I'm always fascinated by the way a country like Britain is presented in a totally different, almost alien way when 'looked at' by a foreign film-maker. Skolimowski is an underrated director, and I've generally been impressed by what I've seen from his work; as a matter of fact, I might be watching three other films of his that I own on VHS - LE DEPART (1967), THE ADVENTURES OF GERARD (1970) and TORRENTS OF SPRING (1989)...
The plot of this film (from a story by Robert Graves) is compelling and relatively simple but, handled in such a weird fashion (one might say deliberately), it becomes somewhat hard to take! Still, there's a strong cast on hand: Alan Bates (who has had perhaps the most interesting, if largely unsung career from the British New Wave's flock of "Angry Young Men" - I followed this with one of his early films, THE CARETAKER [1963], via the BFI's R2 SE DVD), Susannah York and John Hurt in the lead roles and, in support, Robert Stephens, Tim Curry and an impossibly young - and thin - Jim Broadbent.
Bates and Hurt play typical roles - the former eccentric, the latter bewildered - but their rapport, and the one each shares with York, is what holds the film together. There's also an effective electronic score by two members of the then prog-rock band Genesis (appropriate considering that Hurt plays a musician with a penchant for experimentation with everyday sounds)! The scenes involving Bates' deadly shout are very well handled; its Aborogine connection links the film with another strange contemporary title, Peter Weir's THE LAST WAVE (1977), which I've only watched once but remember liking a lot - so much so that I considered purchasing the Criterion DVD, despite its being one of their lower-tier releases (then again, THE SHOUT is an absolutely no-frills edition but, at least, it was dirt-cheap!).
If there's any complaint I have to make about the DVD, it's the fact that the audio level is rather low and, consequently, the dialogue - part heavy British accents and part Bates' whispered delivery - is unintelligible at times (which can become frustrating, given that this is largely a dialogue-driven film!).
The plot of this film (from a story by Robert Graves) is compelling and relatively simple but, handled in such a weird fashion (one might say deliberately), it becomes somewhat hard to take! Still, there's a strong cast on hand: Alan Bates (who has had perhaps the most interesting, if largely unsung career from the British New Wave's flock of "Angry Young Men" - I followed this with one of his early films, THE CARETAKER [1963], via the BFI's R2 SE DVD), Susannah York and John Hurt in the lead roles and, in support, Robert Stephens, Tim Curry and an impossibly young - and thin - Jim Broadbent.
Bates and Hurt play typical roles - the former eccentric, the latter bewildered - but their rapport, and the one each shares with York, is what holds the film together. There's also an effective electronic score by two members of the then prog-rock band Genesis (appropriate considering that Hurt plays a musician with a penchant for experimentation with everyday sounds)! The scenes involving Bates' deadly shout are very well handled; its Aborogine connection links the film with another strange contemporary title, Peter Weir's THE LAST WAVE (1977), which I've only watched once but remember liking a lot - so much so that I considered purchasing the Criterion DVD, despite its being one of their lower-tier releases (then again, THE SHOUT is an absolutely no-frills edition but, at least, it was dirt-cheap!).
If there's any complaint I have to make about the DVD, it's the fact that the audio level is rather low and, consequently, the dialogue - part heavy British accents and part Bates' whispered delivery - is unintelligible at times (which can become frustrating, given that this is largely a dialogue-driven film!).