“We’re taught to want things, not people or meaning.” – Wilson
1001 Info
MOVIE: Seconds
DIRECTOR(S): John Frankenheimer
WRITER(S): Lewis John Carlino
1001 #: 452
GENRE(S): Sci-Fi
RELEASE DATE(S): 1966
The first Sci-Fi entry on my road to 1001 comes with John Frakenheimer’s Seconds. It follows Arthur Hamilton, our middle-aged protagonist who finds himself unsatisfied with the choices he’s made and lives a completely passionless life. When an old friend phones him and claims he can give him a fresh start, Arthur’s life begins spiraling out of control.
Arthur Hamilton is a man who should be proud of the life he’s created. He’s expecting to become president of the bank he works at any day now, he has a loving wife, a home, a boat, a daughter in the Ivy League, and yet he feels incomplete. Here is a man who made the choices that society told him to instead of following his own intuition. With seemingly nothing to lose, Arthur makes a Faustian deal with a shady company that affirms him a new and happy life for the meager price of $30,000 (adjusted for inflation, nearly $200,000 today.) However, if a man leads a soulless existence, even the most attractive and wealthy one will feel empty.
There’s allegory galore here including the yearning for a fountain of youth, existentialism, the cons of materialism, the impersonal nature of modern society, and man’s search for meaning. Is ultimate freedom really the secret to happiness? Is having a family, routine, and stability the pillars on which to build your life? These questions are up to the viewer to decide. I can’t help but wonder if Rock Hudson himself identified personally with the story, seeing as he was a gay man hiding his lifestyle for many years. He had to have drawn on his own personal fears of living a life for other people, only to mournfully regret this decision later in life.
Seconds is a genre film that was far before its time. There was no audience ready in 1966, but this will live on in discussions of cult cinema. Frankenheimer never cheats the viewer or condescends to them, which adds an authenticity that’s not standard of this genre. This is an excellent paranoia piece that always carries an undercurrent of dread that’s inescapable. The score by Jerry Goldsmith is incredible and adds an even thicker layer of delusion to the manic direction. Dark, cynical, and refusing to let the audience off the hook at the end. My kind of movie. Time to read the book.
