Overrated

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I was actually quite chuffed to discover that this movie was on Youtube, namely because it is based on a play by George Bernard Shaw, one of my favourite playwrights. While there are a couple of more extreme parts of the play cut out (such as when Richard Dudgeon gives his speech on being a disciple of the devil), the play is pretty much intact (though why they kept the name is beyond me because I would have suspected that they may have wanted to change the name so as not to offend the mass market audience, though the fact that two of Hollywood's big names of the period were the lead actors probably ended up countering that fact).The story is set during the American Revolutionary War and is about how the black sheep of the village decides to take the place of the village vicar on the gallows, and how the person whom everybody dislikes turns out to be the noblest of all of the people in the village. It is also about inversions in that the vicar, a man of peace, becomes a man of war, and how the man of mischief becomes a man of honour. These themes are directly ported across from the play, and remain as true in the film as they did on stage (as I mentioned, the main digression from the play was when they cut out the 'devil's disciple speech, though there is also a lot of filler).The other theme in the play is the nature of good and evil, and what exactly is good and evil. To the British rebelling against the empire was considered evil, and an offence punishable by death, however to the colonists, the attacks on their liberty, and unfair taxation, was a wrong that cried out to be rightened. In the end the revolutionary war was pretty much like any other war: a dispute between the ruling classes who ended up using the working classes as the means in which to vent their frustrations. Okay, maybe in this instance the members of the American ruling class fought alongside the workers (and created the myth of the classless society so that the workers would believe that they were fighting for freedom and equality), but what is flagged is that this was not the case with the British, where the reason that the troops in New York were not dispatched was because the minister in charge preferred a holiday than actually prosecuting the war.

Synopis: Light hearted comic look at General Burgoyne's invasion of New York State in 1777-1778 pokes endearing fun at British and American perceptions of each other. Marching south into New York State, General John Burgoyne (Sir Laurence Olivier) is executing the evilest person he can find in every town he passes. In this manner the General expects to stifle resistance from the Devil's Disciples, Rebel irregulars impeding his path. However as this plan isn't working, the General decides to execute instead the most virtuous man he can find, Reverend Anderson (Burt Lancaster), the local minister, leaving untouched the local reprobate and likely rebel, the self-proclaimed Apostle of Satan, Dick Dungeon (Kirk Douglas) whose very mother would like to see hanged. Rescued from a cruel fate, the impeccable Reverend Anderson turns out to be the Rebel leader Burgoyne sought all along. A delightful comedy well played by the giants of the English language cinema, Lancaster-Olivier-Douglas, could have only be the product of the whimsical genius of George Bernard Shaw, the Dublin born playwright who may have known little of the Revolution but whose clever invention caught the English and American perceptions of each other, a Burgoyne imprisoned in his own insufferable, imperious, impervious arrogance fighting Americans who will use apparent sanctity as a cover for their nefarious clandestine behavior. Major Swindon: But what about history, sir? General John Burgoyne: History, sir, will tell lies, as usual!This is purely fiction you may believe every word of it. It is too bad that the celebrated playwright Shaw who died in 1950 did not live to see this production. Contrary to Shaw, there is little evidence that the British sanctioned whole scale war crimes prior to the Battle of Saratoga. Indeed, the British pardoned virtually every American civilian who requested. As fortunes of war changed, the same civilians applied for Congressional pardons, so much for the fortitude of American non-combatants or the lasting success of deluded British commanders in the war for hearts and minds. The incident described in Devil's Disciple may be a Bardic remembrance of the scalping of Jenny MacCrae, a Tory lass remade by American propaganda into a resolute Rebel and whose very name became the battle cry of Saratoga and the title of a popular American song. Throughout the 19th century the name of "Sweet Jenny MacCrae" was oft invoked by polite society in lieu of indulging in profanity. As British and American passions subsided a century and a half later when the play was written, the Jenny MacCrae incident may no longer have been politically correct. It took the genius of Shaw to hide the story in a parable which reminds both sides who they really are. George Bernard Shaw Devil's Disciple hardly ranks with the best of the Dublin born playwright George Bernard Shaw, one of the most prolific playwrights in the English language. Famous for the remark that a common language is the chasm which separates England from America, Shaw may have known little about the Revolution but knew much about the character of the peoples whose world views collided.

Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, both players who chose rather successfully to chart their own careers, decided on their third co-starring film to jointly produce it as well. The property chosen was George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple which takes place in the northern theater of operations in the American Revolution.Shaw's wit is going full tilt here as he's having a great old time blasting upper and middle class pretensions of British society. The vehicle he uses is General John Burgoyne who lost the Battle of Saratoga to the rebel army which guaranteed French recognition and European aid for the colonists. Both Lancaster as Parson Anthony Anderson and Kirk Douglas as committed non-believer Dick Dudgeon play larger than life characters here as they usually do and both have their moments. But in fact this film is stolen completely out from under them by Sir Laurence Olivier as General Burgoyne.As a previous reviewer noted, Shaw wrote the best lines in the play for the Burgoyne character. But it takes the skill of a player like Olivier to bring them off. Burgoyne was very much a product of Georgian Great Britain, a cynical man in a very cynical business. By the way Harry Andrews as Major Swinton does an excellent job essentially as Burgoyne's straight man. Andrews is a pompous sort of character and Olivier tosses the bon mots off him like a handball player.The story involves Dudgeon being mistaken for Anderson and being sentenced to hang for rebel activity. Anderson arouses the populace and sheds his parson's collar for rebel activity and saves Dudgeon from the noose. Burgoyne quits the town he was occupying and goes off to his destiny at Saratoga.But in this case as in a lot of Shaw plays, the story isn't as important as the commentary. And when the commentary is delivered by Olivier, it's being brought to you by the best.

When George Bernard Shaw wrote `The Devil's Disciple', it was not one of his favorite plays. In fact, he seldom allowed for it to be performed, while he was alive. By any standard, it does not stand up as well as some of his other plays (`Pygmalion', `Candida', `Saint Joan', `Major Barbara', `Arms and the Man', etc.). This film is rewarded with a screenplay that while uneven at times, maintains the spirit and flavor of Shaw's writing. It is also the beneficiary of three strong performances by Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, and especially, Laurence Olivier. It is rumored that with most of the Lancaster-Douglas films, that the two men would not decide until just before production started, which role they were going to play. In this film, it wouldn't matter. Built on a premise of role reversal, the actors and their roles are interchangeable. In fact, I think it would have been interesting if the movie were filmed twice. Once with the actors in their current roles, and another version with them swapping identities.Both give marvelous performances. Kirk Douglas starts out a little too broad, but you are instantly drawn to him as a man/patriot. His trial scene with Olivier is the highlight of the film. With Lancaster, you can see the foundation work being prepared for his role of `Elmer Gantry'. His fight scene with the soldiers has just the right amount of humor and slapstick. And is anyone as striking as he is when he first enters in his buckskins?But it is Olivier who steals this film. I have read how he did not really enjoy working for Lancaster and Douglas, and so he more or less threw his lines away without much conviction. If that is true, it worked for this picture. He has by far the best lines, best characterization, and straight-men to play off of (especially Harry Andrews). Nice work is also turned in by George Rose.`The Devil's Disciple' is by no means a classic. But it is a must see for film buffs, who want to see three terrific performances, and a pair of friends who obviously had a great chemistry between them, as well as a lot of fun working together.7 out of 10