240) The Hand (1981)

"It was just one of those things. A freak accident."

Director

Oliver Stone

Cast
Michael Caine - Jon Lansdale
Andrea Marcovicci - Anne Lansdale
Mara Hobel - Lizzie Lansdale

Annie McEnroe - Stella Roche
Bruce McGill - Brian Ferguson
Rosemary Murphy - Karen Wagner
Viveca Lindfors - Psychologist

With a title like "The Hand," I expected a simple cheesy flick with a plot pulled from a truck stop horror paperback novel that's now long out-of-print. 

"The Hand" is about a hand. To be more specific, it's about a severed hand that crawls around and kills people with an unmatchable strength that none of the two arms, muscular strength, nor both hands of its victims can match.

I never heard of this movie. So, I was surprised when I found out Oliver Stone directed. That almost seems like a scenario conjured up in a Mad Libs book. 

And yes, I'm talking about "JFK," "Wall Street," "Natural Born Killers" director Oliver Stone! I was never a fan of his, but he's still famous...and stuff. 

With Stone attached to this schlocky sounding flick, it goes from cheesy B-flick to psychological thriller. 

Stone turns the story's focus towards exploring the protagonist's crumbling mental state rather than watching a disembodied hand skitter around attacking people and as they scream in terror trying to escape. The audience gets to see all that happen from the hands point of view.

Reading that back in my head, "from the hand's point of view" sounds a little dirty. So, never mind.

In this movie, Michael Caine plays successful comic book artist Jon Lansdale. While driving with his wife, Anne (Andrea Marcovicci), they start arguing as their marriage is on the rocks. Anne, who's driving, loses control of the car and they end up in a gruesome accident. Jon's drawing hand is completely severed. This, along with his crumbling marriage, pushes Jon into serious emotional turmoil.

He has a difficult time coping with the loss of his hand. And as expected, his career as an artist suffers. It's just about completely over. Signs of a mental breakdown start bubbling to the surface. 

This, of course, is a huge weight for Anne. Jon's behavior has become erratic and unpredictable. 

He also starts becoming suspicious of his wife's yoga instructor, thinking Anne is cheating on him. 

All this emotional strain causes Jon to have hallucinations. 

Meanwhile, his severed hand is alive and crawls its way around killing those close to Jon.

After a community college in California offers Jon a job. He leaves their house in New York and moves to a small California town to take the job. Anne and their young daughter, Lizze (Mara Hobel) stay in New York. 

But the hand somehow follows him. 

Jon has to eventually confront the increase of deaths around him thanks to his hand before he completely loses his mind!

Many a timeless cinematic tale have involved the loss of a hand - "The Empire Strikes Back," "Peter Pan," "Army of Darkness" (Groovy!) and I'll throw in "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" into the list even though Frodo lost half a finger rather than his whole hand. 

There's a lot going on in this movie though it sounds like a simple plot about a crazy artist and his undead hand. Still, it feels like the story doesn't dig deep enough into Jon's psychosis.

Sure, he has all these terrible things happen but despite how bad life is treating him, it doesn't seem like it's enough to drive him to the crazy state he finds himself in. 

Michael Caine is a fantastic actor. So, he plays this role seriously. He builds up the insanity in Jon.

The key observation is "build up." His character goes through grief, rage, guilt and depression before arriving at full psychological collapse. It doesn't seem like his problems are so crippling and emotionally crushing that they warrant the extreme reaction of splitting his personality right down the middle. That's not to say his character wouldn't go through serious emotional turmoil. He did lose his hand which he depended on for his career, and his marriage is on the rocks. 

If it wasn't for the living severed hand, I wouldn't know if I was watching a horror movie or a tragic drama. 

Even so, Caine seems committed to the role. Most instances, Caine really puts in the emotion - anger, frustration, and fear. Other times, he's staring blankly waiting for his line. 

The whole thing is obviously a showcase of symbolism and allegories for Jon's identity loss, anger, and lack of control over his life.  

That's obvious because all the victims of "the hand" are people connected to Jon's problems. When those bodies start piling up, the ending becomes all the more obvious. 

I've never been much of an Oliver Stone fan as he seems to take too many liberties with the historical content that he bases his movies on. 

This movie, despite its best efforts, is original and also underwhelming. And Jon's descent into madness didn't convince me. That's not because Caine is a terrible actor. It's because Jon's development isn't executed well. 

The extent of his mental decline feels more like a requirement for the plot to roll along rather than something genuine. 

The movie, though, does fit into the type of films Oliver Stone is known for. His movies generally revolve around men, damaged to some degree, who either suffer paranoia or obsession, or something along those lines. Stone's films are often intense, and "The Hand" is no different. 

His movie "Platoon" centers on soldiers damaged by war. The movie "Wall Street" is a story of ambition becoming corruption. Stone's movie "Nixon," which is an objectionable movie, depicts President Nixon as struggling with political power amidst personal insecurity. 

In "The Hand," Stone seems to be trying to find his niche, and it's a project that deserves attention despite the problems it has. It has all the feel of something experimental.

It also sounds like the perfect popcorn creature feature. It's a psychological thriller that tries to be deep and impactful. It doesn't dig deep enough into the main character and ends up a little too far on the silly side as the hand crawls around while Jon is having his emotional roller coaster ride. 

I'll give Oliver Stone credit for attempting something ambitious. I'm taken with the premise of a loose hand that's alive and scaring everyone. I actually wanted more of that! 

Ha