Sebastian (1968)

Oh, where did the 1960s ever go? What happened? (Sob.) Before it became distressingly violent the 1960s were informed by a light-hearted revolutionary spirit. The Beatles were breaking records, which was nice, and the skirts were tiny, which was also nice. Recreational highs were a pastime and the scent of flowers, hemp, or at least incense, was in the air, a pastel age. There was a Cold War going on too. That's not so nice. However even such a serious business was subject to frolicsome presentations, and this is a good example. The credits are irritating though. I wish "The Pink Panther" with its adorable credit sequences hadn't appeared four years earlier because everybody had to have a crack at it after that.This movie is cute without being hilarious. Everyone is good natured, even the authorities who are not good natured. Among its virtues are the lanky, leggy Susannah York, all soft, pink, blond, and utterly beautiful. She looks dusted in talcum powder. Then there is the officious Dirk Bogarde, in his dark suit and umbrella, who hires her as a code breaker for some intelligence apparat in England. York is a whiz at it too, although her talent doesn't impress Bogarde that much. York sees Bogarde as a challenge and sets out to liberate him. It couldn't have been too hard. He had nowhere to go but up, and this is the London of "Blow Up," tastefully psychedelic.The bossy Bogarde keeps a loose woman, Janet Munro, on the side but York soon seduces him and finds he is reluctantly but undeniably distracted from his blue notebook. It's a bad idea for Bogarde to be mixed up with Susannah York. I should have been mixed up with Susannah York instead of him. Somewhere in the background of all this is Sir John Gielgud, good as ever, simultaneously charming and disdainful, wearing a carefully pressed suit and what appears to be a Crescent tie. He's a delight but I believe his school tie should be Westminster, not Crescent.Anyway it turns more serious as the Russians enter the picture, and the Americans too. Bogarde is assigned a big decoding job involving a Russian satellite. An incredibly young Donald Sutherland cheerfully plays a recording of the first Russian satellite ever. He claims it's sending Morse code but it's not. I was a radioman in the Coast Guard at the time and had to copy the signals. The thing just went beep beep beep.Spies manage to lace Bogarde's champagne at one point with acid but it all ends happily. Bogarde also appeared in "Modesty Blaise" somewhere around this time. It made no more sense than "Sebastian" but was probably more fun. It had Bogarde stretched out on the sand, dying of thirst, and moaning, "Champagne . . . champagne." "Sebastian" isn't that absurd.

My husband was watching a movie today and I had to comment to him as I was passing by that I really liked one of the actors in it and very much enjoyed one of his other movies.I had to check him out on IMDb: Dirk Bogarde to find the title that I had trouble retrieving from the depths of my mind (thank goodness for IMDb).I am also one of those who saw it many years ago and it keeps popping back to mind. I liked the actors, the characters, the mood, the somewhat psychedelic feel of the 60s and really wish they would bring it out on DVD so that I can see it again and keep the title nearer the forefront of my brain!

I first saw this movie back in the '60's on TBS. I found it to be a thoroughly delightful film. I have been looking to find a copy of it to add to my VHS/DVD collection. It appears to be out of print at this time. I hope they re-issue it soon.

Sebastian is one of those movies you see once and remember for a long time. I saw it back in the seventies, and didn't get to enjoy it again until I caught it on TV in the nineties. Still, I remembered its groovy sixties-London atmosphere, its intellectually stimulating plot about codebreaking, Susannah York's breezy, mini-skirted, somewhat flighty Rebecca who is actually quite smart, Bogarde's coldly academic Sebastian with passion seething underneath, and Jerry Goldsmith's right-on soundtrack.Like a lighter LeCarre story, you get Cold War tension, but with a post-war British self-deprecating viewpoint. They may not be the Empire they once were, but they do have a bit of expertise in cryptography that the Yanks would be willing to compensate them for. Donald Sutherland plays an NSA type at Fylingdale Moor who turns Sebastian on (literally) to the latest intercepts from a Russian satellite. He's immediately impressed when Sebastian hears the embedded signal that carries classified data piggy-back with the normal Sputnik beeps. Mixed in with this main West versus East plot is the late-sixties go-go scene, with Sebastian's former paramour a pop singer a little past her prime, with his right-hand girl a bit of a leftist sympathizer, and with his new girlfriend, Rebecca, a pre-hippy free spirit determined to pry him out of his Oxford Don shell. Susannah York's Rebecca is fun-loving but has a flame-hot temper that reacts explosively to Sebastian's unemotional pomposity. Her true depth is shone later when she quietly removes herself to care for her baby, without the assistance of its father, Sebastian, who has dropped out of her life. I feel it's the best role of York's uneven career.What really takes the movie a step above, is Jerry Goldsmith's score. His instrumental "First Day at Work" catches just the right combination of urban excitement and spritly spirit that accompanies Rebecca and a bevy of beautiful and brainy girls as they make their way in to begin their work as cryptanalysts working in Sebastian's high-tech sweatshop. While the rest of the soundtrack is not up to his Blue Max or Wind and the Lion standards, this one tune alone puts Goldsmith's soundtrack above most movie music.I would put this one in my list of top 100 movies for its cast, its atmosphere, its music, and its re-watchability. I hope it comes out on DVD soon.