A Forgotten Richard Gere Vehicle from His Peak Era Is Back in Circulation — SkimNews
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- 'The Honorary Consul' (1983) flopped after Paramount marketed it as a sex romp echoing Gere's previous hits, obscuring that it was a Graham Greene political drama about a kidnapping in Argentina; the film was even retitled 'Beyond the Limit' for U.S. release.
- Graham Greene himself disowned the adaptation, largely objecting to Gere's casting, and critics including Roger Ebert praised Michael Caine's performance while panning the film overall.
- Imprint has issued the first U.S. Blu-ray of the film as part of an all-region 'Directed by John Mackenzie' boxed set that also includes 'The Long Good Friday,' 'The Fourth Protocol,' and 'Ruby,' along with crew interviews and an audio commentary by writer Matthew Asprey Gear.
- Christopher Hampton wrote the screenplay after producer Norma Heyman snapped up the rights in 1978, following the lapse of an earlier Orson Welles adaptation tentatively titled 'The Other Man.'
- The article defends Richard Gere as well-suited to the cold, unsympathetic Eduardo Plarr despite his struggles with the character's half-English, half-Paraguayan accent, arguing his 'brooding self-absorption' makes the morally compromised doctor compelling opposite Caine's warmer turn.
Why it matters: For cinephiles and Gere completists, Imprint's box set finally rescues a film that was buried for forty years by deceptive Paramount marketing and unkind reviews — and bundles it with three other Mackenzie films, including the Bob Hoskins classic 'The Long Good Friday,' at a moment when boutique labels are doing serious rehabilitation work on forgotten 1980s cinema.
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