Customer Reviews

The Hand [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Hand DVD


It features a riveting performance by Michael Caine, a cartoonist, who, after losing his drawing hand in an auto accident caused by his wife who is "separating from him", spirals down into a psychological abyss from which he cannot escape. Oliver Stone's screenplay and direction is well-paced and crisp. The ending is unforeseen and shocking.

Highly recommended for fans of Michael Caine and psycho thrillers

Gunner February, 2008

Perhaps, Oliver Stone's "The Hand" is a bit unfairly criticized when you analyze this movie's merits. This movie is one of the most misunderstood horror movies I have ever observed. Don't get me wrong: this movie is not a classic, but it is better than people give it credit for.

In "The Hand", Michael Caine stars as gifted cartoonist named John Lansdale who is having marital problems. To make matters much worse, Landsdale loses his hand in a fantastic and bloody automobile accident. John must come to terms not only with losing his hand but also his talent as an artist. He is about to lose his cartoonist contract and his cartoon character named "Mandrowe" to someone else that he despises.

With his marriage on the rocks and other emotional problems, Lansdale starts to lose it...he imagines his enemies being killed even an old drunk which turns out to be played by Oliver Stone himself. The interesting and fascinating thing about this movie which most people do not "get" is the dual possibilities of the murders that subsequently take place after Lansdale loses his hand.

In each instance when someone is murdered, Lansdale either blacks out and/or imagines this "hand" murdering people...he dreams about "The Hand" and fears "The Hand". The rhetorical question then becomes whether Lansdale is killing these people himself and "the hand" is his angry alternate personality that he implements in the unconscious mind to carry out these murders OR there really is a "hand" running around murdering, possessed by Lansdale's dark and raging unconscious evil mind.

The intelligent audience is left with the former assumption. It appears that Lansdale is simply crazy by movie's end and the viewer sees the various flashbacks that show Lansdale himself killing these people. But, is it "the hand" indeed that is committing these crimes and Lansdale who is definitely crazy but perhaps, he is right, as ridiculous and absurd as it sounds. Ultimately while driving Lansdale crazy, Lansdale fights with himself or as he sees it with "the hand".

It is clear that "the hand" is either Lansdale base and evil personality or it is an evil and supernatural possession of "the hand" which is not only killing Lansdale's enemies but also is framing him for the murders. After all, they never did find the hand after the automobile accident.

Oliver Stone's "The Hand" is a much better movie than people give it credit for and there is much more to it than meets the eye. In fact, "The Hand" is a psychological horror movie with a twist of either the dark and unconscious mind or an evil supernatural force which manifests itself as "the hand". Michael Caine is absolutely brilliant as John Lansdale in which Caine so eloquently portrays a madman at the brink of losing all sense of reality and forever relegated to the world of the insane. The directing by Stone is also quite good.

So, what is wrong with the movie you might ask? Well, this is no classic by any means and the idea of a hand killing people isn't exactly the scariest or most horrific idea offered to the horror movie genre. Also, the movie seems to drag in spots and become boring as Lansdale engages in cheap sexual conduct with a girl named Stella. Much of the movie also deals with Lansdale's marital problems which involves his wife having an extramarital affair. The script is good, but it is not great and the movie works fairly well as a horror movie, but perhaps much better as psychological thriller.

Even though "The Hand" isn't the best horror movie in the world, it is still a solid horror flick and much better than today's trash being pumped out today like rubbish into a landfill. I admit that "The Hand" is not for everyone and parts of it are indeed boring as the movie drags at times, and it certainly cannot be characterized as a mainstream horror movie or even a great one. That being said, however, because of the great acting and imaginitive and suspenseful plot coupled with a mystery which literally is or is not "the hand" itself, the movie "The Hand" creates a charm all its own and the merits of this movie certainly outweigh any criticisms whether warranted or otherwise.

P.S. Does anyone have any idea if and/or when "The Hand" is coming out on DVD? I am looking to purchase it...please email me with any information at Willcros@aol.com. Thanks.

Okay if you like to find the little gems that are really good and yet nobody has heard about them then try this Oliver Stone/Michael Caine movie on for size because it is really very good.

It is a crime that this is not on DVD yet but hopefully that problem will be resolved by the time you read this review. The premise is a simple one. Michael Caine is an cartoon artist who, in a very brutal traffic accident, looses his hand, which eventually means that he looses his career, life, respect and family in the process.

Then murders start occurring in his home town and there is a sneaky suspicion that his hand may be involved. The movie is quite frightening in parts and does have the ability to make you jump... but laugh after. Although this is one of Oliver Stone's early works, and there is a learning curve involved for the director, it still stands streaks and bounds ahead of most other horror films of its generation.

The final plot twist should blow your mind. The gravity of it did not dawn on me until the final reel. This was a real surprise ending that ranks up there with the Usual Suspects and some other movies that come to mind. The twist is very good but alas some viewers might work that out before the final revelation comes about.

In my opinion this is a little cult gem of a movie that deserves to be watched especially if you like to dig up old forgotten movies that are much better than what the critics have to say. This is one of those.

Good intelligent horror. Stone should be proud of it.

Enjoyed this movie very much. Background music is riveting. The hand is the silly part of the movie but the acting is great. Caines wife is perfect as the adulterous vixen who really leads Caine down the scary path he takes. I now own 4 movies starring Michael Caine and have to say he can out act any of the Harrison Fords or Brad Pitts of the world. His role here reminds me of his starring role in Deathtrap, a true psycopath

Well, I must say that it is about time somebody decided to put "The Hand" out on DVD!!!! I am so pleased as it is a pretty good (not great) horror movie that is a bit out of the ordinary and very clever in its design. Any horror movie fan should definitely check out "The Hand" as the viewer will be sure to love the brilliant acting of Michael Caine is his role as John Lansdale as well as Oliver Stone's mysterious and clever play with Lansdale's psychological state vs "the hand" itself.

Perhaps Oliver Stone's "The Hand" is a bit unfairly criticized when you analyze this movie's merits. This movie is one of the most misunderstood horror movies I have ever observed. Don't get me wrong: this movie is not a classic, but it is better than people give it credit for.

In "The Hand", Michael Caine stars as gifted cartoonist named John Lansdale who is having marital problems. To make matters much worse, Landsdale loses his hand in a fantastic and bloody automobile accident. John must come to terms not only with losing his hand but also his talent as an artist. He is about to lose his cartoonist contract and his cartoon character named "Mandrowe" to someone else that he despises.

With his marriage on the rocks and other emotional problems, Lansdale starts to lose it...he imagines his enemies being killed even an old drunk which turns out to be played by Oliver Stone himself. The interesting and fascinating thing about this movie which most people do not "get" is the dual possibilities of the murders that subsequently take place after Lansdale loses his hand.

In each instance when someone is murdered, Lansdale either blacks out and/or imagines this "hand" murdering people...he dreams about "The Hand" and fears "The Hand". The rhetorical question then becomes whether Lansdale is killing these people himself and "the hand" is his angry alternate personality that he implements in the unconscious mind to carry out these murders OR there really is a "hand" running around murdering, possessed by Lansdale's dark and raging unconscious evil mind.

The intelligent audience is left with the former assumption. It appears that Lansdale is simply crazy by movie's end and the viewer sees the various flashbacks that show Lansdale himself killing these people. But, is it "the hand" indeed that is committing these crimes and Lansdale who is definitely crazy but perhaps, he is right, as ridiculous and absurd as it sounds. Ultimately while driving Lansdale crazy, Lansdale fights with himself or as he sees it with "the hand".

It is clear that "the hand" is either Lansdale base and evil personality or it is an evil and supernatural possession of "the hand" which is not only killing Lansdale's enemies but also is framing him for the murders. After all, they never did find the hand after the automobile accident.

Oliver Stone's "The Hand" is a much better movie than people give it credit for and there is much more to it than meets the eye. In fact, "The Hand" is a psychological horror movie with a twist of either the dark and unconscious mind or an evil supernatural force which manifests itself as "the hand". Michael Caine is absolutely brilliant as John Lansdale in which Caine so eloquently portrays a madman at the brink of losing all sense of reality and forever relegated to the world of the insane. The directing by Stone is also quite good.

So, what is wrong with the movie you might ask? Well, this is no classic by any means and the idea of a hand killing people isn't exactly the scariest or most horrific idea offered to the horror movie genre. Also, the movie seems to drag in spots and become boring as Lansdale engages in cheap sexual conduct with a girl named Stella. Much of the movie also deals with Lansdale's marital problems which involves his wife having an extramarital affair. The script is good, but it is not great and the movie works fairly well as a horror movie, but perhaps much better as psychological thriller.

Even though "The Hand" isn't the best horror movie in the world, it is still a solid horror flick and much better than today's trash being pumped out today like rubbish into a landfill. I admit that "The Hand" is not for everyone and parts of it are indeed boring as the movie drags at times, and it certainly cannot be characterized as a mainstream horror movie or even a great one. That being said, however, because of the great acting and imaginitive and suspenseful plot coupled with a mystery which literally is or is not "the hand" itself, the movie "The Hand" creates a charm all its own and the merits of this movie certainly outweigh any criticisms whether warranted or otherwise.

As a psychological thriller this actually works. In large part because of Michael Caine. As a B movie about a killer hand or a schizo cartoonist it features Olive Stone's tortured man, driven to ruin by a woman, whose lack of self-knowledge and unchecked rage propel him to violence. I kind of agree with another reviewer's disappointment at the ending not wrapping it up, but The Hand is enough of a thing that I feel neiter way about the end.
Stone's vitriol for women, a characterization many have stuck on throughout his career, is very apparent here. Caine as Johnathan Lansdale is comfortable in his beautiful country home, crafting a semi-popular syndicated cartoon. But his yogic wife Anne (Andrea Marcovicci) wants to do something with her life and demands a move to NYC. This ends up undoing him, but not before he struggles with having his writing/drawing hand severed.
Without saying more, I'd recommend this for Caine's gradual unraveling, an engrossing trip into The Mind and even a good Oliver Stone cameo.

After a violent accident in which he loses his hand, cartoonist Jonathan Lansdale finds himself overcome with feelings of anger and rage as his comic strip and family are ripped away from him. These feelings manifest into blackouts and delusions when Jon begins seeing his disembodied hand murdering those around him. THE HAND's silly premise is overcome by Oliver Stone's artful direction and by the seriousness that each of the actors bring to the material. Michael Caine is superb in the role of the embittered artist Jonathan, invoking his pain, mental anguish, and outrage in the viewer through an emotive performance. Though one might presume that a film of this title would be a cheap and exploitative shocker, THE HAND is much more of a psychological thriller with a few brief but bloody murders. The two areas that do take away from the picture lie in the rubbery prosthetic used for the hand and in the tacked on ending that feels entirely out of place. This commonly overlooked 80's gem is sure to please fans of DRESSED TO KILL or Richard Attenborough's MAGIC.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

Comic-strip artist, John Landsdale (played by Michael Caine in Gene Wilder's young frankenstein hair) has it pretty rough. His marriage is slowly falling apart, his wife is fooling around w/ her goofy yoga instructor, and to top it off, John loses his right hand (yep, he's right handed) in a car accident. No one can find the hand at the site of the crash, which leads us to wonder where it crawled off to. Well, Landsdale starts losing his marbles and people start dying. As his wife drifts further away from him, John suffers blackouts. We know he's having these blackouts because the movie switches from color to b&w during these episodes. We are left to ponder whether John is the murderer or just the victim of his runaway mit. THE HAND makes me glad that Oliver Stone got out of the horror movie business! It was dull in many places, and could easily have been 20-30 minutes shorter. Of course, as disembodied, killer hand movies go, it wasn't all bad. One of my favorite scenes involved a cross-eyed corpse! You don't see that every day... P.S.- Watch for Vivica Lindfors (Creepshow) as a psychologist during the epilogue...

When I first saw this movie I was reminded of "The Crawling Hand" (1963) about an astronauts severed hand seeking revenge on the living. Overall "The Hand" is a decent horror flick and the best part is Michael Caine. It's his acting that makes this movie an above average horror flick. Does it deserve to be released on DVD? Why not. You could do a lot worse.

If you have seen this movie, FIND and rent the SCTV DVD disc Volume 2 - Disc 2, that spoofs this very movie. Dave Thomas does a hilarious parody of Michael Caine's character complete with cockney accent in SCTV's "My Bloody Hand". It's definately worth renting if you've seen "The Hand".

Before he became noted for films like Platoon (1986) and Wall Street (1987), Oliver Stone made his directorial debut in the psychological thriller, The Hand (1981). Stone also wrote the screenplay, which while seemingly containing some conflicts in logic, is still a compelling watch, mainly due to a dark tone, gloomy atmosphere, and a terrifically edgy performance by Michael Caine.

Caine plays Jon Landsdale, a cartoonist living in Vermont, whose marriage to a much younger woman, is on shaky ground. He is a passenger in a car that his wife Anne (Andrea Marcovicci) is driving, when there is an accident, and his right hand is severed clean off. Efforts to recover the hand are unsuccessful, but fortunately for Lansdale it's a remarkably neat and straight break. Having lost his drawing hand, Lansdale struggles to adjust to using a prosthetic hand, and to finding an alternate way of earning a living. With his marriage apparently falling apart, he still takes a teaching job thousands of miles away in California, leaving his wife and his daughter Lizzie (Mara Hobel) behind.

Lansdale's missing right hand is seen having apparently come to life. Using its fingers, the hand is able to travel, and is even capable of choking a man. Lansdale begins teaching at a small college, where instructor Brian Ferguson (Bruce McGill) is one of his few contacts among the faculty. Lansdale is seething, when Anne refuses to leave New York, putting off joining him at the cabin he is living in until Christmas, which is a couple of months away. Soon after, Lansdale gets into a romantic relationship with Stella Roche (Annie McEnroe), one of his students.

Events come together during the holidays, as Lansdale reveals to Ferguson that he is having blackouts. Lansdale is shocked, when he learns that Ferguson is also romantically involved with Stella, who mysteriously disappears just before Anne and Lizzie arrive at the cabin for a visit. Anne intends to accept a job in San Francisco, working for her yoga instructor lover. Her plan to take Lizzie away infuriates Lansdale. Secrets are revealed and violence erupts, but could a detached hand really be to blame? There is a lot of ambiguity, but Michael Caine's performance as a man descending into madness is so absorbing, that you just have to see how it all turns out.

Stone keeps the scale of the violence in check, helping to keep the question of guilt open. The special effects which mostly concern the hand, are generally well executed, and pretty effective, although by the end of the film, scenes of the hand crushing a throat have been thoroughly overused.

With only four major characters, the story feels contrived, as the pieces fit into place much too conveniently. The actors do a good job with what they are given. Annie McEnroe is very sweet and likeable as a good natured free spirit. Ferguson is written as kind of cartoonish loud mouth, which suits Bruce McGill well. Andrea Marcovicci gives a nice performance as the self absorbed Anne, who shows little guilt over her husband's loss of his hand.

The screenplay was adapted by Oliver Stone (JFK, Natural Born Killers, U Turn) from the novel The Lizard's Tale by Marc Brandell. The DVD includes a commentary by Stone that is very informative and insightful, and well worth listening to. Although many years had passed since he last viewed the film, Stone still speaks with great authority and detail, relating how The Hand's lack of commercial success, affected his directorial career. Rating: 3.5 stars.