NOMADS
US, 1985, 88 minutes, Colour.
Pierce Brosnan, Lesley Anne Down, Anna Maria Monticelli, Adam Ant.
Directed by John Mc Tiernan.
Nomads is an offbeat thriller with a touch of the occult. It was written and directed by John Mc Tiernan. It is a star vehicle for TV's Remington Steele, Pierce Brosnan. The star is Lesley Anne Down as a doctor possessed by the spirit of a French anthropologist. Australia's Anna Maria Monticelli (Silver City, The Empty Beach, Smash Palace) is the anthropologist's widow.
The film has a California setting, shows a bikie gang which turns out to be a gang of malevolent spirits, nomads. The film is a blend of psychological, anthropological and horror hokum. There is a good pace as the doctor relives the anthropologist's last days and comes into a final confrontation with the gang. While the plot doesn't bear intellectual analysis, the melodramatics and emotional response carry the film through as an entertaining film of its kind .
John Mc Tiernan went on to Predator and Die Hard and a number of action features. Pierce Brosnan went on to...
1. Entertaining thriller? Horror film? A touch of the occult?
2. California locations, hospitals, affluent homes? The world of the nomads - night, dingy streets? The blend of reality and dream world? Hallucinations and visions? Editing and pace? Stunts? Fright and shock? Musical score?
3. The plausibility of the plot? The background of anthropology and its theories? Nature, human nature? Possession of other people's personalities?
4. The doctor and the savage treatment, his dying in the hospital, his final whisper to Eileen, his death? The puzzle for Eileen and the audience? His identity?
5. Eileen and her work in the hospital, tired, overworked, the move to California? Her helping the doctor? Her bravery, the whisper of the French words, the puzzle, her trying to understand them? The information from Boston indicating the word indicated nomads? Her friend and her sharing with her? Her friend's concern? The set-up for the possession?
6. The structure of the film: Eileen and her being possessed by the doctor, the development of her possession? Reliving Jean's and Nikki's life? Their becoming one? The final escape?
7. The doctor and his work, the photos of his various expeditions, adventure, anthropology? The theory about the nomads and their wandering and possessing people? Nikki sharing all his adventures? Their coming to Los Angeles, the academic world? Furnishing their home? The group appearing outside their home? His fascination with the group, taking photos, absent from home? His involvement with them, the violence and the chases, the menace? His being possessed by her? His attacking and killing them - and their disappearance? The final siege of his home, his being taken over? This being felt and experienced by him? By Eileen as she eyed through his experience?
8. Nikki and her sharing her husband's experiences, the joy of the home, settling down, the furnishings? He fear? Her love for her husband, his absences, her tension? The mystery and the menace? Sharing his experiences but not seeing the Nomads? Eileen at her home, reliving the experiences, sharing the siege, her seeing the Nomads, in the attic, the escape from the house, the pursuit by the Nomads - and the final seeing of her husband at the state border?
9. The Nomads and their wanderings, as a bikie gang, the men and leather, violence, taunts, sexual overtones of the dancer, the pursuit, the van, gang action, their being killed, lying on the road, thrown over buildings - but disappearing? Their besieging the house?
10. The end and the doctor as a Nomad? The women escaping over the state line?
11. Eileen’s friend and her concern, the hospital, Eileen reassuring her friend that she was all right? Her being possessed by the doctor - sharing with Nikki? The escape?
12. An enjoyable theme of personality possession? Its effects? In contemporary images?
