Film Review: Nomads (1986)
John McTiernan became great Hollywood director thanks to his action classics like Predator and Die Hard. Those great successes were preceded by a failure, 1986 horror film Nomads.
Based on McTiernan’s original script, plot is set in Los Angeles. Protagonist is Dr. Eileen Flax (played by Lesley-Anne Down), a doctor in emergency whose patient, French anthropologist Jean-Charles Pommier (played by Pierce Brosnan), dies from mysterious ailment while at her care. Soon she becomes possessed by his memories and begins experiencing last week from his life. He has recently got job at UCLA and settled in the city with wife Veronique (played by Anna-Maria Monticelli). Their new home gets vandalised by a group a strange looking street punks. Pommier becomes intrigued and starts following them, quickly recognising that their lifestyle on the street of modern megalopolis isn’t that different from various tribes he has researched in remote areas of the world. But he soon begins noticing strange details, like their images not being on the photos he took. It soon becomes obvious that the urban nomads are actually evil spirits from Inuit mythology that have ability to mimic humans and usually lead them to great misfortune or death. Pommier soon becomes concerned after being warned that the nomads might become interested in him.
McTiernan’s feature debut is an interesting, but ultimately failed film. McTiernan had very intriguing idea of creating supernatural villains that seems to fit perfectly in urban 1980s America. He also directed this film well, using many interesting camera angles and effective slow motion, including some scenes that would be further developed in Die Hard. Some of the casting choices are also interesting, most notably in case of rock musicians like Adam Ant and Ted Nugent, as well as B-film legend Mary Woronov who play silent nomads. McTiernan, on the other hand, made a mistake by casting Lesley-Anne Down in the role of nominal protagonist; she in many ways looks too glamorous for the character of worn-out emergency physician. But even worse is the way McTiernan cuts between her attempts to solve mystery and flashbacks featuring Pommier; both characters descent into madness, but the effect is too confusing for the audience. Another questionable creative choice is use of rock music by Bill Conti, which in many ways make film too connected to 1980s. There are some subplots that go nowhere and the ending is too confusing for most of the audience. In the end, Nomads left good impression to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who would later successfully lobby producers to hire McTiernan as director of Predator. So, despite its many flaws, it could be said that this film served at least some purpose.
RATING: 4/10 (++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/26725-nomads
Critic: AA