and cosy gatherings around the Christmas tree in the country residence. By this stage, it is more than apparent that Whitley seems to be completely obsessed with video taping and photographing every possible event in his life including himself writing. A spectator of himself as player in his own life perhaps? Conveniently however, he never succeeds in photographing any of the aliens!!

Early Boxing Day morning, aliens - little blue men - invade the Striebers' bedroom and carry Whitley off under his wife's horrified gaze. They and the grey aliens then perform invasive tests on Whitley. The next morning he remembers nothing except some vague nightmares about owls. Anne remembers nothing at all. Out walking in the woods, Whitley is forced to return home complaining of a severe headache. Later that evening, after an argument with Anne, he wanders around the house with a shotgun convinced something is wrong. He shoots at a vase that a little blue man is moving across a table in the gloom and almost shoots Anne who comes out to see what is wrong. She persuades him it is time to see a doctor.

In the doctor's office, Whitley describes being dragged out of his house and undergoing a rectal probe and seeing non-human creatures with big insect eyes. He attributes this to either hallucinations or - a mid-life crisis (As we all know, visions of aliens are very common during mid life crises!) However, he has physical evidence, a red mark behind his ear where he says the aliens injected a needle. The doctor refers him to an eminent psychiatrist who specializes in rape cases. Whitley discusses the situation with Anne, who is somewhat sceptical to say the least, but when her son starts talking about little blue doctors she begins to have second thoughts.

The Striebers visit the psychiatrist and after some initial resistance Whitley agrees to undergo hypnosis.

To be continued

Additional comments

The opening shots of the film are very effective with an aerial view coming in fast to the night lights of New York and then suddenly slowing down and becoming darker as it reaches the twin towers (a premonition of what was to come in future years perhaps?). The Eric Clapton music accompanies these shots nicely.

Numbers of viewers of this film have complained that it does not do justice to the book, despite the fact that the screenplay was penned by Strieber himself. They also note that Walken and Strieber are two very different people. There is even less physical resemblance between the real Anne Strieber and Lindsay Crouse. The former is dark and overweight and the latter slim and blond, proving yet again that the movies and real life are poles apart. If Strieber (unexpectedly perhaps) comes across in his brief appearances in the extra material included on the dvd as a comfortable product of middle-America, Walken, as Strieber, displays an intriguing strangeness that fits well with the authorship of horror novels and experiences of alien abduction, but perhaps less well with some elements of the conventional middle-class life style that is also portrayed in the film. For all this, however, Walken is totally believable as an attentive and caring husband and father, demonstrating once again his rare ability to be convincing across a very diverse range of emotional and psychological registers.

French/Australian Director Philippe Mora's background as a painter is also very evident in this film. The Striebers' New York apartment is decorated with paintings. There are some very interesting and striking works of contemporary art in the psychiatrist's office and a philosophical discussion between Whitley and Anne near the end of the film inexplicably, but interestingly, takes place in an art gallery (the Whitney Museum of American art). The works of art are credited at the end of the film.

Now for the big question: was Whitley Strieber really abducted by aliens? Was he making it all up (after all he was already the author of several very successful horror novels), was he hallucinating, or was he having some kind of psychic experience? And why did Strieber feel the need to talk about this in the full glare of the public arena? The film seems to suggest that he was having some kind of psychic experience - with, for example, Strieber's sudden awakenings and awareness of someone else in the room. There is also the fact that in one scene Strieber is told that he can never see the alien's true face, meaning (perhaps), that the entities are being given form by the furniture in his own mind. In addition to this, all these encounters take place at night between sleeping and waking and have a surreal dream-like quality. The final alien encounter scene of the movie ends with Whitley waking in his 4 wheel drive beside the highway. The film manages these scenes very poorly. Except perhaps for the first alien encounter scene, the other episodes come across as chaotic and farcical rather than as poetic or mysterious. One might prefer to turn to the films of Jean Cocteau for far better examples of how this sort of thing might be done well.

In the promotional trailers on the DVD, Walken says in the politest possible way that he thinks the whole alien abduction thing is dubious to say the least. Most entertaining! He makes further remarks to this effect in an another interview.

I have yet to read the book, which I believe offers some interesting philosophical arguments. I will post my comments here when I eventually get around to reading it.

to be continued

Comments on DVD releases

The region 2 release of the DVD is far superior to the 'widescreen' DVD released with no region coding as part of the Philippe Mora collection. The region 2 version is in 4x3 format and one can actually see more in this picture than the widescreen version which is only widescreen because in some scenes, the bottom and in others the top, of the picture has been cut off. This gives this cut a very claustrophobic feel. (See the image comparison on the Beyond Communion site). The picture is also much clearer and in better focus on the region 2 DVD. Indeed, the difference in picture quality between the two DVD versions is really quite striking: the picture quality on the 'widescreen version' being really no better - if not worse - than the analogue tape version.

It would appear that there is an American cut of this movie and a longer (and superior) international cut (this is the cut on the region 2 disk). On the other hand the sound is slightly better on the 'widescreen' version and there are all those juicy extras!! If you can afford it, buy the region 2 disk for the actual film and the 'Philippe Mora collection' version for the extras. Below is a list of what's missing from the 'widescreen' DVD as compared to the region 2 version and the PAL tape version.

1. Missing two scenes after chapter 5. Short scene with Whitley not being able to write and then scene with Andy at school in fancy dress looking miserable and telling his mother he didn't like the spaceship climbing object in the playground.

2. Bit missing at the end of chapter 6 where Whitley and Anne are having an argument while he is working at the computer. Scene continues and Whitley lies in foetal position on the floor and says he can't write. Anne says he's not going to do anything silly. He says no, they kiss and make up.

3. Chapter 8 Scene missing after scene where Anne and Whitley are at the holiday house at Xmas laughing. Missing scene shows them in their son's room chatting. Communion mask shot missing from alien abduction scene.

4. Chapter 10 In Sam's office most of conversation is missing. Whitley is discussing his experiences and refers to the rectal probe. When he gets home and talks to Anne there is a bit missing at the end of the scene where she walks out and he follows her and they chat while taking a ride up and down in the lift.

5. Chapter 13. Whitley's friend Alex finds him in a restaurant and they talk. End of scene missing where Alex talks about trolls and ancient folk legends.

6. Scene missing before beginning of chapter 20. After the gratuitous (but interesting) art gallery scene, Anne and Whitley are chatting in the sitting room and Whitley announces he is going to write a book about his experiences.

7. Different ending. After Whitley is talking to Communion mask we see a shot of the Striebers in the park from the point of view in a departing UFO. Credits roll over this. This scene is included in the out takes on the dvd extras.

Soundtrack

Salute to Broadway: Brief tap dance before Whitley goes out to confront aliens. Lots of bizarre boogying along with alien greys swaying around and little blue troll men getting down and disco dancing.
Hair: gelled 80s blow dried sticking up -very stylish. Also wears a fedora hat particularly when writing. For some reason this seems to help. Maybe I should try it myself to increase my productivity. The wardrobe designer also clearly had fun dressing Walken in lots of stylish green outfits, presumably to offset his green eyes.