Product Details

• Actors: Gary Kemp, Sadie Frost, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Péter Vallai, Mathias Gnädinger
• Directors: Ildikó Enyedi
• Writers: Ildikó Enyedi, László Révész
• Producers: Andras Hamori, David Bowie, Ferenc Kardos, Johannes Bösiger, Lacia Kornylo
• Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: First Run Features
• VHS Release Date: November 16, 1999
• Run Time: 106 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304564759
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,278 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The gifted Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi followed her brilliant debut, My Twentieth Century, with this ambitious but uneven second feature. Like her first film, Magic Hunter tries to blend a range of cultural, historical, and dramatic elements into a surprising whole in which seemingly arbitrary associations turn out to have deep thematic connections. But this time the material is too uneven to hold together.

Magic Hunter begins as a fairy tale told by a mother to her frightened daughter during a World War II air raid and then shifts into the contemporary story of Max, a police marksman (British actor Gary Kemp, dubbed in Hungarian) who loses his nerve when he wounds an innocent hostage. He manages to pass his annual shooting test only when a sinister colleague lends him three magic bullets that won't fail to miss their target; to get a new supply, Max will have to strike a deal with the devil.

As this tale of satanic temptation unfolds, Enyedi introduces a parallel story of Christian redemption. In medieval Hungary, a painting of the Virgin Mary stirs to life long enough to protect a frightened rabbit that is running from a trio of hunting dogs by allowing it to hide beneath her robe. There's a wide-eyed, gee-whiz quality to these scenes that contrasts harshly with the sly, insinuating tone of the contemporary story. Enyedi amasses a wealth of other images, which often depend on a charmingly primitive use of special effects, yet the film doesn't succeed in linking them dramatically. --Dave Kehr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A brilant metaphor for the complexities of life., March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Magic Hunter [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Yes this film can be difficult to follow, definitely not one for your average couch potato. You must be fully awake to and perhaps even willing to work at it, but the effort is well worth the reward. A classic tale of human frailty opening the door for evil intentions. Rich in metaphor, a story within a story containing yet another each intertwined with the other. A mother begins a tale to comfort her daughter perhaps during a World War bombing raid, a tale of the future knitted with the past. A man looses his courage and confidence, evil offers a solution to his problem he accepts yet is not fully aware of the "deal". The film poses many situations found in everyday life carefully crafted against a rich cinematic background without being overly moralistic it speaks but does not proclaim.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rich and colorful mishmash, May 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Magic Hunter [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The fact that I had trouble finding an adequate title for my review points to some agreement with other reviewers who cite there are so many pieces of this movie experience that the resulting tapestry is perhaps not as tightly woven or as continuous in pattern as many would like. But for me, it didn't have to be: the work is a wonderful, jumbly evocative blend of history and culture and movie thriller. Many elements in the Hungarian cultural un/consciousness (for example pagan/folk nature motives woven harmoniously into Christian ideology) represent quite vividly, I think, the mishmash tumble of many eras of influence upon a given nation's culture. Forget the demands of trying to make all the subplots and cross-time experiences merge into a conveniently logical storyplot; I don't think this is what the movie intended. It feels more like an immersion in an art gallery... where connections between paintings begin to make sense on an emotional level, not a mental one. Embedded in all these Hungarian socio-historical colors, there is actually a story and it's a great old legend of a tale. The plot is really a modern remake of the wonderful Weber opera, Der Freischutz (the spooky Wolf's Glen scene from the opera is vividly used, as is music from other multi-cultural influences). The hero marksman (as in the original story) frightened of his loss in shooting ability, is tempted into a fatal deal with Satan, who hands him magic bullets... all but one to fly exactly where the hero intends. The final one is reserved for Satan's target, although of course the hero is not to know that. And, as in the opera, Satan's target is the same innocent one whose death would destroy the hero the most. It's a very difficult story to portray in logical terms; the movie's ending is as strange (though different) as the opera's... but the result is the same feeling of magic and faith and love and weirdness. I thought the modernization of the old story worked very well; I loved the added colors of a people rich in diverse roots; and all the different kinds of music are tremendously well placed in helping to tell the story. My only question is why the lead actors were not Hungarians and were dubbed... surely charismatic, attractive Hungarian actors exist and have been seen on screen before. I did notice the dubbing. But it's still a fabulously unique and romantic work... I waited a long time for it to become available on video and I'm happy to own it. Now where's the soundtrack?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complex - Deeply Moving - Humane, November 6, 2010

By 

mijcar - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Magic Hunter [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I like complex films that "work"; and this is one of the best I've seen. Moreover, as its title suggests, this is a work of magical realism -- the film is imbued with the sense of spirituality, magicalness, and malignancy.

The connection to Carl Maria von Weber's great opera Der Freischütz has already been mentioned. The plot of the opera is essentially the plot of the movie. The fact that the movie begins with a family attending the opera and needing to take shelter during a bombing is a link to the story itself.

The protagonist is a sniper for the state. We see him using his skill to rescue a hostage from her captor and then concerned about being inaccurate in his shooting. The Devil, or perhaps his earthly counterpoint, suggests a deal, providing magical bullets to the hero ... or does he.

Up to the final seconds of the movie we are not to know how much is metaphor, how much is suggestiveness, how much is real.

The origin of the state of Hungary is linked to a suggestion that now in some way the state is threatened, perhaps by this sniper. And, again, perhaps not.

All of which makes this sound too mystical. Not at all. Each thread, taken at is own face value, is a delight: The hunter who has his own issues, his own personal problems at home, and who must come to terms with them is sufficient to be a story in his own right. The story of the snails could easy be from any of the magical realism films that have made their way to the west from both the oriental and the romantic cultures.

And the intersection of history, opera - both story and music, parable, and deep personal need is handled perfectly, in my opinion.

The only question I have is where is the DVD?