Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), Burt Lancaster (Deliverance), John Hurt (Alien) and Dennis Hopper (Blue Velvet) star in director Sam Peckinpah's last film completed before he died aged 59 in 1984. With a cast like that what could go wrong?

I really think this is one film where context is important to understanding why it does what it does the way it does, so here goes...

Peckinpah was an acclaimed director after hits like The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs; when news spread he was working on The Osterman Weekend stars lined up to audition for the role with those starring in the film working for far less than their usual rate - just to get to work with such an esteemed man of such reputation. Yet that was also his downfall: reputation. he was an angry, bitter man who battled drugs and alcoholism and who was very ill during the film's shoot. Furthermore he was a tyrant, he was notoriously mean to actors and rarely got on with any producers so, much like Pat Garret And Billy The Kid, The Osterman Weekend was re-edited after Peckinpah's cut was shown to a test audience with a generally poor response. He came into this film several years after Convoy during which the pariah had stooped so artistically low as to shoot music videos and only really got back into film making after a 1st unit job for Don Siegel, his close friend. As it happens, Peckinpah made TOW within time and budget but it wasn't enough to restore his reputation amongst critics - mainly because of the convoluted plot. Then again, that's hardly surprising considering the re-edit, and the multiple versions of the script - none of which anyone involved seems to have been wholly happy with. And Peckinpah hated the book the film was based on, which is always going to be a bad start.

Anyway, with hazy context in place, what of the film? Well, i really can't say it's brilliant because it just isn't. There are moments that showcase Peckinpah's acute attention to detail, the brutality of his violence and come of his more canny editing techniques - not to mention drawing out one incredible performance from Craig T. Nelson as the titular Osterman. There's some great photography dotted amongst the dense narrative, rife with crosses and double crosses to the point that at the end it's really quite difficult to work out quite who was scamming who and why. But the film is good, make no doubt, and contains enough brilliance to make it not only worthwhile viewing once but probably a second or third time too.

In short, it's Network with Chuck Norris thrown in for good measure.