Customer Reviews

The Big Fix [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dreyfuss is brilliant in this rarely seen gem. He's a freelance private eye juggling an ex-wife and her guru, two precocious kids, a leftist ex-radical mother, a new romance with an old flame, and a trunkful of counter culture ideals seemingly UN-chic in the wasteland known as the 1970's. All this and a great murder mystery to boot. Am I the only one who saw it? At this price I guess I will be. If you get a chance to see it, do...it's great! Too bad Leon's song is left out--what were they thinking?

Really hard to understand why this hasn't been released on DVD: great cast, sharp script, efficient direction, excellent mix of comedy and drama. Cast includes Fritz Weaver, Richard Dreyfuss, Bonnie Bedelia, Susan Anspach, John Lithgow, and Ron Rifkin. The film is based on a novel by Roger Simon about private investigator Moses Wine (Dreyfuss), who's a former political radical/hippie from his Berkeley college days. Set in the late 1970s, the story is of murder and corruption, with false identity thrown into the mix as well, and family squabbles to boot, plus a long lost love.

The director, Jeremy Kagan, deftly balances this mix, even managing to throw in some humor (Moses Wine's aunt is Russian and a former revolutionary; now, with a great sense of humor, she sasses back at a conservative politico and tells stories about the 'Albanian revolution' to Wine's two young sons).

Wine is hired by two different people to find two other different people. One's a political radical who's dropped out of sight; the other's the son of the man who hires Wine. Naturally these intertwine, and how they do that is nicely put together. It's a shame there's no DVD for this release; it's a lot of fun to see Dreyfuss chew up the scenery, especially when confronting his ex-wife (Bedelia)'s new lover, a pompous "BEST" trainer (remember EST?) played by Ron Rifkin.

Very entertaining. OK. So where's the DVD??

(I keep hoping to see this on DVD someday.)
I first watched this movie on HBO, oh, longer ago than I care to remember. (c. 1980) I just saw it again tonight, ravaged by commercial TV (PAX this time). I think I might break down and buy the VHS version.
If you like nostalgic murder mysteries, you will like this one. If you like good, snappy dialogue, this movie is for you. Dreyfus is very believable, and is supported by a great cast. (No pun intended, if you have seen it!) The twist and turns are great, and I'm not talking about a car chase here.
See this movie when you can, and pray for a DVD release.

Laidback Los Angeles-based Moses S. Wine, ex-campus activist and current private dick, is hired by old flame Lila Shay to look into a smear campaign against Lila's employer, Miles Hawthorne, who's running for governor. Predictably, complications arise. What seems at first like clearcut gumshoe work speedily becomes murky and soon, the stakes are raised when a close friend is murdered. Incensed and devastated, Moses nevertheless gamely attempts to muddle thru, while simultaneously dodging bullets and babysitting his two young sons. Our detective runs thru the traditional gamut of hard knocks that every private eye worth his salt undergoes. He is followed, accosted, threatened by "the man", beat up, and shot at; but all the while he keeps intact his sense of honor, his wits and his ongoing servings of sarcasm.

I just finished watching this overlooked little treasure on cable and now cannot wait for the dvd version to be released (it will be released, right?). This is a funny mystery-thriller, with a nod towards 1960s radical politics. There are tiny perfect moments strewn throughout the landscape of this film, from Moses lullabying his little boy to sleep over the telephone, to Moses and Lila singing along with 2 jailbirds to "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" during a prison visit, to Moses briefly attempting to brainstorm a solution to his case with his two drowsy sons. By the way, Mr. Wine's shadowing skills leave much to be desired (first of all, never bring your kids when trailing someone).

Dreyfuss's wit and trademark glibness lend themselves well to his counterculture private eye persona. His wisecracks and shamus-speak come furious and fast and are delivered with expert, offhand ease. The charm is still very much intact from his Oscar-winning foray the year before, "The Goodbye Girl". He and Susan Anspach, who plays Lila Shay, have a nice chemistry going.

The viewer will see some familiar, albeit fresher-faced, players here: John Lithgow, Bonnie Bedelia, and F. Murray Abraham, all doing their thespian thing and doing it passably well. A then unknown Mandy Patinkin has a teeny cameo as a bearded pool man.

See if you can catch all of Moses's varying responses to the oft asked question "Hey, what happened to your arm?" And if you like this film, why not check out the book it was based on - The Bix Fix by Roger Simon - way back in 1973?

I've been looking for a copy of this film. I was visiting L.A. in 1977 when this film was in production, and happened upon a location shoot & watched while one of scenes in the movie, where Richard Dreyfuss walks across a parking lot and onto Santa Monica Pier, was being filmed.

When I later went to see the movie in the theater, I was surprised to see that my car ended up clearly visible in that scene, as the camera followed 'Moses Wine' as he walked along past the front of my car. It was a distinctive looking car, a green 1950 Pontiac panel sedan delivery with NY plates, which even back then was practically an antique.