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| Martin Sheen and Harley Cross in THE BELIEVERS Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2 |
The last time Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger put a short and intense method actor through the relatively slow-burn, thriller-genre ringer was Dustin Hoffman in MARATHON MAN...
Which is similar to 1987's thriller-horror hybrid THE BELIEVERS in that Martin Sheen, ironically jogging at the opening of the film... playing a shrink for troubled, unhinged cops... is up against something much bigger than he had initially realized: for Hoffman it's a Neo Nazi diamond-thief and for Sheen a New York City voodoo cult are sacrificing children — and his own son could be next...
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| Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS with Jimmy Smits |
The director isn't completely at home with horror (the bodies turn up well after the murders so any terrorizing violence is far removed), yet the thriller aspect works to keep what's a more character-driven story moving: after Martin Sheen and his young son's mother dies in a freak accident, the best scenes are in the edgy build-up, also featuring suicidal cop Jimmy Smits and token lead detective Robert Loggia...
Eventually sharing the investigation with Sheen, the pace slows after the menace is revealed, trading what had become Schesinger's meticulous, Hitchcock-inspired style with an overlong third-act standoff (set at a rural location, away from the city, again like MARATHON MAN): overall paling to the moments when Sheen (and love interest landlady Helen Shaver and the audience) doesn't quite know what or who to fear.
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Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS
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| Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS |
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Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS with Robert Loggia
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| Helen Shaver in THE BELIEVERS with Carla Pinza |
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| Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS |
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| Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS |
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Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS with Robert Loggia
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| Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS |
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| Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS |
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| Helen Shaver in THE BELIEVERS |
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| Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS |
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| Jimmy Smits in THE BELIEVERS |
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| Opening Credits from THE BELIEVERS |
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| Martin Sheen in THE BELIEVERS an homage to MARATHON MAN |
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