Out (1982)

Too much of everything

Thanks for the memories!

Sick Product of a Sick System

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I think Out works best if you remember Peter Coyote is a Zen Buddhist. Out has a playful, crazy Zen quality to it. You can take the film seriously as an art movie, or watch with friends an a few beers and take it as a joke. I like it a lot because it refuses to make sense for even a second. I'd put this in the same category as Eraserhead by Lynch or El Toppo by Jaderowsky. It's refreshing that some of the scenes are obviously improvised, so the dialogue is never dull. The fragmented nature of the piece means it's surprisingly fast paced. Usually you would see Glover and Coyote in bigger pictures so it's interesting to see them play around. Other reviewers feel ripped of by the packaging. Personally I felt pleasantly surprised by an unusual movie.

A friend of mine bought this on DVD for £1. We sat down to watch it a few days ago after 30 minutes I realized that this was one of these type of abstract films. One where the meaning is not immediately apparent, that said however I still found it to be poorly written and the actors sleepwalking through their roles. This is one totally ridiculous mess and after 20 minutes you will be dumbfounded at how ridiculous the plot and film is, if you manage to stay awake this long. If you are buying it as a Danny Glover fan DO NOT BOTHER, he is only in the film about 10 minutes. This film was obviously made on a shoestring budget and it really shows.

I saw this film in a college drama class. I had enjoyed "Eraserhead," "Zardoz" and "Spirit of the Beehive," and I thought this movie would be in the same vein; ambiguous and thought provoking. I was wrong. "Out/Deadly Drifter" is so incredibly boring it kept me from thinking anything besides "how can I sneak out without jeopardizing my grade." It was unquestionably the worst movie I have seen in my life.The plot (and I use the term loosely) involves a young radical who has decided he wants out of the movement he has devoted himself to. To this end, he embarks on a cross country journey and strange things happen to him. A detailed discussion of what these strange things are would be pointless. Reading about them is not the same as seeing them, and they form no cohesive idea to write about.The faults with this movie are plentiful. Unlike, say, "Eraserhead" hardly anyone can empathize with the hero of "Out." What is the movement he is fleeing? Why did he join? Why is he leaving now? Answering just one of these questions might have helped. If the hero could not have been made sympathetic, he could at least have been interesting. Instead, he is simply a cardboard cutout being led through events by a pretentious director. Many directors will use interesting visuals to liven a slow film. "Out" is too cheap a production to provide that. Danny Glover's presence only makes the latter fact more peculiar; did the director think people would flock to see the film just for Danny Glover's presence? If you need an illustration of how bad this movie is, look on the covers. The VHS version shows Glover holding a gun, suggesting that "Out" is a action picture. The DVD version asks "was it a government conspiracy" as if "Out" were an X-files type thriller. "Out" is in fact neither of these, and the distributors efforts to fool would-be viewers is pathetic! This is especially true when you consider that movies like "Out" will always have defenders (usually people who have never read "The Emperor's New Clothes"). Defenders may sneer at those who don't "get it," ignoring the fact that leprosy is hard to get too. "Ambiguous" is not a synonym for "good," and "Out" proves that point in spades.

I too expected more out of this film, being that it featured Danny Glover and Peter Coyote prominently on the DVD cover. Boy was I wrong! It was the biggest waste of 88 minutes I can remember spending.In the beginning, there was talk of various characters being secret agents, but it became so bizarre and irrational that I could only describe it as a dream while one is also sick with a fever. Scenes changed, characters names and memories did, as well. It was like a dream that kept changing speeds and subjects, or a bad trip on a hallucinogen, or a wandering mind locked in uncontrolled schizophrenia while perhaps also unconscious.I would have turned it off after 10 minutes if I had any idea that it would have ended the way it did. I was holding out hope that in the end, the main character (Coyote) would awaken out of a coma (hence the original title "OUT!") or would have come out of his schizophrenic nightmare. That would have helped to make a little sense out of it, but no, that was not to be. His girl dives into the ocean, he stares at an amusement park, the camera does a slow pan across the pier and water, and fade to black. No explanation of what the movie was about, not even a hint. What an absolute waste!