The Hand. 1981. Directed by Oliver Stone.

(9/21/00)

The Hand is about a cartoonist who loses his drawing hand. He was an angry man to begin with and that incident doesn't do much to improve his disposition. The hand starts acting under its own volition and its actions are lethal. It even attacks its former owner.

Is Jon Lansdale's hand really going on a rampage or is it all in his mind? That is the question in this film and in my mind there is no question at all. It's all in his mind. The film very effectively glides back and forth between the subjective and the objective, making the subjective seem objective as it must to the subject.

The image of the crawling hand doesn't quite come off. This is a difficult thing to put on film. It would have worked a little better on the written page. While it might have been convincing to Jon Lonsdale it really doesn't stand up to the scrutiny of the camera.

I was very impressed with Michael Caine's performance. He really brings across Lonsdale's deterioration from a successful cartoonist to a madman. I certainly found it more convincing than Humphrey Bogart's deterioration in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, much as I hate to admit it. I also loved Annie McEnroe as Stella. She took a relatively small role--a vulnerable girl who is so obviously starved for affection--and made it really memorable. She is so poignant when she twice asks Michael Caine, "Do you want me to come back?" Her death really hurt.

It is a fascinating film about loss of power. Lonsdale loses his hold on his wife and then he loses the means to create his comic strip--his comic strip. One can reall feel it when he gives an "assistant" his Mandru comic strip--and the assistant takes it over, putting his own spin on Mandru and leaving Lonsdale behind. I found it very interesting that the Mandru character seemed to be an alter-ego for Lonsdale. When he describes him he talks about how he never looks inside, never questions himself. That seems to describe Lonsdale pretty well.

Lonsdale clings to women out of need and it seems like a good bet that his neediness, his clinging and consequent possessiveness is a major factor in the breakup of his marriage.

One image that made an impression on me was Lonsdale's class of bored students. He tries to connect with them by asking them what their favorite comic strips are--and none of them can name any.