The Jigsaw Man (1983)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

An Exercise In Nonsense

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is truly a woeful film. Terence Young's days as a director who was at the top of his game with the iconic Bond films of the 60s had long gone, and this film not only reflects his lack of innovation as a director but also how low the British film industry had sunk by the mid eighties. The subject matter was way past its sell-by-date even in the mid-eighties, and the UK film industry would look to the likes of Neil Jordan and Stephen Wooley to inspire a new generation of film makers.I can't imagine anyone paying good money to see this in the theatres, it probably didn't even make money as a video release. It is pure 3rd rate TV drama of the worst order. The cinematography and art direction are turgidly ininspiring, it is only interesting in that one wonders how such a stella British cast was employed.Caine and George try their hardest, true professionals carrying out their responsibilities as the ship slowly sinks. Robert Powell is actually rather charismatic, probably because he was as used to working on the small screen as in feature films. But Lord Olivier is dreadful, he just shouts his way through the film wearing a rather poorly attached full beard. His kind of acting had really had its day and he really shouldn't have bothered. A small shout out does go to Charles Grey, who as always make s every scene his in worth watching.All in all a quite dreadful film and its only saving grace is that it reminds us of how far British film making has improved in the last 30 years. Avoid like the plague.

So long as you are aware that you're about to watch a truly terrible terrible movie, you can sit back and enjoy the full extent of its absolute awfulness! Michael Caine doing some incredibly bad accents whilst karate chopping people to death with a single blow (he even manages to render a policeman unconscious by tripping him up!), Susan George being her usual am-dram hammy self, Robert Powell portraying the world's poshest policeman, and Lawrence Olivier either grumbling and gesticulating melodramatically or pausing abruptly because he's forgotten his next line. And who could blame him?! Everyone has been asked to utter dialogue so monumentally bad it has to be heard to be believed! After the highly amusing car chase climax, Caine suddenly turns philosopher and decides that "War is bad" - classic stuff! Everything about this film is bad, the script, the sets, the acting, the accents, the direction, the editing, the stunts, even the music's awful! But badness of this magnitude should be celebrated and enjoyed for what it is, and for this reason I have given this magnificent mess a 10 star rating! The only puzzle about this jigsaw is how it ever got to see the light of day!

It's very hard to know what to write about this.Take a seasoned director of taut spy thrillers (Terence Young, responsible for Dr No and From Russia With Love) and pair him with an experienced second-unit chief (Peter Hunt).Take three of the most talented actors of modern times (Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine and Charles Gray).Take a roman a clef about Kim Philby and a fictional return to Britain post-defection and make it in 1983 when spy thrillers were still relevant in a Cold War context.You'd think you'd have a pretty good film. Sadly, you don't.This film is terrible. A lumpen script and corny story is weighed down by an unsympathetic lead (is Michael Caine a goodie or a baddie?), wild overacting from Laurence Olivier (who was far too old to play a spy chief) and confusing plot points (Charles Gray's character has a wig...only Gray has a perfect head of hair and looks ridiculous with his bald cap on).Young clearly slept through the film instead of directing it and the script/plot is very hard to follow. I saw it last night for the second time and it's almost like both versions were cut but in different places...I'm pretty convinced that a third watching wouldn't help. For those who haven't seen it, don't even bother with the first watching. Truly truly awful.

I saw this movie with my girlfriend, now wife, in 1984. Being the only two people in the theater on the second day of the movie should have given us a clue but that fact only really made sense when we left the theater 45 minutes later, well before the end. Expecting a decent thriller, Michael Caine worthy, we couldn't grasp the fact that this movie made it into the cinema in the first place! Of course I was 20 year younger then and i have seen some very, very bad movies since but none of them made the impression "The Jigsaw Man" did! Since that day my wife and I qualify bad, boring movies as "Even The Jigsaw Man was better". This movie has played a major part in our movie-viewing life for the last 20 years as THE "Bad Movie Benchmark".