The Hand (1981)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Comic book artist Jon Lansdale is involved in a car accident where he loses his right hand . Trying to adjust to life without his hand Lansdale becomes more and more obsessed and feels he is descending in to insanity and feels he's being stalked by his severed hand . Is this delusion or has his severed hand taken on a life of its own ? This is an early directorial effort from Oliver Stone . The fact that Stone constantly states that SALVADOR was his directorial debut should tell you something about THE HAND . It should also be pointed out that that Stone's first preference for Lansdale was Jon Voight , then Dustin Hoffman then Christopher Walken then finally Michael Caine who in this part of his career was in total slumming it for the money mode and apparently did the film to pay for his new garage . It's very noticeable in the early part of the film Caine hasn't bothered to learn his lines and is obviously reading from cue cards . Caine's performance does improve later in the film but there's no way it could have got any worse than his early scenes The other flaw with the film is its pompous dead pan tone . This is THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS territory a film that is something of a camp classic and camp is not an adjective you can use to describe THE HAND . It constantly touches upon serious themes such as disability , insanity and marital pressure and these themes contrast badly with a premise that is rather daft and everyone associated with the movie has been better prior and after THE HAND

This is an exciting psychological thriller based on the novel by Mark Brandel "The tail of the lizard" , though was consistently underrated by most reviewers . It's a surprising flick and very intriguing whose value more remarkable is the ambiguity that its filmmaker Oliver Stone poses in this . A surreal psycho-horror pastiche in which a famous cartoonist of comics named "Jonathan Lansdale" (Michael Caine) who lives unhappily with his wife (Andrea Marcovicci) loses a hand , being severed in an unfortunate car accident that ends with his career and creates a strong tension in their marriage . Soon after , the hand is on the loose with a mind of its own . As a harrowing nightmare, the lost hand appears seeking out victims , committing atrocious murders with an obsessive revenge.This first important Oliver Stone film contains chills , thrills , suspenseful and is quite entertaining . It's the first commercial outing in medium budget from Oliver Stone, which was not well received by the criticism at the time. . Stone's sophomore directorial shows us a dense , unique , atmospheric and surreal ambient , where the subjectivity seizes the story . There are times when the film that we question whether what we recount and we see is really the case or any other remedy used to deceive and confuse the spectator . Through the film and gradual manner the story is complicating and becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from fantasy . This theme about a hand on the loose with a a mind on its own is already been seen in former films such as The Hands of Orlac (1924 by Rober Wiene , Mad Love (1934) by Karl Freund with Peter Lorre and Hands of Orlac (1960) by Edmond T Greville with Christopher Lee and Mel Ferrer . First rate acting by Michael Caine as Jon Lansdale , a comic book artist who loses his right hand in a car accident , though Michael said in a TV interview that the only reason he did this film was to earn enough to put a down payment on a new garage he was having built .Oliver Stone initially wanted Jon Voight to play the lead role, but was turned down by him ; Christopher Walken and Dustin Hoffman also declined the role . Very good support cast formed by expert secondary actors such as Bruce McGill , Viveca Lindfords , Rosemary Murphy , among others . Furthermore , a cameo by Oliver Stone as Bum . Colorful cinematography with a right management of the camera by Baggot , as the picture packs a turbid, dark, surreal, disturbing atmosphere . Thrilling and tense musical score by the great James Horner .The motion picture was professionally directed by Oliver Stone , though usually panned by mostly critics , nowadays is best considered .Stone returning from the Vietnam war did his first film , it was a student film entitled Last Year in Viet Nam (1971), followed by the gritty horror film Seizure (1974) for which he also wrote the screenplay. The next seven years saw him direct two films: Mad Man of Martinique (1979) and this The Hand (1981) . He also wrote many screenplays for films such as Midnight express (1978), Conan (1982), and Scarface (1983). Stone won his first Oscar for Midnight express (1978), but his fame was just beginning to show.

"But who's the other one??""Its the Roache girl" says cop Tracey Walter......."Stella" ....aahh JOHN (off hand)How the man said "Its the Roache Girl" with a straight face.Obviously the cartoonist killed everyone but the end the hand killed the doctor.The hand obviously was a figment of his own imagination that he used to control his own victims that had wronged him in the past. But the real twist was when the Hand came back to kill the doctor. Obviously he did not control the hand because HE TOLD the doctor that there was indeed a hand behind her. And she did not believe him.

The Hand starts in sunny Vermont where Mandro comic book artist John Lansdale (Michael Caine) lives with his wife Anne (Andrea Marcovicci) & young daughter Lizzy (Mara Hobel), while driving along arguing about moving to New York for the winter John's right hand is severed in a freak car accident. John's hand is never found & he has to learn to cope with a prosthetic hand from now on, the accident has a big effect on John's life as he can't draw anymore & has to accept a lowly teaching job in a small town called Sarahville in California which means he has to separate from Anne who then has an affair while John is away. As things go from bad to worse John gets the feeling that his severed right hand has a mind of it's own & is single-handedly (ha!)killing people around him who have angered him...Written & directed by Oliver Stone this psychological horror thriller with a touch of drama has a pretty bad reputation but I have to say I quite liked it, it's certainly not a film that will appeal to a general audience but I think there's enough here to keep one interested throughout it's 100 odd minute duration. The script was based on a novel called 'The Lizard's Tail' by Marc Brandell & centers a tale of psychological drama about a man losing his sanity & failing to adjust after a life changing accident around the old horror cliché of the living disembodied hand used to good effect (or not depending on your opinion) in such films as The Beast with Five Fingers (1947), The Crawling Hand (1963) & Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1964) amongst other's & I thought the concept, plot & way the story progresses was pretty good. The character's are good & I was interested in them, it's nice to see proper people in a horror film rather than faceless teenagers & while the pace isn't the quickest it develops it's story to the point where the events actually matter & have some significance to the audience. I also liked the way Stone gives the film a certain ambiguity & mystery, it's not clear until the end whether John's severed hand is responsible or whether it's John himself committing the murders during his blackouts. Having said that The Hand is not perfect, it's undeniably silly, who did that car belong to that rolled down the diff on fire & why was that scene even in the film in the first place & I really thought the ending was poor too.The film has a nice clean look about it, it looks a bit dated with a very static camera but it's well made. There's not much gore here but there is one half decent money shot here as John gets his hand severed & we see his bloody stump spurting blood everywhere. The severed hand effects are variable & to be honest not that good although I suspect they look better than any modern equivalent CGI effects would. While not overly scary the film does have a few creepy moments here & there & at least it does try to create a bit of an atmosphere although the bizarre scene when a cat decides to literally jump through a window for no apparent reason is unintentionally funny. There's some nudity as well if that sort of thing interests you as the local slut gets her breast's out within five minutes of meeting Caine, I wish I had that effect on women...Filmed in California The Hand has good production values & looks nice enough. The acting is pretty good even if Michael Caine goes a little over the top at times, apparently he took the role after Jon Voight, Christopher Walken & Dustin Hoffman turned the part down & Caine has also said in interviews the only reason he made The Hand was to earn the money to pay for a new garage he was having built at the time! Fair enough I suppose but was rolling around on the floor fighting your own severed hand really worth it?The Hand is a film that I feel like I shouldn't have liked but I did like it & even if I would find it hard to recommend it to one & all I think anyone interested in psychological horror could do a lot worse & watching Michael Caine overact as he wrestles with his own severed hand (& lose) is fun too. If nothing else The Hand teaches us one very important thing, never put your hand out of a car window while your wife is driving otherwise it'll end in tears...