Revolution * (1985, Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland, Nastassja Kinski) – Classic Movie Review 6958

Director Hugh Hudson’s costly and ambitious but doomed 1985 historical drama Revolution proved a disaster for the British director, who misguidedly examines what it was like to be swept up in the American War of Independence through the frail personal story of a New York trapper, Tom Dobb (Al Pacino), and his son Ned (Dexter Fletcher).

Tom is spurred reluctantly to join in the fighting by his love for a renegade aristocrat, Daisy McConnahay (Nastassja Kinski), and his hate of a sadistic English soldier, Sergeant Major Peasy (Donald Sutherland), who has drafted Ned into the Army.

Pacino, Kinski and Sutherland are miscast and look like lost souls. There is little that they can do to make their roles work. The screenplay by Robert Dillon is untidy, sprawling and unconvincing, and Hudson’s direction is out of control, though admittedly he had his work cut out to make his film work.

It even looks grainy and horrible in Bernard Lutic’s cinematography. Virtually the only pluses are the splendid, expensive-looking battle scenes, along with the production designs by Assheton Gorton and costumes by John Mollo.

Also in the cast are Joan Plowright, Steven Berkoff, Annie Lennox, Dave King, Jesse Birdsall, Graham Greene, John Wells, Sid Owen, Richard O’Brien, Paul Brooke, Eric Milota, Felicity Dean, Jo Anna Lee and Robbie Coltrane.

It cost $28 million and grossed $358,574 in the US.

There are three versions: 126 minutes (original release version), 115 minutes (DVD) and 136 minutes (Director’s Cut). Dissatisfied with the version of the film rush-leased in cinemas for Christmas 1985, Hugh Hudson released Revolution: Revisited on DVD in 2009. The re-edited new cut (running at 115 minutes) has newly recorded added-on narration by Pacino and a different ending, and deletes about ten minutes of footage from the original release version, with numerous scenes trimmed or cut completely.

Revolution is directed by Hugh Hudson, runs 126 minutes, is a Viking and Goldcrest Films production, is released by Columbia-Cannon-Warner Distributors, is written by Robert Dillon, is shot by Bernard Lutic, is produced by Irwin Winkler and Christopher Burt (executive producer), is scored by John Corigliano, and is designed by Assheton Gorton, with costume design by John Mollo.

After the film flopped, Pacino, who was sick with pneumonia during shooting, took a break from films for four years until Sea of Love (1989).

Scenes were filmed in Norway to please the Norwegian dentists who invested in the film. Some of it was filmed in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, with locals as extras. Devon ex-servicemen played American war soldier extras.

It marks the debut credited theatrical feature film performance as an actress (as Liberty Woman) of singer Annie Lennox, who said she found the experience ‘very unpleasant’.

The cast are Al Pacino as Tom Dobb, Donald Sutherland as Sgt. Maj. Peasy, Nastassja Kinski as Daisy McConnahay, Dexter Fletcher as Ned Dobb, Sid Owen as Young Ned Dobb, Joan Plowright as Mrs. McConnahay, Dave King as Mr. McConnahay, Steven Berkoff as Sgt. Jones, John Wells as Corty, Annie Lennox as Liberty Woman, Richard O’Brien as Lord Hampton, Pietro Giovanni Lantrua as Impoverished Extra, Paul Brooke as Lord Darling, Frank Windsor as Gen. Washington, Jesse Birdsall as Cpl./ Sgt. Peasy, Larry Sellers as Honchwah, Graham Greene as Ongwata, Robbie Coltrane as New York Burgher, Robert “Jack” Frost as Marching British Soldier Extra, Eric Milota, Felicity Dean, and Jo Anna Lee.

Hugh Hudson (25 August 1936 – 10 February 2023) directed the 1981 Academy Award and BAFTA Award Best Picture Chariots of Fire. He followed it with Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6958

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