Rent The Final Programme (1973)

Seeing as it was 1973 this definitely wasn't the FINAL programme.... - The Final Programme review by The REAL Film Cricket

I believe this is the first and possibly only mainstream film ever made as an adaptation of any of Michael Moorcock’s books. I have read some but never the series featuring Jerry Cornelius so my knowledge of the origin story is zero and therefore I cannot get as angry as Moorcock or his legion of fans did and have done since The Final Programme was released into the public sphere fifty-two years ago.

Therefore I watched the film as a film I had never seen before or even knew anything about prior to firing up the Blu-Ray player. In retrospect this is probably the best way to view The Final Programme. It has left a lot of angry and fed-up people out there.

Firstly for a film set in an alternate near future that is dystopian and ending, probably around now if the 1973 created year is to go by, I have not seen a film in some while that screamed ‘1970s’ at top volume. Neither a good thing nor a bad thing but unlike some recent 70s films I have watched it has not survived as well as it gets older.

Secondly, I did appreciate the dated way the story refused to hold my hand from the opening minutes to the end of the film. So often in modern films everything has to be explained and foreshadowed or Basil Exposition-ed or you get hordes of people saying, ‘I don’t get it’. This was refreshing, and confusing, so confusing.

But once I settled in, relaxed, at let the nonsense and weird plot holes wash over me I enjoyed what I was watching. Mainly because of the old-school British actors on display, with Graham Crowden deliciously ‘Graham Crowdening’ ever scene. Also, we had Sterling Hayden, Patric Magee, Harry Andrews, Hugh Griffiths, et al, dumped in our lamps for a jolt from the past and bringing a smile to your face. Fair enough they could act too, so no bad thing.

Jon Finch, a man who philosophy on acting would be mine if I had any talent (read his quote it is so honest) is definitely the glue that holds the story together and keeps you watching. A less charismatic actor would be an attention loser. I have heard a lot of anger for the film is his playing of Cornelius as a ‘James Bond figure’ but really he as was more like a grubbier but less dozy Mike Myers, and all the better for it.

Finch is funny and makes a big showy role believable as does Jenny Runacre, a less experienced actor at the time, who takes him on in the baddy role, I’m guessing, and is nearly as charismatic. They definitely had on-screen chemistry.

The story itself does meander and look cheap, especially at the beginning, but once the focus is on what the plans are for the microfilm and Miss Brunner, things seem to click into place and what is happening in front of is easier to follow, and funny. Not in a stomach-holding way but in a snorting head-shaking way.

With the newfound freedom of the seventies, we get to seen completely naked ladies but oddly no real sex-scenes. There is some action running about and shooting with futuristic pistols that is strangely realistic and dull.

Overall the story is daft, the acting is fun and strong, especially Finch, the look and locations all good but the pace and the way we get from A to B definitely feels unfocussed and little haphazard.

The Final Programme is a bizarre and very 1970s weird, science-fiction like, futuristic tale, it is not great, and lot of you reading this will definitely hate it, but I would say it is not boring.