Robert Sheckley's The Seventh Victim is one of those short stories which, along with The Veldt, Sentry and The Test, made dystopian science fiction one of my favorite genres as a teen.
La Decima Vittima turns this terrifying tale of a future where murder becomes a social game into a campy farce. A few clever bits aside (probably courtesy of satirist Ennio Flaiano, who has a writing credit), this feels like Blade Runner lampooned by Austin Powers.
Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress costar. Director Elio Petri nailed the oppressive atmosphere appropriate for Sheckley's classic... but did so in a different movie (his remarkable Indagine Su Un Cittadino Al Di Sopra Di Ogni Sospetto).
At least La Decima Vittima shows how brilliant Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 adaptation is: to see how terribly wrong it could have gone, you need to look no further than this.
5/10
La Decima Vittima turns this terrifying tale of a future where murder becomes a social game into a campy farce. A few clever bits aside (probably courtesy of satirist Ennio Flaiano, who has a writing credit), this feels like Blade Runner lampooned by Austin Powers.
Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress costar. Director Elio Petri nailed the oppressive atmosphere appropriate for Sheckley's classic... but did so in a different movie (his remarkable Indagine Su Un Cittadino Al Di Sopra Di Ogni Sospetto).
At least La Decima Vittima shows how brilliant Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 adaptation is: to see how terribly wrong it could have gone, you need to look no further than this.
5/10