Every kind thought is the hope of the world.
– Ed
Flanders, as Colonel Fell.
Many times, over the years, people have asked me the same question about The
Ninth Configuration:
“What’s it like?”
My response is always the same: incomparable.
There’s no other movie to compare
it to.
It’s set in an asylum, but it’s nothing like One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest.
It’s the author’s official sequel to The Exorcist, exploring
the themes of faith, suffering, good and evil, but
it’s not a horror movie.
The Ninth Configuration was directed, written, and produced
by William Peter Blatty.
He based the script on his own novel: Twinkle, Twinkle,
"Killer" Kane, originally published in 1966.
This
story is the second in Blatty’s “trilogy of faith”, an indirect sequel to The
Exorcist, with the novel Legion as the third part.
The
astronaut from the house party scene in The Exorcist, ominously warned
by the possessed girl: “You’ll die up there!”, is Cutshaw in The Ninth
Configuration.
The Ninth Configuration opens on a melancholic tone, as Captain
Billy Cutshaw (Scott Wilson) sits by a gothic castle window, watches a
torrential rainstorm outside, and listens to a song on a cassette player.
The song San Antone, performed by Denny Brooks, written by Barry
De Vorzon, plays on the soundtrack as we move from Cutshaw in his room, to the
castle grounds, surrounding area, and armed sentries braving the weather in
hooded ponchos at the castle gate.
The song ends, Cutshaw stops the cassette, and sadly lowers his head.
The opening titles play over a striking nightmare sequence: a countdown
to a moonshot is abruptly aborted as the moon looms up behind the rocket and
launch pad.
Psychiatrist, Colonel Fell (Ed Flanders) informs us in voice-over
narrative, that it’s sometime in the ‘70s, towards
the end of the Vietnam war. The castle is in a secluded, unspecified location, shrouded in mist, set
somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
The building is being used as a military
asylum.
The castle shown in the movie is the Burg Eltz Castle. It
overlooks the Moselle River, between Koblenz and Trier, in Germany.
After the sad
opening scene and the surprising dream credit sequence, there’s a genre switch
again to comedy, as we’re introduced to the castle residents:
Lieutenant Frankie Reno (Jason Miller) is adapting
Shakespeare’s plays, with dogs in the roles.He has a problem with Hamlet.
Lieutenant Spinell (Joe Spinell) is Reno’s casting
director.
Major Nammack (Moses Gunn) believes he’s Superman.
Captain Fairbanks (George DiCenzo) has multiple
personalities.
One believes he can walk through walls.
He smashes a hole in one
wall to punish the atoms after he takes a running bash and fails, miserably, to
pass through.
Another of his personalities is a sword-carrying nun who
exorcises a Cola vending machine.
Lieutenant Bennish (Robert Loggia) believes he has
been abducted to the planet Venus, is enraged that his flying belt has been
confiscated, and promises not to use it to escape.
Lieutenant Gomez (Alejandro Rey) is a painter,
complaining there’s no color in the air.
Lieutenant Fromme (William Peter Blatty) believes he
is the real psychiatrist and steals Colonel Fell’s jacket, pants, and stethoscope
at every opportunity.
Major Groper (Neville Brand) attempts, in vain, to
maintain discipline among the lunatics.
Sergeants Krebs (Tom Atkins) and Christian (Stephen
Powers) patrol the castle and grounds, overseeing everything.
The humor works.
Before
William Peter Blatty wrote his landmark 1971 horror novel: The Exorcist,
he was a comedy screenwriter.
The patients, even though they say and do crazy shit, are all highly
intelligent, some near-genius, and highly decorated for their combat service.
It seems unlikely that these men would be faking insanity to avoid
combat, but suspicion still hangs over them.
Cutshaw is the odd man out: an astronaut who aborted his mission to fly
to the moon, during the final countdown.
The question is why?
Cutshaw wasn’t in combat.
Why would he fake insanity?
To get to the core of the men’s problems, and to ascertain if their PTSD
is real and they are on the level, a new psychiatrist arrives at the facility.
The comedy then shifts into drama.
Colonel
Kane (Stacy Keach) is unconventional in his
methods.
Temperate and stoic, no matter how much the inmates try to provoke him.
But there’s something else going on with Kane.
In his quiet moments, he suffers flashbacks.
Something’s there in his mind, deep in the rain-drenched jungle he
envisions.
We see two of Kane’s dreams.
The first is a brief glimpse of three crosses in a cloudscape, bathed in light, possibly a vision of Heaven.
In the second dream, Cutshaw is walking on the surface of the moon, the
lunar landing craft in the background.
Cutshaw places the American flag, then turns and raises his arms.
The camera draws back and we see Christ (played by Stacy Keach) on the
cross.
As this scene plays out, we hear Kane, in voice-over, give an argument
proving the existence of God:
“In order for life to have appeared spontaneously on earth, there first
had to be hundreds of millions of protein molecules of the ninth configuration.
But given the size of the planet Earth, do you know how long it would take for
just one of these protein molecules to appear entirely by chance? Roughly ten
to the two hundred and forty-third power – billions of years. And I find that
far, far more fantastic than simply believing in a God.”
This monologue was inspired by the studies of Dr.
Pierre Lecomte du Noüy, a French biophysicist, philosopher, theologian, and
author.
An agnostic
who converted to Christianity.
In his
book Human Destiny, published in 1947, he describes through his telefinalist
hypothesis, and study of the chirality of amino acids in a protein, that life
and evolution could not have happened simply by chance; God is the driving
force for everything.
Science
tells us how things work.
Only God
and faith can provide the meaning behind the mystery of life.
A battle
of wills ensues between Cutshaw the patient and Kane the psychiatrist.
After
disrupting a church mass, Cutshaw asks Kane:
“If you
die first, in this life after death, will you give me a sign?”
Kane says
yes.Cutshaw dismisses it.
He meant the request as a mocking taunt, but Kane keeps
his word.
They meet
and debate the mystery of faith, reason for suffering, existence of God, nature
of good and evil.
Kane argues that if evil exists in the world, so does
goodness.
Proof of which is the existence of love, the selflessness of man, altruistic
acts, that one person will sacrifice their own life in order to save another.
Cutshaw’s challenge to Kane is to give just one personal example of genuine altruistic
self-sacrifice to back up his argument.
Tensions
lead to a violent confrontation in a bar, involving Kane, Cutshaw, and a
motorcycle gang led by Stanley (Steve Sandor) and Richard (Richard Lynch).
This
movie is also notable as being the first to use the Howie Scream
stock sound effect, in the moment when knife-wielding biker, Stanley, attacks
Kane.
Like many
movies, The Ninth Configuration, was poorly received on its release and widely
criticized over the years. I believe in credit where it’s due: Blatty helmed
the entire project and achieved a memorable mind-trip, with a genre mix of
comedy, drama, war story, tragedy and theological thriller.
You have to go into this movie with patience and an open mind.
Be sure
to see the version labelled as the Definitive Cut; there have been
several versions released over the years, differing in running time and with
key scenes missing.
The Definitive
Cut is the best version, with the inclusion of the prologue sequence, with
the song San Antone playing, other scenes throughout, and a clearer
ending.
I’ve
always found watching The Ninth Configuration an entertaining and rewarding experience. Stunning
visuals.
Atmospheric setting.
Brilliant and, at times, hilariously written
script.
All played out with an excellent ensemble cast that clearly had a blast
making this movie.
I first saw it as a video store VHS rental in the early ‘80s.
I’ve seen
it many times since then, and it is now part of my movie collection.
So many movies just follow a predictable format. The Ninth Configuration dares to be a very different movie,
in so many ways.
With understanding of the author and director’s vision, we can
appreciate the achievement of everyone involved.
With so many layers to the story, a funny and quotable script,
serious themes, effective plot twist, and an ending that is profound and
genuinely moving, this is one of the most original and ambitious movies I’ve
ever seen.
The Ninth Configuration was originally released in the
United States on February 29, 1980.
A leap year. Take a leap of faith and take the time to watch this surreal,
thought-provoking, and underrated classic.
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