Cuentos de Borges (TV Series) Death and the Compass (1992) User Reviews

interesting--but the short film smokes the feature

[awalter1 · 7/10 · 7 February 2005]

Though "Death and the Compass" was reworked into a feature from a short project--and shows telltale signs of this--it might have succeeded better if only director Alex Cox had been content to allow the film's sound to come through clearly. The film has some great images and performances as well as funky avant-garde elements to both the visuals and story structure. However, when you're doing all that, you can only get yourself in trouble by also monkeying with the sound; here the dialogue is sometimes garbled, sometimes muffled, and sometimes mumbled (pick your poison).

Based on the Jorge Luis Borges short story of the same name, "Death and the Compass" follows a detective who has chosen an "intuitive" path of detection, finally risking losing himself deep in a labyrinth of speculation as he attempts to guess, second-guess, and out-guess the criminal pattern unfolding before him. Unfortunately the film, largely due to the sound trouble, ends up nearly as jumbled as the story. The film is commendable for its referencing of many other Borges stories, but ultimately it leaves one wishing for a great deal more cohesion.

One can look to Lars von Trier's "The Element of Crime" as a film that was, both in terms of story and stylistic flair, a comparable but far more successful venture. More obviously, one can look to Paul Miller's excellent "Spiderweb," a short film with a sort of "Guy Maddin" feel. "Spiderweb" is also based on Borges' "Death and the Compass" and stars Nigel Hawthorne. It is included on the DVD release of Cox's film (but somehow there is no reference to "Spiderweb" on the IMDb!).

Not very good, but interesting enough to be worth a look if you like any of Cox's previous movies

[mbs · 5/10 · 20 November 2016]

Peter Boyle stars as a cop dressed in a very bright blue suit who is convinced that this murder he is assigned to investigate is the work of this elaborate conspiracy. The murder is of an older Torah scholar rabbinical student who is convinced he found the 9th name of God (or was it the 10th?) and while Boyle's partner (dressed in a very Dick Tracey like bright yellow suit) whom while also serving as the film's narrator is quite happy to write off the murder as a random break-in/wrong time-wrong place type of case.

Boyle becomes more and more determined to prove that this murder is the work of this cabal of murderers desperate to keep the name secret and hidden. Boyle basically goes off the deep end here becoming increasingly stubborn in his urgent cries of conspiracy here. (At one point looking at a map of three seemingly unrelated murders--he draws a triangle connecting all three points, and then proceeds to draw another point and declares it a rhomboid, which the sheer force of him declaring that statement made me laugh quite a bit--"Its Not A Traingle, Its A Rhomboid!")

He's aided by an article writer played by Christopher Eccleson (for the Hebrew press no less! some kind of newsletter specifically for the Orthodox) who is very interested in seeing where Boyle goes with his investigation, but also doesn't seem to think that there's anything here realistically, but he's not gonna let his own skepticism stand in the way of a potentially good story. If anything, he can at least write a news article about Boyle's determination to see this investigation thru despite the thinnest of leads beyond his own gut. This movie is not good by a long shot. (The case really never does actually amount to anything more than Peter Boyle being very fervent in his belief that it will lead to something, and even then its kind of hard to decipher his thought process so that it makes logical sense.)

The movie to the director's credit is also never boring, and it never lags. To me the film sustained its interest level throughout, but its also the kind of movie you watch late at night on TV and the next day wonder if you had possibly fallen asleep watching it because some of the details of it are so bizarre, they couldn't have possibly been in the movie itself right? Surely, you must have fallen asleep at some point and are remembering bits of a dream you had while this was on in the back round. I having seen this in a theater can assure you that it was in fact the movie and not you.

That said, for everything that was interesting about the movie (including a very unusual set design) the ending of it is fairly lousy, and I have no idea if that's a fault of the short story its based on, or if that's because writer/director Alex Cox didn't do enough to set it up beforehand. Oh well. Everything up to then was still engaging enough that i'd say if you like purposefully oddball detective movies, you could do worse than this. (It might make an interesting double bill with 1992's "The Plague" which based on an Albert Camus novel was similarly interesting an adaptation set in a third world nation but also somewhat disappointing as a whole)

A very odd movie

[qv1879 · 6/10 · 30 November 2006]

In a post world war world, people eek out what living they can. A string of strange murders begin to occur and the local Detective Chief Inspector Lonrot(Peter Boyle) is on the job. He believes the murders are being committed by a gangster called Red Scarlach(Christopher Eccleston). Lonrot uses everything to hand to capture the killer and eventually comes face to face with him.

I love Peter Boyle. I've seen him in the X-Files to "While You Were Sleeping", but if anyone was miscast in this role, it was him. "Death and the Compass" is a low budget film that uses spontaneity as it's guide. Director Alex Cox is a "fly by the seats of his pants" director. Thirty to forty years ago, Mr.Boyle may have been cast properly, but watching it I couldn't help but wonder if he was treading water because he wasn't sure where his footing was.

Though Mr.Boyle seemed to be treading water, I didn't feel that about the other members of the cast. Maybe it was because the others of the cast were familiar with Cox's type of direction. What ever it was, it gave the movie a "driving on ice" feel. It'll be fine, then the brakes will lock and the car will slide to the side.

Don't get me wrong. It wasn't a bad movie. It just needs to be done over.

Another fascinating but flawed movie from Alex Cox, Britain's most underrated director.

[Infofreak · 9 November 2003]

I've been looking for 'Death and the Compass' for quite some time, as I'm an admirer of the Borges story that inspired it, and I thought it would be another piece in the puzzle of Alex Cox's frustrating career. Unfortunately I didn't manage to watch it on DVD and wasn't able to listen to Cox's commentary, one which I really could have done with! On top of that I watched it in two sittings, something I don't usually like doing. I really would like to watch it a second time as I feel my concentration was wavering. Anyway, it's yet another fascinating but flawed movie from Cox, a description which describes almost all his output since 'Repo Man', which to me is still his most completely satisfying work. Peter Boyle stars as the enigmatic detective Lonnrot(he had previously worked with Cox in the unfairly maligned 'Walker'), with Christopher Eccleston ('Shallow Grave') and Cox regular Miguel Sandoval supporting. Another comment mentioned 'Element Of Crime' as a stylistic reference point and I can see that, only on presumably a much smaller budget. Of course '...Compass' isn't anywhere near as good as Von Trier's film, but it does give you some idea of what to expect. I can't say I don't have some reservations about this movie, but if you like offbeat films that play with genre and require a bit of thought, then give this a shot. Me, I want to watch it a second time and hear what Alex Cox has to say about it before I make up my mind.

I thought it was just awful.

[cadar1729 · 2/10 · 15 January 2002]

I liked Boyle's performance, but that's about the only positive thing I can say. Everything was overdone to the point of absurdity. Most of the actors spoke like you would expect your 9-year-old nephew to speak if he were pretending to be a jaded, stone-hearted cop, or an ultra-evil villain. The raspy voice-overs seemed amateurish to me. I could go buy a cheap synthesizer and crank out better opening music. And what's with the whole 1984ish police torture stuff? It was totally superfluous and had nothing to do with the actual events of the story. Cox added a lot of things, in fact, that he apparently thought would be really cool, but had nothing to do with the story. That's a big disappointment because one of the things that makes Borges' stories so good is his minimalism -- they are tightly bound, with no superfluous details. This movie is just the opposite. I stopped watching after the scene where Lonnrot is questioning the guy from the Yidische Zaitung, or thereabouts. I wasted $4 renting this, but at least I can get some satisfaction from writing this review and hopefully saving others from making the same mistake.

More Burroughs than Borges

[JohnSeal · 4/10 · 21 March 2002]

This wilfully bizarre adaptation of Borges short story is typical Cox. His strong visual sense is, as usual, undone by the appalling half baked acting of most of the cast. The film is definitely in the surreal tradition of Bunuel's Mexican period, and looks at times like a poor man's take on Lars Von Trier's Elements of Crime. Cox's apparent preference for single takes, jump cuts, and ambient sound recording all work against the film's effectiveness. Worth a look but ultimately disappointing.

Finally, I saw it....

[e-kopstain · 8/10 · 6 March 2002]

I had read a review of this film probably five or six years ago, but had never been able to find it anywhere and wondered if I ever would. I happened to catch it on cable last night by accident. I'm a huge fan of Borges and think this particular story is a masterpiece that equals Poe's greatest work in terms of pure intellectual force, profundity, and use of language and references. This movie version is fairly surreal and self-consciously stylized and does add a lot of details not in the story. But after about 10 minutes or so I started getting into this interpretation and thought that overall it was very clever and artful. Peter Boyle was an interesting (weird?) choice as Lonrott, and I thought Christopher Eccleston was excellent as Red Scharlach (including the sound effects for his voice). Most importantly, I thought this movie did capture the obliterating sense of the infinite that staggers me every time I read the story.

the weird and not-so-wonderful Alex Cox

[Quinoa1984 · 4/10 · 8 August 2009]

I respect Alex Cox the filmmaker, I really do. He's like the kid at school who you think at first is just trying a little too hard to be "different", a literary punk-rocker who has dipped more than his feet into spaghetti westerns and science fiction and fringe-culture and come out into the world ready to take s*** on... but then you see what he can actually do, the talent and raw feverish artistry and moments of true absurd hilarity capable of him, and you are ready to see whatever he has to offer. But there's two sides to his proverbial coin: he can either really hit it out of the park (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy, Walker arguably) or just try just a little too hard and pull way too many pretentious rabbits out of the hat (Straight to Hell). Death and the Compass falls into the latter category, and while I respect its (mostly) original approach to tackling a detective-killer story, it too falls on its face and its weirdness becomes oddly dull.

It has a strange enough set-up and already irreverent style to follow: a detective, Erik Lonnrot, is after a killer with a hell-fire voice, Red (something), and it seems that the killer is leaving disturbing clues with his victims: scrawled in blood on the walls are messages that, according to eyewitness Alonso Zunz (Christopher Eccleston looking as if he just walked off Shallow Grave without changing his look) has religious significance in the Kabbalah. We follow Lonnrot on his case, and his methods of going after the perp, which include following at first a triangular and then compass-shaped pattern on the map- this despite the protests of the flabbergasted Commissioner Treviranus (Miguel Sandoval), who also looks back in flash-forwards sitting at a desk and speaking to the audience in garbled but sad descriptions of his former employee and colleague after the fact of the case.

Oh, Cox has his moments of creativity and interest, such as a shot where we see the entire scope of the harrowing depths of the police station where Eccleston's character is taken in by handcuffs ("For his own protection" says Lonnrot in case of getting lost in the wrong room) and we're followed in a long tracking shot- maybe the best or just most curious- where we're taken through very dark hallways with very little direction, lost in the maze of turns and oddities among the characters. And it's never something that isn't fascinating to *look* at, with Miguel Garzon's cinematography a morbid delight. But The plot goes through hoola-hoops to keep things so off-beat it might as well be beat-less all-together. The performances, save for a confident Boyle and for Eccleston at the very end, are pretty bad, especially Sandoval who just seems to squirm in his seat reciting the goofy dialog given to him to speak at the audience.

While the murder plot itself contains an intention for the audience that this isn't something we've seen before, that it's in a society with a good many rioters and architecture suggesting Alphaville's next decrepit wave, it too fizzle's out very quickly. What's the conflict here? I was never that much engaged with Boyle's own personal mission to find this killer, and only mildly caught up in the few flashes of deranged scenes of the killer (and/or killers) going after people like in the building early on (Cox himself has an amusing cameo). And just when I started to think it was leading up to something spectacular, with Boyle and Eccleston in that big ("not as big as you think") building in the South section of the city, it suddenly gives us a "TWIST" that we know in the back of our minds is coming but hope isn't, and it deflates any of the humdrum mystery it's been leading up to. For all of Cox's uncanny touches as a filmmaker, for all of his opposition to spoon-feeding the audience with a 'conventional' approach, which I do respect, Death and the Compass ultimately cuts one off at the brain-stem; it's masturbatory.

A weird and wonderful blend of fantasy and crime thriller

[barfly99 · 9/10 · 12 April 2000]

As I write this only a few other people have ever voted for DEATH AND THE COMPASS, so I must assume that only a relatively tiny proportion of film-lovers have had the opportunity to watch this movie. Which is a shame, because it's an extremely good film. I actually only saw it myself by accident, as it were, at the London Film Festival three or four years ago after Alex Cox had entered it as a replacement for THE WINNER, which he had withdrawn, feeling it had been ruined by studio interference. And DEATH AND THE COMPASS is up there with his best work, at times surreal, but always clever and involving, and full of memorable sounds (that voice-over at the beginning!) and images (and what about those police cars!). Cox always casts great actors, and having Peter Boyle and Christopher Eccleston on board ensures the twisting story-line is enthralling right up to its quite stunning finale. Even if it gets the recognition it should, I don't think this will ever be prime time viewing material, but if quality counts for anything perhaps it should.

Not for me.

[JoeytheBrit · 3/10 · 4 January 2012]

Oh dear. I watched this one a week ago, and although there's no way it can be described as bland or unmemorable – although probably for all the wrong reasons – there's little about this adaptation of Borges' novel by Alex Cox that impressed me enough to make a lasting impression. Cox's style has always been… quirky, shall we say – and sometimes he's very good, but this one is an almighty mess that is only partly salvaged by Cox's customarily strong visual style. The story sprawls like spilled liquid with no confines to contain it. The acting borders on amateur dramatic level at times – which is unremarkable in a lot of cases, but not from the likes of Boyle and Eccleston – and the script is like something out of a DC comic book. Definitely a Marmite movie by the looks of it.

Disappointing Adaptation of Borges

[sgcim · 1/10 · 26 February 2011]

I was very disappointed by this adaptation of the great Borges short story. The choice of Peter Boyle for the lead role of the detective was an extremely poor one. He removed any of the irony of this send-up of Sherlock Holmes, and ruined any chance for this film to work. The overdone acting, direction, and additions to the plot also sent this film straight into the trash heap. The rock music used in the score seemed particularly out of place. Although I liked Repo Man and Sid and Nancy, the director seems out of his league when he tries to adapt a short story like this for the screen. I don't think there's any point in making a full-length feature out of any of Borges' work. A short film or a collection of short films on other short stories of his would have been better.

A marvelously odd and original futuristic sci-fi detective yarn

[Woodyanders · 9/10 · 15 March 2007]

Brilliant and diligent, but quirky and unorthodox detective Erik Lonnrot (splendidly played by the late, great Peter Boyle) investigates a bizarre series of murders in a bleak and chaotic futuristic city run by a strict totalitarian government. Lonnrot uncovers a complex occult conspiracy which places him in considerable peril. Writer/director Alex ("Repo Man") Cox relates the involving, intricate and elliptical narrative with remarkably bracing'n'bravura flashy, lively and insanely stylized aplomb, bringing a real sense of potent urgency, a playfully nutty tongue-in-cheek sensibility, and a ceaseless rapid-fire breakneck momentum to the fascinatingly eccentric story. Miguel Garzon's agile, prowling, restless cinematography makes especially adroit and exciting use of lengthy unedited takes. Pray for Rain's wonky and strikingly unique, yet catchy and rousing oddball score constitutes as another significant asset. The occasional fractured jump cuts are likewise quite effective and impressive. Boyle excels in a rare juicy and substantial lead, receiving bang-up support from Christopher Eccleston as an atheist religious expert and Miguel Sandoval as Lonnrot's loyal, sympathetic superior. The jolting surprise twist ending packs one hell of a startling punch. But what truly makes this film such a joy to watch is the feverishly hyperactive wealth of infectiously funky creativity and fiercely idiosyncratic originality evident throughout. A terrifically offbeat and inspired one-of-a-kind treat.

In the Labyrinths of Reason

[JustApt · 10/10 · 14 September 2009]

In his Death and Compass Jorge Luis Borges mocked Arthur Conan Doyle's brainchild Sherlock Holmes with his pure deduction and in his film Alex Cox goes still farther – he stretches the story to its logical limit turning it into an acerbic black comedy. The scene is some dystopian megalopolis consisting of back alleys and human warrens. And he crams it with Borges' symbols and signs: infinite mazes and deceitful mirrors, he even puts there Borges' hypothetical locus mundi – the mystical aleph. This brilliant movie is rather hard to get into and appreciate fully so it suits best only those who are both Jorge Luis Borges and Alex Cox connoisseurs.