Backtrack

Dennis Hopper directed, as well as acted in, this moody mess from 1989, which was barely seen for a couple of years until getting a boost from the rising fame of its star, Jodie Foster. Looking startlingly young, Foster plays a conceptual artist who witnesses a mob hit, thus becoming a target herself for an assassin (Hopper). But instead of killing her, Hopper's killer falls in love, demonstrating his passion by stalking her at a distance, "owning" her every move and keeping her in exile from ordinary life. The resulting isolation squeezes Foster's creative spirit, forcing her to confront doubt and self-loathing--everything that artists suffer as the price for self-expression. Deeply self-conscious, with a calculatingly meditative tone that becomes inseparable from Hopper's tenacious voyeurism (the film's most obvious commercial hook--Foster's nude scene--is almost prayerful in its pathology), Backtrack wants to be a confessional fable about the artistic process. Instead, it's a muted yet rambling confession about the sinner inside a filmmaker, which would be great if Backtrack were, say, Rear Window. But it surely isn't. --Tom Keogh

Movie Details

Cast: Dennis Hopper, Jodie Foster, Dean Stockwell, Vincent Price, John Turturro, Fred Ward, Julie Adams, Tony Sirico, Sy Richardson, Frank Gio, Helena Kallianiotes, John Apicella, Clifford Bartholomew, Kevin Bourland, Carl David Burks, Grand L. Bush, Burke Byrnes, Tod Davies, Satya De La Manitou
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 116 min
DVD Aspect Ratios: 1.77:1

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DVD Features:

• Color
• Widescreen

International rating:

Australia: M

DVD International release dates:
North America: Apr 24, 01
Europe: Oct 13, 03

VHS International release dates:
North America: Jan 25, 95
Europe: May 7, 01