A country boy arrives in Chicago, gets killed by some gangsters, and returns to life with superhuman powers in this satirical look at movie genres.
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Reviews
Purely Joyful Movie!
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
Fearless Frank is a genuinely odd early work by Philip Kaufman, featuring an early performance by Jon Voight as a flawed superhero. It attempts to recreate the feel and atmosphere of a comic book, particularly in its first half. Ultimately, it is a mixed bag that will have difficulty appealing either to children or to fans of experimental film.If you watch only the first half hour, Fearless Frank appears to be intended as a children's film. The characters seem straight out of a Dick Tracy comic, complete with bizarrely disfigured criminals. There is a definite camp element to this section of the film, with comic narration provided by a mysterious, and melodramatic, on screen narrator with a typewriter. Similarly, a scientist's patented evil detector gives the proceedings the feel of a sixties children's matinée. Only the plot line, which revolves around a young farm boy resurrected from the dead to become a superhero suggests anythingHowever, the film gets increasingly odd as it goes along. A clone of the hero is introduced, and the plot shifts from a straight superhero story to one of a character corrupted by success. From here the film becomes increasingly surreal and inaccessible. In the end, it becomes more of a film for Kaufman completists than a film one would watch for enjoyment.
i LOVE this movie. I LOVE it! i saw it in the 1980s, which contradicts other reviewers info here. but i saw it, not in the movie theaters and not on television, but in film school. the school of visual arts had the foresight at that time, to show and old film, at that time, to a bunch of lunatic film students and everyone cheered and went nuts. now, this film isn't for everyone. and i don't think i'm better or worse than anyone else who's seen this. but we'd been trained to recognize "camp" and "campy" production values for their own sake. this's a spirited romp. with an ultimately downbeat message. voight is great. monique van vooren is wonderful (always wonderful to see an underrated actress used so well) and the oddball cameos are... odd. the improvised dialog (hell, improvised shooting in chi-town) make this a must-see for fans of casavettes. think "shadows", comically unhinged. yeah, it's amateurish at times. yeah, those holes show right through. but watch this either in your 'teens or twenties, or if you can't do that, stoned might help. or if you have a non-uptight sense of the daring and outlandish, this should work for you. if you're looking for seamless, state of the art, same-ness by today's eyeball knockout special effects standards, don't even bother. you just won't get it and end up being angry for your wasted time. otherwise, check it out!
I just finished watching this odd movie which I had taped last year but forgotten until now. (I think it ran on Showtime.)I think if Troma Studios had existed in the '60s they would have come up with this; it seems too strange for American International, no slackers when it comes to weird movies. Oddly disjointed story, cheesy production values, but the whole film is enhanced by narrator Ken Nordine (Word Jazz) and the appropriately chaotic jazz soundtrack.This is a movie you should acquire and save for a late-night party with friends. It needs to be watched, not ignored as background, or you lose track of the surreal plot line. I wondered if it had been cut mercilessly because it seems too choppy. But seeing it without commercials helped immeasurably.Somehow I doubt you will watch it more than once.
One of the most refreshingly unique films I have ever seen. A must-see for those who liked Raising Arizona or the Space Ghost series. Campy and entertaining and a most welcome break from the formulaic drivel. If you like "pop" movies, you will not understand this one. But if you are tired of the same old thing, you need a hero. Fearless Frank is that hero.