Title: Manos: The Hands of Fate
Year: 1966
Country of Origin: US
Director: Harold P. Warren
Plot: A family gets lost during a road trip and stumbles upon a satanic-esque polygamist cult.
Review: The odd thing about this film is that I enjoy its history of it more than the actual film. Well I guess that really isn't all that odd considering the film is like watching a botched paint job dry. In case you missed it from a few pages ago,
Playboy did a really interesting write up on the film's history...which despite the fact that it's playboy you check out if you're at all interested in the film.
Manos itself has become a cult favorite over the years and is in the Parthenon of other auteurs driven bombs like Ed Wood's
Plan 9 From Outer Space and Tommy Wiseau's
The Room. I suspect that these film hold such reverence among their fans is because they were done in an honest and forthright fashion. Most were made outside of the studio system and represent the dreams and hopes of their creators. Manos' fame is owed entirely to an episode of
Mystery Science Theater 3000, which most of the cast even agree that it was the worst film that they had riffed. I can say honestly that I was never able to get through the episode, the film was simply too dull the keep my attention even with the riffs of the MST3K cast. So the prospect of watching it sans the MST3K commentary was daunting to say the least.
The first thing to notice is that the film looks awful, this is an interesting grips since a HD restoration of the film is set to be released within the next week...though by all accounts it really doesn't help the look of the film all that much. See the Manos was shot with a type of camera whose previous use was almost exclusively to shoot Korean war footage. The camera didn't record sound and each take could only last a maximum 32 seconds. Both of these would have been difficult to fix in post for even with a competent filmmaker and Warren was anything but a competent filmmaker. The result gives the film a quality that is reminiscent to early silent cinema and would have probably been better off if it were done up like a silent film. The dubbing is less than ideal; in fact during the film's premier the young actress who played the vacationing couples daughter burst into tears upon hearing a grown woman's voice speak her characters lines instead of hers.
Watching Manos is an interesting experience, but not a fun one. The film's pacing is the worst I have come across, making it's scant hour long run time feel closer to that of
Lawrence of Arabia. It's a long slog to get through, but in the end you can say that you have actually sat through all of
Manos: The Hands of Fate...which in of itself feels like an accomplishment akin to scaling Mt. Everest. As such, I have to award the film 10 Torgos out of 10.
[10 Torgos out of 10]
