ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Kingkitsch "Savage Messiah" 1972, remains an interesting conundrum in Ken Russell's maniacal retelling of the lives of tortured artists. Russell tackled some big names during his heyday in the 1970s: Tchaikovsky, Mahler,Liszt. The flamboyant director switched gears from musical geniuses to observe a second-tier sculptor, one Henri Gaudier- Brzeska. Only Ken Russell would have resurrected this forgotten artist and put his brief life story on the screen. The results of the director's mania for depicting artists as driven wretched humans who live outside the norm failed at last. "Savage Messiah" is a hot mess. Russell's famous visual styling is lukewarm at best here, only in a few scenes do we see the explosions of color and texture Russell is famous for. The Vortex nightclub and the dinner at Angus Corky's are pure Russell, which is to say, that people are monstrous and behave monstrously when given the chance. The rest of this movie is a shrill, incoherent assemblage of scenes documenting Gaudier's bizarre affair with Sophie Brzeksa, a woman old enough to be his mother. He's a randy 19 year old artistic demon and she's a failed writer who hates sex. They meet, instantly bond for some weird "artistic" reason, argue non-stop about art and culture, finally taking each other's last name in a strange sort of marriage and the rest is history. Watching this is a pretty exhausting affair. The now-forgotten actor Scott Antony wears out his welcome pretty quickly by portraying Gaudier as a screaming out-of-control artist who shouts platitudes about art incessantly. That is, when he's not physically jumping over anything in his path and dribbling food/drink all over himself in a metaphorical visual about devouring everything in order to create. One wonders if Antony decided to play Gaudier as a borderline sociopath or if Russell urged him to go full throttle. One suspects the latter, as subtlety was never Russell's strong point. We get it, Ken. Artists are passionate. Russell shovels the Bohemian lifestyle on the viewer with a bulldozer.So, by the end of this tale of art and the makers of, we learn that Gaudier-Brzeska dies at the tender age of 23 in WW1. His work is showcased at the film's finale and the viewer wanders off to get aspirins. Not much sticks in the viewer's memory with the exception of an astonishing nude scene by none other than Dame Helen Mirren. This must be seen to be believed and seems to be the most remembered thing about this film. Set design by the brilliant infant terrible of the 70s UK art scene, Derek Jarman. He designed the sets for "The Devils" which are unforgettable. Jarman echoes those sets here. Costumes by the equally brilliant Shirley Russell.Not a complete failure, but very close for Russell. There's a reason this has been a forgotten film, but worth a look if you need to complete your Russell library. By the way, if watching look for the scene in the Louvre in which Gaudier decides to perch on the enormous Easter Island head while raving about primitives. The head is obviously made of paper-mache and it wobbles underneath the actor.

craig_carr I'm a huge Ken Russell fan, but this one is just a disaster, the movie is filled with Russell's trademark sumptuous visuals, but the main character spends the entire movie shrieking artistic clichés. The magic of Ken Russell is that he transports you to his own romantic view of the world, where the artist struggles to transcend the banalities of everyday life. But in this case it just falls flat, maybe if Oliver Reed had been cast as the main character, he would have lent the movie some of his characteristic intensity, but as it stands, the main character is woefully miscast. Not a patch on Song of Summer or Women in Love.

MrOllie This is a really dreadful film! I remember going to the cinema one Tuesday afternoon in 1972 thinking Savage Messiah was probably an action thriller. Instead, I found I was watching an arty biopic of a French sculptor that I had never heard of. Scott Antony who plays the sculptor spends almost the entire film shouting and acting in an overly manic way. Believe me, ten minutes in the company of this fella and you would want to strangle him. His relationship with an older woman played by Dorothy Tutin did nothing for me as she too was prone to manic outbursts.I will, however, be eternally grateful to Savage Messiah for introducing me to the lovely Helen Mirren. After ten minutes of watching this film I was tempted to leave the cinema, but I stuck it out and was rewarded with the best full frontal nude scene that I have ever seen in a mainstream film. As my eyes almost popped out of my head I waited for the final credits to see who the luscious creature was who had played Gosh Boyle. I have been a huge fan of Ms.Mirren ever since.I do have this film on VHS, recorded when on TV, but only watch it to admire the lovely Helen whose beauty will remain forever.

Robert Philpot First I have to admit that I was directed by Ken Russell in this movie. He told me to "get out of the bloody shot" when I was watching the filming at Horsted Keynes station between shots while working as an extra! The movie itself has several excellent parts, many of them well and clearly shown on Helen Mirren's body as she descends the stairs all woman totally disablie! The most moving part (by far) is the last 10 minutes where we see the work of Gaudier-Brzeska after being told of his demise. Back to Russell as a director he was friendly, indeed charming to the cast and even we extras, but scathing to the crew when things went wrong. In one case almost throwing the camera operator off set when he switched off the camera before the director shouted "cut". Suppose Russell had a point, it wasn't for the man with the switch to decide when the scene was over! The sound man received a round of applause - led by Shirly Russell when he performed some sort of audio miracle. Certainly not the best Russell movie,but far from his worst either. Good film that I would have never ever watched had I not been an extra. Glad that I did.