The Osterman Weekend

Sam Peckinpah's final film has a lot to recommend it, including a complicated story derived from the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name but laced with Peckinpah's hard questions about loyalty and the balance between civilization and basic instincts. Rutger Hauer stars as John Tanner, a television host who has strong criticisms of America's Cold War conduct. Looking forward to a weekend of socializing with old friends (played by Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper, and Chris Sarandon), Tanner is approached by a CIA agent (John Hurt) who tells him that his buddies may be Soviet agents, and convinces him to let the spy agency set up surveillance in his house. But it turns out that there is more to the agent's claims than meets the eye and Tanner's weekend eventually erupts into violence. The Osterman Weekend is not Peckinpah at his best (though, typically, the director was under siege from production politics, nicely chronicled in the new 78-minute retrospective documentary, “Alpha to Omega,” included here), but the maestro of montage certainly worked in some extraordinary action sequences. Anchor Bay's “commemorative” double-disc edition serves up a sparkling Divimax transfer of the film on the first disc, with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS-ES sound options, along with knowledgeable commentary from a quartet of Peckinpah historians. The second disc features Peckinpah's rough-looking first cut (with the option to jump to the six added, extended, or altered scenes), as well as the aforementioned documentary (featuring new interviews with virtually all of the major players, except Dennis Hopper), and a dozen surprisingly in-depth talent bios. Recommended. (T. Keogh)