Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

antoniocasaca123 Summarizing what I found from the film: a good idea, almost always poorly developed throughout the narrative, with many annoying moments. Despite having some merits, the best of the film is still the first 35/40 minutes, still without the main character "transformed" into a new identity. I was a little disappointed, because the film is from the same director (John Frankenheimer) of the fantastic "manchurian candidate", made just 4 years earlier. I can only rate it with 6/10.

Leofwine_draca John Frankenheimer's tense thriller is heavy on atmosphere and suspense and short on action and event, so if you're a fan of the former two, then this may just be the film for you. It's a very bleak movie with a downbeat and horrific ending, made all the more terrible through its subtlety. Throughout SECONDS themes of paranoia, identity, trust, isolation, and eternal youth are studied in a slow, sombre way. While not overtly horrific, the coldness and hopelessness of this movie is designed to remain in the viewer's mind after watching, and there is much to think about.While the plot itself - old people are "sold" new, young bodies to inhabit - seems like an old, clichéd sci-fi premise, this film couldn't be further from that. Indeed what makes SECONDS so coldly compelling is it's sheer matter-of-factness and feeling of reality, the way the story is filmed makes the premise seem plausible. Additional factors which add to the feel are an appropriate score from Jerry Goldsmith and some wonderful acting (especially on the part of Rock Hudson, who totally convinces as somebody trapped in somebody else's body).Also particularly good is John Randolph, who plays the older version of Hudson's character and transfixes us with his sad, doleful expression. Scattered throughout are a smattering of scenes which convey nausea and sickness (like the hippy gathering in the woods, or the drunk scene) in a realistic way, while the black and white photography really adds to the bleakness of things. Not one for the cheap thrills crowd, SECONDS instead is a minor classic in itself and worth watching for those who enjoy more psychological chills.

babblon26 Just had to add a note of admiration for this greatly overlooked masterpiece of modern angst. I saw it when a student in Glasgow in 1969. That is probably why it has stayed to haunt me - possibly to the grave. Beyond that, I really don't know.I'm no film critic but like several of the cinema cognoscenti, I was surprised Rock had a movie like this in him. Probably his best. The camera work takes you right in. You don't remember willingly suspending disbelief. It is as plausible and convincing as a good nightmare. Bleak, black and white, terse like John Boorman's Point Blank. Round about the same time as Blow Up appeared. Also a surprisingly mature performance from David Hemmings, matched the mood of powerlessness and fatalism that pervades Seconds.A little further off it recalled the Incredible Shrinking Man. The same mood of fatalism pervades but from a different perspective. In the latter, the isolated individual is redeemed by some metaphysical union with the universe. In Seconds the isolated, narcissistic self implodes.John Frankenheimer's modern Frankenstein. Or another parallel universemight be Dorian Grey. It is a multi layered movie.

spelvini The movie that Rock Hudson considered to be a horror story and a big gamble for his otherwise steely screen persona, Seconds from 1966 is a stark black-and-white parable o the dangers of wishful thinking. A dark side to the same theme that made It's a Wonderful Life so potent a story for the working class, Seconds makes the same statement for the urban professional who after climbing the corporate ladder to succeed finds himself deplete of the very thing he was competing for, namely his vitality.Next in line for the top job at his bank, Antiochus 'Tony' Wilson (Rock Hudson) is disturbed when he gets a late night phone call from his old tennis buddy and school chum whom he thought was dead for many years. What he discovers is an organization that will give him a new youthful life and lifestyle for a fee, and he accepts after some coercion. Tony gets a new life but finds an empty existence inside him after he has left his wife and old comfortable surroundings. When he requests to return to his former life and start over he finds that those in charge demand an even higher sacrifice than he had imagined.This is one of those dark films that stand today as one of the landmarks of the sixties, when real disappointment was rising in the working class, and those dropouts from society who saw the formal institutions of home and family and career as vapid social constructs. It's a bold statement, a protest film in a way because it highlights how society functions on a base of empty values, yet the filmmakers offer no real alternative. When Tony attempts to recover his place and start again, the organization demands severe loyalty.There's also the supposedly "new" community that Tony enters. As an artist, he lives the free-spirited life admired by all his neighbors. The real test comes when he is required to follow though with his new identity, something in which he discovers is to demanding to support. Knowing what we know today about Rock Hudson, the layers of meaning in the film run deep making this one of those quintessential Hudson vehicles for any academics classroom.The stark imagery highlights the noir qualities of the film. This is certainly film noir at it's most existential, as the fantasy-like atmosphere of the world of the film contains enough everyday trappings to keep us identifying with the characters, even as the action veers off kilter and meta-horror situations occur.