The younger brother of an assassinated US President is led down a rabbit hole of conspiracies and dead ends after learning of a man claiming to be the real shooter.The younger brother of an assassinated US President is led down a rabbit hole of conspiracies and dead ends after learning of a man claiming to be the real shooter.The younger brother of an assassinated US President is led down a rabbit hole of conspiracies and dead ends after learning of a man claiming to be the real shooter.
- Keith
- (as Toshiro Mifune)
- First Mate of T.K.
- (as Robert Courleigh)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to Jeff Bridges, Toshirô Mifune didn't know any English and had to learn his lines phonetically.
- GoofsNick Kegan does appear to be a bit young to be a brother of a U.S. President who was slain nearly 20 years earlier. However, it's explained that Pa Kegan fathered them from two different wives. Men are known for fathering children (from different women) decades apart.
- Quotes
John Cerruti: Your father spent eleven million dollars to raise your brother up from a skirt-chasing college-boy to President of the United States. For twenty years he told him what to do and how and why he was gonna do it and what would happen when it was done. Your father put Tim in the White House - why? Because that's where you can generate the most cash; a cold-ass business proposition, like everything else in this society. But your brother decided to stir up the population. Began to think we were all living in a democracy, he started believing it. Lunch with the De Gaulles, dinner with Khrushchev, the whole razzle-dazzle went to his head. Yet in spite of the fact that everybody out there in this country lives in the same dog-eat-dog way, grabbing any angle to make a buck, if you were to inform them that your father had Tim killed, they'd wanna tear the old man apart, limb from limb.
- Alternate versionsReissued in 1983 with deleted scenes restored.
This movie somehow slipped under the radar years ago. Whereas "Manchurian Candidate" got the attention it rightfully deserved, "Winter Kills" was killed by its controversy and production faults.
It was allegedly filmed in 1975 and only released in 1979, although I can't find any evidence to back this up. What I do know is that it was given an X rating in the UK, and when a movie in the UK gets an X rating, you know something's wrong.
I'm not sure why it received such a harsh rating but evidently that had something to do with its box office failure. I suppose its themes (clear allusion to the JFK assassination) were too heavy - not to mention the violence was rather explicit.
Seen today, this movie is an underrated gem. John Huston delivers a great performance as Bridges' father, while Bridges is equally great. The music in the film is eerie and tense - without it, I doubt the film would be quite as good as it is.
It was directed by William Richert (who played the gay Bob Pigeon in "My Own Private Idaho") and he does a fine job. The movie builds its suspense well; the only segment I didn't like too much was when Bridges goes to visit his father for the first time. I felt it went on too long and was out of place.
Other than that, this is a very good film and a sadly underrated conspiracy theory movie that never got its chance to make a mark.
- MovieAddict2016
- Jun 28, 2005
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Philadelphia Clan
- Filming locations
- Death Valley National Park, California, USA(Pa Kegan's villa)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $6,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,161,386
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $11,182
- Aug 13, 2023
- Gross worldwide
- $1,161,848