Part of Weekend Classics
This thinly veiled and enormously entertaining take on the JFK assassination stars Jeff Bridges as Nick Kegan, scion of a fabulously wealthy and powerful family headed by patriarch John Huston (“the real delight of the film” wrote Vincent Canby, New York Times), as a character based on Joe Kennedy. Bridges soon finds himself going down multiple rabbit holes while trying to unravel the conspiracy behind the murder of a U.S. president, his older brother. With an astonishing supporting cast that seems to parody the 1970s vogue for all-star epics like AIRPORT — including Anthony Perkins, Eli Wallach, Sterling Hayden, Dorothy Malone, Tomas Milian, Belinda Bauer, Ralph Meeker, Richard Boone, Toshirō Mifune, and a wordless, unbilled appearance by Elizabeth Taylor, as a character inspired by JFK’s mobbed-up mistress Judith Exner.
This new 35mm print, the first struck in over 40 years, was supervised by legendary cinematographer John Bailey, the movie’s camera operator. Bailey also photographed additional scenes a year later when Vilmos Zsigmond was unavailable.
“The perfect conspiracy thriller for the QAnon era. The fact that Rialto Pictures and superfan Quentin Tarantino are bringing WINTER KILLS back for a theatrical run, complete with newly struck 35mm prints, at this particular moment in time is possibly the least weird thing about the movie and its storied history.” —David Fear, Rolling Stone “Furiously funny… Almost everyone in WINTER KILLS is larger, meaner or more lunatic than life. The ability to create and sustain a not always disciplined fantasy — a tale that effectively bypasses logic with a reality all its own — is a rare talent… Such a tale is WINTER KILLS, William Richert’s visually slick adaptation of the novel by Richard Condon (The Manchurian Candidate).” —Vincent Canby, New York Times (May 27, 1979) “EVERY INCH OF IT IS GLORIOUSLY ALIVE… Like some intricately embroidered misadventure recounted by a superb, somewhat tipsy storyteller… I turned around and went straight back to the theater and saw the movie again. The fact is that I enjoyed it even more the second time.” —Brendan Gill, New Yorker (Jun 4, 1979)
