The Visitors (1972)

This film is basically a bastardization of Daniel Lang's story "Casualties of War" which was adapted into a film by Brian De Palma in 1989. In Elia Kazan's 1972 version two Viet Nam vets who were sentenced to two years in Leavenworth Prison for their role in the gang rape and murder of a 15-year-old Vietnamese girl during a patrol somewhere in Viet Nam pay a visit to the fellow soldier who turned them in, presumably for the purpose of letting him know that they harbor no hard feelings but the visit ends when they beat the guy unconscious and rape his wife. Joseph McCarthy, had he lived long enough, would have been a big fan of this film.

The Visitors (1972) ** (out of 4)Bill (James Woods) and his wife Martha (Patricia Joyce) are spending time with their son when two of Bill's former Vietnam buddies (Steve Railsback, Chico Martinez) show up. The wife isn't sure what the two are doing there but the secret is that both of them just got done doing time for rape, which Bill turned them in on. THE VISITORS isn't really the type of film you'd expect from someone like Elia Kazan but after viewing the film and seeing that he was going for a psychological type thriller, I can see why he was hired but in the end I don't think the film works. What we basically got is a thriller that doesn't want action but instead it wants to make the viewer think and it wants to turn these thoughts into a nightmare. I don't think there's any doubt that Kazan, working with a screenplay written by his son, wanted the viewer to sit in the dark fearing what these two dangerous men were going to do to the man who turned them in. Kazan directs the film in an extremely slow way as all of the scenes just drag on and it really does seem that the thing runs much longer than its 88-minutes. Kazan's slow style wouldn't have been a problem had the dialogue been better. The majority of the film is just slow, drawn out dialogue sequences but the problem is that they're boring. Not once did I get caught up in anything going on and in fact the highlight of the movie is a sequence where the wife's father (Patrick McVey) has a neighbors dog killed. The film is trying to say something about Vietnam, friendship, loyalty and several other things but everything just gets so muddled that you can't help but start yawning. The performances from the five people are all good and it's this that keeps the film working. THE VISITORS isn't quite as graphic as its reputation would have you believe but it does have the feel of something like THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. In fact, the visual look of this film compares highly to the Wes Craven shocker that was released the previous year.

***SPOILERS*** Very personal movie directed by the late great Elia Kazan with the screenplay written by his #1 Son Chris involving naming names or testifying against fellow GI's and the consequences that result from it to the person who felt obligated to do so.The movie "The Visitors" takes place in early January 1969, judging the New York Jet Baltimore Colt Superbowl Game shown on TV, in snowy Newton Connecticut. It's there where young Vietnam vet Bill Schmidt is living a quite and peaceful existence with his live in girlfriend Martha Wayne and the couples out of wedlock two year old boy Hal. Bill trying the make ends meet with his job at a local helicopter plant is in luck in both him & Martha being allowed to live in Martha's dad's, Harry Wayne, home rent free.Wayne is anything but impressed with Bill's very in your face pacifism even though he served as a combat infantryman in Vietnam with honors. Harry himself being a combat vet from the Pacific Theater in WWII and damn proud of it can't understand Bill's misguided attitude towards those Vietcong Commies who, in Harry's mind, are a threat to everything America stands for. Wayne also feels that there's something loose upstairs in Bill's head, besides his pacifism, in his refusing to as much as go out raccoon or rabbit hunting with him!Writing 19th Century American Western novels and getting heavily drunk while doing it Wayne makes more then enough money to support himself as well as his daughter Martha together with Bill and little Hal. Still Wayne has no use for Bill at all and lets him known it, especially when he's smashed out of his head, at every opportunity. It's on one cold & snowy morning that Bill's fellow Vietnam vets Mike Nickerson & Tony Rodrigues show up unexpectedly at the Wayne home that the past suddenly catches up with him. It was some three years ago that Bill testified against both Mike and Tony in a brutal rape and murder that they committed in Vietnam which he was an eye witness to.Like a spider spinning a web for its intended victim both Mike & Tony begin to set Bill up for the kill with his girlfriend-Martha-having at first no idea of what their planning to do! Bill ashamed and feeling like a turncoat in, by testifying against them, having sent Mike & Tony away for two years at the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary kept what he did from Martha, as well as Harry, all this time! But now all that was about to come out in the wash with Martha, besides Bill, being the one to end up paying for it.James Woods in his movie debut is both touching and tragic as the troubled Vietnam vet Bill Schmidt a man with a conscience that never goes away. Troubled in what he was involved with, in doing nothing to stop it, in the Vietnam War Bill turned evidence against Mike and Tony at their court-martial trial that has now come back-like a boomerang- to haunt him. Now out of prison on a technicality the two after a evening of heavy drinking decided to pay Bill, who's home address they found out from their court appointed lawyer, a visit. It turned out to be a visit straight out of hell!

Slow and creepy, The Visitors is a very low budget story about two Army buddies, newly released from the stockade after serving their terms for rape, who drop in on the comrade responsible for their conviction. Very slow, but rewarding, and definitely worth a look as an unsung classic of 70s cinema.