At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

During an interview with Richard Anderson, he tells the interviewer to watch Seconds, as it's a great film. Richard plays the doctor, and his screentime is very limited, however great of an actor he is. With due respect to the director's decision to cast another very fine actor as the lead character, I do wish that the director had cast Richard Anderson as the lead character, who seeks a new life. Richard's looks and physique would have made the transition into Rock Hudson more believable: different enough to support the story line of plastic surgery. Also, it would make more sense when the lead character's wife is trying to initiate lovemaking in the beginning of the film. Again, the lead actor is fine. But Richard had the charisma and appeal that would have strengthened the scene. So, this great movie, could have been very great with Richard in the lead role.

SecondsThe downside to getting a new face is that all your old selfies are now meaningless.However, the recipient in this sci-fi thriller could care less about his old face.Fatigued with his middle-aged existence, Arthur (John Randolph) abandons his loveless marriage for an opportunity being offered by a clandestine organization able to give you the life you've only dreamed of.Surgically altered, rechristened Tony (Rock Hudson) and presented with a new apartment, Arthur enjoys his new life as a successful artist with many well-to-do friends. But when a drunken Tony relapses into Arthur, he learns quickly that The Company doesn't tolerate such regression.A paranoid thriller that is both visually stunning - thanks to director John Frankenheimer - and highly suspenseful - thanks to its Twilight Zone-esque narrative and social commentary on modern medicine, Seconds is a landmark cinematic achievement.Incidentally, Arthur's sexual preference also changes when he becomes Rock Hudson.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

There are far too many reviews about this film that discuss the plot, acting, and directing in-depth for mine to add anything, so this is more of a comment about how this film affected me when I watched it many years ago.This is one of the most difficult films I have ever watched. A slasher film marathon with in-your-face gore would be easier to sit through than this, because they don't affect you on a personal level like this film does. You can laugh off the blood and fake violence in a slasher flick, but there is nothing to laugh at in this film. It brings up disturbing feelings, hopelessness, claustrophobia, the feeling that no matter what you do, even if given a second chance at life, you are still trapped by the decisions you made in your first one, or will make the exact same choices you did in your first life, bringing you to the same point again. I hope the message of this film isn't "you're doomed to make the same mistakes and decisions over and over again no matter what you do, so don't even try". If there is a message in this film, or a statement it makes, it's "don't pretend your past didn't happen, and walk away from it, thinking you can start over with a new life and new lessons. Instead, embrace what happened to you, good and bad, and that you learned a lot from it, good and bad. Then go on with the rest of your life with those lessons that your life, including your mistakes, taught you". It's one thing to move to a new place and to a new career and even a new family; it's another to abandon everything you learned up to that point, which is your identity. That's the cautionary moral this movie seems to make.At least, I hope it does. The movie is so bleak and so stark in its presentation, it leaves it entirely up to the audience whether there's a statement there at all.I think this is just the kind of movie that Roger Ebert liked and would have recommended. I'd like to know what he thought of it.....

A fantastic existential nightmare. A middle aged man (John Randolph) is contacted by an old friend whom he thought dead. The friend offers him an opportunity to escape his ho-hum life and start a new one. For a hefty sum, an underground company gives him plastic surgery (turning him into Rock Hudson) and set him up with a new identity, faking his old identity's death. What the man quickly learns is that you might be able to change your face, but you can never change who you are. Unfortunately, the company that has provided him this opportunity isn't too keen on that discovery, and is secretly watching his every move. I feel like the second part of this film maybe needed to be a bit longer, because there are some narrative progressions that didn't quite work for me (I'm interested in reading the original novel to see if it's more fully developed). It doesn't matter too much, though, because, as cinema, this is just tremendous. It's most notable element is James Wong Howe's revolutionary black and white cinematography, which is amongst the best ever done. It really heightens the paranoia of the film. Jerry Goldsmith's subtle and sad score is also masterful. And enough credit can't be given to Frankenheimer himself! I'm woefully unfamiliar with his work, I now realize, despite being a huge fan of The Manchurian Candidate. I need to rectify that mistake immediately! The performances are also great. It's probably Hudson's best work ever. The rest of the cast is uniformly terrific, as well. A great movie.