selvatica Yeah !! Faulkner is still a rare class of his very own, the most important American Great Novelist ( with maybe only Melville ) , still there has been NOBODY else after him in the USA, oh yes I can motivate my passion for him, he's my favorite USA-writer and in my top 3 of international writers, and I always wondered WHY no filmmaker ever tried to translate his 'writing' ( one B-film I remember, and not bad, but too SMALL ) I mean, liberalistic capitalism is INVENTED by the USA, its greatest stories are to be found here and nowhere else but did any artist try?? ? !! I've waited for years for a epic film about the greedy new yuppies of Faulkner's Snopes, but nobody even tried just until after decades of stasis finally comes Anderson and D.D.Lewis magnus opus: YES, my Faulkner finally on the big screen and how great it is , it's not officially about Snopes or based on any Faulkner , but genetically the very same and the only depiction of Snope-mentality we have till now, bravo Anderson, finally a true USA- masterpiece since 30 or 40 years ( since Apocalypse Now ) ! Well then , this Roeg film is the totally overlooked older brother of TWBBlood, same theme, the individual search for gold/money , and he has own Snopes around him : R.Hauer and M.Rourke play it terrificly .Roeg's greatest masterpiece is my favorite of his films and since years on a steady number 2 of my 'final'list ( with others like A.Rubjlev and Eclisse). I'm actually glad so many people don't care for it or don't ( try to) understand it, so it remains 'totally mine' and I won't make publicity ........See it if you like, or don't......probably you will NOT like it at ALL, it has everything to look like a big piece of small kitsh. Theresa Russel's overplaying ( I so adore this actress ...) and the 'weird murder' ( in reality it was weirder ) and an abbondance of cabbala, voodoo, alchemist symbols ( the butterfly brooche !!)in every corner of the film whether in words,designs, or clothes ,it will make you SCREAM, unless you know some about the alchemy of human soul, and its question "what gold am I looking for?".Oh ...it's also VERY static, theatrical, slow, very clumsy unrealistic dialogues , you'll feel almost ashamed to watch. Conclusion: AVOID IT. My Roeg's list : 1: Eureka 2: The Man W F On Earth 3: Walkabout 4: Performance 5: Insignificance + Bad Timing ( Theresa's masterpieece ) 6: Don't Look Now ( very overrated )

fedor8 Somehow Roeg's themes tend to be better than the films themselves. He often picks original and unusual stories, but once again the result on the screen is disappointing. Not terribly interesting, even dull at certain parts in the first half, plus it's messy and not always convincing.It starts off with a reasonable twenty or so minutes in Alaska (or wherever), then goes nowhere for a while, with sometimes pointless and sometimes boring dialog. The second half gets confusing, with scenes just being piled up without any kind of sequence that would make sense. The courtroom scenes are tedious, throwing yet more confusion. Is Russell a part of Pesci's plan? Was she in on it? If not, why did she sleep with Rourke? If she wasn't in on it, then somehow her affair with Rourke doesn't make sense; she said something in her never-ending courtroom speech about having affairs herself, sleeping around with men. Was that supposed to clarify her sleeping with Rourke while her husband was on trial for murder? It doesn't quite wash. Her impassioned dialogue with her husband, acting as his own attorney, goes on forever but unfortunately also goes nowhere. After this speech, we understand both her and the plot even less. Then Hauer gets surprisingly acquitted, and he and Russell have a little talk in the last part, which doesn't really do much in the ways of shedding some light on anything.But easily the messiest part of the movie is the entire night of the murder; scenes of ritualistic natives' orgy mix with Hackman going around the island, first searching for Hauer and Russell and then bumping (literally, with his car) into his business partner. Hackman is lead to Pesci's men, but refuses to sign a contract, and this entire scene with him and the gang members is unconvincing and almost silly. Hauer JUST HAPPENS to be there and witnesses this meeting (I know it's an island, but surely it isn't only ten meters wide), and Hackman somehow sees him. Beforehand, Hauer had taken part in the afore-mentioned orgy, and escorts some women and a guy away from it, telling them not to talk about it.The whole thing appears disorganized, disconnected and lacks flow. The same goes for the scenes leading up to the ensuing murder of Hackman, which are just scenes piled one on top of another, as though put together by an editor drunk out of his mind. At the end of the film we hear Hackman's words again, something about gold or whatever. I have no idea what Roeg's point was; too many things here don't add up. The typically Roegian emphasis on the supernatural didn't help either. Hauer is very good. A film that strives for some "profound message", but fails to deliver it (if it even has one).

Jonathon Dabell Quite a cast isn't it? Gene Hackman, Rutger Hauer, Jane Lapotaire, Theresa Russell, Mickey Rorke, Ed Lauter and Joe Pecsi, all in one film. Directed by Nicholas Roeg, who masterminded the classic Walkabout and Don't Look Now. Based on a riveting true story about a mega-rich gold prospector, Harry Oakes, who was murdered in his plush Bahamian mansion. With credentials as mouth-watering as they are, Eureka is the closest thing you'd ever get to a surefire masterpiece. Yet somehow, the handling is so over stylized and so pre-occupied by meaningless artiness that the film emerges as a complete and utter failure. A mishap of a movie to rank alongside other "movies-that-couldn't-fail-but-did", like The Adventurers (1970) and Inchon (1981).After years of gold hunting in the frozen Arctic wilderness, Jack McCann (Hackman) hits upon a massive gold claim in 1925. Immense wealth is thrust upon him. The story moves on twenty years, and McCann now owns a sun-drenched Bahamian island and has every luxury-in-life at his fingertips. However, wealth brings him little happiness. His wife Helen (Jane Lapotaire) has become an alcoholic; his daughter Tracy (Theresa Russell) has grown distant from him since marrying an ambitious playboy (Rutger Hauer); and he is being leaned on rather heavily by murderous Florida mobsters who want to build a casino on his island.Featuring the most extreme and unwatchable murder scene from any film ever made, and a host of surreal sequences, Eureka is an ultimate example of The Emperor's New Clothes-Syndrome. You are asked to watch a long film about nothing, and tricked into believing that it is some kind of deep and meaningful masterpiece. Unfortunately, it is no such thing. Rather, it is a confused, cruel, over-sexed, violent and grossly self-indulgent bomb. The stunning cinematography merely adds to the sense of regret that such promising-sounding material has turned out so utterly, utterly awful.

poolcue A waste of time. My wife had the same opinion. It should never been released. I wonder if the actors ever looked at this picture and if they did what they though of it? The cinematography was interesting but the picture still should have stayed in the box.