You may find your patience tried by this initially slow-moving thriller, but my advice is to stick with it until the end as it's one of those films that starts off as just okay and builds into something that's great. This was the film that worked as the ticket for Paul Verhoeven to move to Hollywood, although it ironically took four years for this to actually be released worldwide. Verhoeven then went on to even greater fame and success with his masterpiece ROBOCOP, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Fans of Verhoeven's later successes will no doubt be aware of the rather excessive nature of his films in the depiction of gore, violence, nudity, and sex. This one is no exception, beginning as it does with the lead walking around completely naked. Throughout the film, Verhoeven does his best to try and offend the church, with his repeated religious imagery, some of it blasphemous (in one instance, Gerard visits a church and sees a life size statue of Christ being crucified; he images that it is Herman on the wall, and proceeds to strip him). The straight and homosexual sex scenes are also explicit, so be warned.
Throughout the first hour, not a lot really happens in the way of plot development, although we have an intelligent and literate script to make things easier to watch. I've only previously seen a couple of Dutch thrillers, the likes of THE LIFT and AMSTERDAMNED, and they all seem to have the same kind of grotty yet down-to-earth quality about them; a result of the less-than-hefty budget, no doubt. This film is much the same, and Verhoeven isn't one for fancy camera-work either; he shoots his films matter-of-factly, and scores points by not being afraid to experiment.
At around the hour mark, the plot really begins to kick into gear, when Gerard discovers the films showing Christine's string of marriages. It is here that our first suspicions about her being something other than a nice, young, innocent girl are aroused, and the tension begins to grow. As a way to include the fantastic into an otherwise realistic film, Verhoeven uses the old trick of our lead having hideous nightmares, where we see eyes bulging and dropping out of doorways, images of castration and lots more besides. The finale is excellent, with a truly shocking and gruesome demise for one of the man in a car accident, and then an ambiguous ending.
The acting is pretty much excellent, especially in the case of Jeroen Krabbé, who also found this to be his ticket to Hollywood. Krabbé brings charisma and depth to his role of the tormented crime writer. Soutendijk is suitably mysterious as the lover who may or may not be a killer, while Hoffman is surprisingly effective as the muscular lover who does have a brain in his head after all. Fans of Verhoeven's BASIC INSTINCT would be wise to watch this film, as this is where plenty of ideas seem to have been taken from. THE FOURTH MAN is an above average thriller, and the good story, script and performances make it one to watch.
Fans of Verhoeven's later successes will no doubt be aware of the rather excessive nature of his films in the depiction of gore, violence, nudity, and sex. This one is no exception, beginning as it does with the lead walking around completely naked. Throughout the film, Verhoeven does his best to try and offend the church, with his repeated religious imagery, some of it blasphemous (in one instance, Gerard visits a church and sees a life size statue of Christ being crucified; he images that it is Herman on the wall, and proceeds to strip him). The straight and homosexual sex scenes are also explicit, so be warned.
Throughout the first hour, not a lot really happens in the way of plot development, although we have an intelligent and literate script to make things easier to watch. I've only previously seen a couple of Dutch thrillers, the likes of THE LIFT and AMSTERDAMNED, and they all seem to have the same kind of grotty yet down-to-earth quality about them; a result of the less-than-hefty budget, no doubt. This film is much the same, and Verhoeven isn't one for fancy camera-work either; he shoots his films matter-of-factly, and scores points by not being afraid to experiment.
At around the hour mark, the plot really begins to kick into gear, when Gerard discovers the films showing Christine's string of marriages. It is here that our first suspicions about her being something other than a nice, young, innocent girl are aroused, and the tension begins to grow. As a way to include the fantastic into an otherwise realistic film, Verhoeven uses the old trick of our lead having hideous nightmares, where we see eyes bulging and dropping out of doorways, images of castration and lots more besides. The finale is excellent, with a truly shocking and gruesome demise for one of the man in a car accident, and then an ambiguous ending.
The acting is pretty much excellent, especially in the case of Jeroen Krabbé, who also found this to be his ticket to Hollywood. Krabbé brings charisma and depth to his role of the tormented crime writer. Soutendijk is suitably mysterious as the lover who may or may not be a killer, while Hoffman is surprisingly effective as the muscular lover who does have a brain in his head after all. Fans of Verhoeven's BASIC INSTINCT would be wise to watch this film, as this is where plenty of ideas seem to have been taken from. THE FOURTH MAN is an above average thriller, and the good story, script and performances make it one to watch.