The Ninth Configuration (1980) Review
Stacy Keach excels as Colonel Vincent Kane, a former member of a United States Marine Corps special unit assigned as the new head doctor at a military insane asylum. The softly spoken Kane appears unphased by the insanity he is faced with at the remote castle location used by the US Government. He is introduced to each of the patients by Colonel Fell (Ed Flanders). They include The Walking Dead’s Scott Wilson as Billy Cutshaw, an astronaut who lost it prior to launch, The Exorcist’s Jason Miller, a man obsessed with producing a Shakespeare production populated by dogs with Maniac’s Joe Spinell as his right-hand man.
Kane is drawn towards Cutshaw and questions his reasoning for not wanting to go to the moon and Cutshaw is convinced that all is not as it seems with Kane. Their conversations together provide the basis of the film as they question the existence of God, Cutshaw insisting that Kane give him an example of pure-sacrifice as proof of human goodness.
Prior to reviewing I knew very little about this film except that it had been written, directed and produced by William Peter Blatty, more famously known for writing The Exorcist. I knew also that the film starred Stacy Keach and that, despite underwhelming at the box-office upon its initial theatrical release, it has since become a cult film. The film was adapted by Blatty from his own 1978 novel (itself a reworking of his own 1966 novel Twinkle, Twinkle “Killer” Kane!) and he deservedly won a Golden Globe for his effort.
Given that Blatty had never directed before it’s startling to see how he balances humour with affecting philosophical aspects all of which combine and lead to a rather emotional and gripping climax. The bar scene, in particular, is tremendously brutal, emotionally, rather than violent, yes it IS violent but it’s the emotion impact that lasts the longest. Blatty considers The Ninth Configuration to be the true sequel to The Exorcist (1973). Where The Exorcist encapsulates the existence of both good and evil, The Ninth Configuration deals with the concept of ‘goodness’. The third novel (The) Legion is again about faith – punishment of evil for original sin.
Blatty originally had director William Friedkin, who later directed the film version of The Exorcist, in mind to helm this adaptation. Friedkin was keen but unfortunately no major studio was happy to handle it. However following the tremendous box-office success of The Exorcist Blatty returned to adapting re-writing and giving more meat to his original treatment. The astronaut Cutshaw, became the same astronaut that young Regan coldly intones ‘will die up there’ in The Exorcist – no wonder he freaked out prior to launch.
I was deeply affected by the central dynamic and confess to falling in love with Keach’s character, I found his performance so well acted and the character so well written that I just wanted to reach in and hug him. When you consider that both Stacy Keach and Scott Wilson were brought in as last-minute replacements, for Nicol Williamson and Michael Moriarty respectively, then that just exemplifies how terrific their performances are. It’s rare that acting gets this good in any American film outside of the Seventies. Elsewhere the cast is packed full of familiar faces – we are talking bonafide actors rather than stars and it works so much better for this. Scott Wilson (The Last Samurai), Jason Miller (The Exorcist), Ed Flanders (The Exorcist III) and Tom Atkins (Lethal Weapon).
It’s like nothing else you have ever seen and that’s not hyperbole, it’s a fact. It won’t be for all tastes however if you can embrace it’s mix of humour and theology then you have no hesitation in adding this title to your film collection. Come the film’s finish I was left with food for thought and that’s not something you can say often after watching a film, especially one distributed by a major American studio. Bold, audacious, absurd and breath-taking, The Ninth Configuration defies convention and it’s wonderful to finally see something that defies categorising or labelling too. Exceptional!
