I began watching “The Ninth Configuration” not knowing anything about what it was about. I enjoy approaching movies in this way from time to time. It is fun to discover a film as you watch it, as if you had never heard much about it, as was the case with me as far as William Peter Blatty’s 1979 film goes. The film opens with a man sitting at the window of a castle which is surrounded by fog. The song, “San Antone” by Denny Brooks plays on the soundtrack. This is a very nice, soft rock, almost country sounding song. This is a very strange, yet a welcome kind of strange, way to open this film. The title suggests that it is going to be some kind of horror film involving Satan, demons, and God in some way. “The Ninth Configuration” turns out to be a religious-themed film, but not in the way one may expect.
As the film unfolds, we meet Army psychiatrist, Col. Vincent Kane (Stacy Keach). Kane is assigned the duty of counseling the inmates of a special Army psychiatric hospital somewhere in a forest in the Pacific Northwest. The hospital is located in an old castle which tends to be surrounded most of the time by fog and clouds. It turns out the castle is really in Hungary, as the entire film was made in and around Budapest. Kane meets a fellow psychiatrist, Col. Richard Fell played by Ed Flanders who you may remember from the tv show, “St. Elsewhere.” The inmates are introduced in the film one at a time, the primary of which are Lt. Frankie Reno (Jason Miller—you will likely remember as Father Karras from “The Exorcist”) and astronaut, Capt. Billy Cutshaw, played by Scott Wilson from “In Cold Blood” and the tv series, “The Walking Dead.” Wilson plays Hershel Greene, the veterinarian, on “The Walking Dead.”
The first 80 minutes of “The Ninth Configuration” center on the patient/doctor relationship between Kane and the inmates. There is definitely an anti-war stance at work in this film as the mind of every patient we meet as been adversely effected by his time in combat. The film uses humor, in the way “Catch-22” and “M*A*S*H” do, to convey the fact that these soldiers’ minds have been seriously harmed by war. “The Ninth Configuration” is more than just an anti-war film. The film makes an argument for faith in God. How it does so, would necessitate a more detailed description of the film, which would require too many spoilers to be divulged, so I will simply stop here and reiterate that the film is not simply an anti-war film and it is not a horror film. It is also not an overtly religious film like the “Thief in the Night” films of the mid-70’s and early 80’s. The film takes a dramatic shift in tone after these first 80 minutes as it changes the location of the action from the castle to a biker bar. At first this seems like a strange choice, however, what ensues during the scene in the bar heightens the meaning of the film tremendously. All of the performances in the film are very good, especially those of Stacy Keach, Ed Flanders, and Scott Wilson. Another performance worth mentioning is that of Steve Sandor who plays one of the bikers in the bar scene. He conveys a sense of menace that is powerful and frightening. His eye make-up, which can be seen in some of the posters for the film, is interesting to look at and, though it seems strange, it fits his character.
“The Ninth Configuration” was directed by William Peter Blatty, author of the book, and author of “The Exorcist.” When “The Ninth Configuration” opened in theaters, it was, at one point, known as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane,” which makes the film sound like a slasher film. This kind of advertising, though misleading, made sense in the late 70’s and early 80’s, as a multitude of slasher films were being released at this time, captializing on the success of “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween.”
As previously mentioned, “The Ninth Configuration” is not a horror film. It does not even have any horror film elements in it, other than the fact that the castle in which most of the action of the film takes place has a lot of fog surrounding it. It is the kind of film which may require a bit of patience from the viewer, though if you enjoy films that take their time to tell a story and are character-driven, you will likely enjoy this film.
This year, conference attendees will have to make do with speakers including Daniel Greco of Yale University who will present a talk on Friday, May 10 entitled, “Iteration and Fragmentation” and, from Harvard University, Susanna Siegel, who will present a talk on Saturday, May 11 entitled, “Phenomenal That’s-All-Ness.” Also on Saturday, one may choose to attend the talk entitled, “Epistemic Entitlement and Luck,” presented by Sandford Goldberg of Northwestern University. Discussants at this year’s conference include Imogen Dickie of the University of Toronto and Pascal Engel of the University of Geneva. All sessions of this year’s conference will be held in the Brunswick Ballroom. Complimentary refreshments will be served during the 3:00 hour both days of the conference.
