*contains spoilers
The movie Who? (1974) begins with a duel between two cars and one of them crashes beside a barbed wire fence. It’s an East/West thing in Europe when the borders were divided between Communist Russia and capitalist Europe.
Cut to a car crossing the border from the – always seen asevil – Eastern bloc to the American controlled West where actor Elliott Gould’s(1938-) character meets with the occupants.
One of them is the person caught in the opening fiery wreck:Dr Martino – a man now with a metal face.
Who is this man? Is he the person he says he his? Why is heso important in the first place?
Gould introduces himself as FBI as he takes Martino away.
Martino looks like some sort of hideous robot, something headmits to.
This is an existentialist film. Existentialism being thephilosophy that emphasises individual existence, freedom and choice and theview that humans define their own meaning of life and try to make rationaldecisions despite existing in an irrational universe.
The premise of the movie: is Martino who he says he is?…. Aman with information about the Soviets… a scientist vital to the West… or is hethere to tell lies and infiltrate the scientific project he apparently was akey member of before he went behind the Iron Curtain? All questions whichMartino must face himself.
It’s hard to tell in these days before genetic testing toprove identity. Martino, if it is him at all, was completely disfigured in thecrash. He has a silver egg-shaped metal head with microphone grilles for earsand a lower jaw which is also made of metal.
“I’m sorry, sir – God knows what he is after, or what he cando,” says Gould to his supervisor, sceptical that Martino really is who he sayshe is. He thinks Martino is really a spy.
That Lucas Martino’s face bears no resemblance to picturesof the original scientist is a big bone of contention.
Cut back to the Eastern bloc and actor Trevor Howard (1913-88cirrhosis and hepatitis) as a Russian Colonel appears in flashback with Martinobandaged and in hospital. Martino is important to both sides.
And cut back again to Gould who says: “That’s what cameover, it’s meant to be Lucas Martino, but it could be anything”, as he showspictures of the “metal man” to his agents.
Should they immediately get Martino back to work on special governmentprojects when he might be a ringer?
Who? remains a rather modern film despite its Cold War eraand 1970s trappings. Martino is some sort of bionic man with an artificial leftarm and a nuclear pacemaker for a heart. There’s just not much left of LucasMartino – if it is Lucas Martino!
“The eyes appear to be Martino’s,” says an examining doctor,although there was no retinal scan ever done…
Who? is based on a novel by Algys Budrys (1931-2008melanoma) and the movie was filmed in 1974 although it sat on the shelf forfive years before being released on video cassette under the title Roboman andThe Man in the Steel Mask.
Although American, Budrys, interestingly enough, was bornbehind the Iron Curtain and thus this adds an extra dimension to hisexistential sci-fi-ish novel and is probably the major provocation for thegenesis of the book and the film.
“Don’t worry, he’s not a monster. It’s more like a piece ofsculpture,” says Gould, disparagingly, as he brings one of Martino’s friends toidentify him.
Martino asks his friend about the classified Neptune Projectbut Gould says there should be no discussion.
Then we cut to flashback to where the Roboman practices thelines: “I am Lucas Martino.” Here we learn that Martino, if it is Martino,doesn’t even know if he is himself following the accident.
The question posed is: if the Russians are brainwashing this Roboman/Martino – does he even know? If it is Martino at all!
We know that as a child genius, he took some sort ofmonastic vow to the study of physics in a “perfect universe”. But we know thatexistentialism is existence in a universe that is far from perfect. Martino,the child and the man – the human being – must come to terms with a situation oruniverse which, for him, seems to become more and more impossible to face witheach new day.
So we cut back to Gould and his interrogation of Martino…the film cuts back and forth as Martino is constructed physically and thenmentally by Howard and then deconstructed by Gould’s probing agent. What is thetruth?
Director Jack Gold (1930-2015) did the cult item The MedusaTouch (1978) starring Richard Burton (1925-84 brain haemorrhage) and thepopular Escape from Sobibor (1987) starring Rutger Hauer (1944-2019) about lifein a Nazi extermination camp.
The question is how well can spies be trained? So much sothat they can seem to be what they are really not and they transcend reality.For some it must be hell if they cannot reveal their true selves. Others mayrevel in it. But for Martino this “transcendence” or hell must be doubly ortriply so! We must decide.
Albert Camus (1913-60 car crash) the philosopher said theonly real and important question one must consider in life is whether or not tocommit suicide. Martino obviously has dealt with that question and continues toexist despite a world that doesn’t believe who he is. But in his own perfectuniverse of physics as the bedrock for his mind he knows who he is! Even if heis brainwashed!! This is something which keeps him going even though he may beinvalidated in terms of working on the Neptune Project – part of his vow tophysics and perfect universe he swore to upon discovering as a child. It islike the East/West divide forever for Martino as it follows him mentally despitehim being physically in the West. It is possibly soul destroying. It is certainlyan interesting dynamic.
Does it really matter if he is Martino? As this Roboman issuffering psychologically and physically as a possibly innocent man and in theend it is Gould who is internally more like a robot than a human compared toMartino, with his continual, if not haranguing, then harassment.
Who? is a character study to be sure, and a very good one. It’svery talky and with little action except for the opening crash and airportshootout and another car chase.
Joseph Bova (1924-2006 emphysema) is effective and slightlymoving as the all too human and ultimately alone Martino, who must face thecynicism and mental inhumanity of Gould.
The question Who? asks: is life worth living if you areinvalidated and how do you go on living once this has happened? Can you ever bevalidated again? There must be a philosophical shuffling of deckchairs on theship that must ultimately sink. You must learn to go on although all projectedplans you had for your life are scuttled. What do you do with your life then? Itis a decision which could happen to anyone unfortunate enough to be in such asituation as Martino’s. The question marks over identity and sanity and howthey are linked are shown in Who?
It is said the film contains brainwashing elements of TheManchurian Candidate (1962) and a second chance at life, or another serve ofthe same with a different face, used in Seconds (1966). Both of these films weredirected by John Frankenheimer (1930-2002 complications of spinal surgery). Youcan also go back in history and note elements of the character who was The Manin the Iron Mask. He was a prisoner whose face was covered in cloth and thenlater romanticised as a metal mask in one of Alexandre Dumas’ (1802-70) novels.In that case the man was said to be an illegitimate half brother of King LouseXIV of France. Others say it was the king’s twin although no one really knows hisidentity for sure. But I go on… Thus one of the movie Who?’s video titles was TheMan in the Steel Mask.
So, Martino is not valid in the real world as the individualis probed and prodded like some sort of criminal or mental patient… and yetstill they don’t believe he is real and even a walk down the street is anencounter with stares en masse in a scene of the movie which is ingeniouslyfilmed. It is the further humiliation of a man who even the general publicthinks is a freak even without a personal introduction! They never met the guyand yet he is judged.
This man doesn’t belong in almost every way, as he has nospouse of family, or parents either. There is an old girlfriend… will shebelieve who he says he is?…
Philosophically, it’s definitely a frightening movie aboutparanoia being realised and yet with that paranoia seemingly legitimised, thereis still no hope or treatment, or resolution as Martino is rejected on everylevel. If he is not mentally ill, he is definitely on his way. This is shown asMartino sits dejected at a bus stop or park bench… or is it all just the act ofa clever spy?
This level of dejection from rejection and alienation causedby invalidation has recently been used to great effect in the film Joker –although Who? is far more intellectual in comparison. Joker is perhaps thebetter and more effective movie though. Both movies show polar oppositeoutcomes from rejection.
Martino’s girlfriend remembers a boat trip they took in the1950s… and Martino remembers they came back by the causeway… The FBI listeningin are still not convinced… despite the fact the ex-girlfriend was in on it andhad bugging equipment in her apartment.
“He looks lost,” says the guy staking out Martino when hestands vacantly on the road as they accidentally reveal their bugging plot.
In the scene that follows, the FBI agent who dares to careabout Martino is hit by a car and killed. It is an event which affects Martinofurther in terms of his isolation. Martino wants to go back to the family farm– screw the Neptune Project!
“I’ve had enough Mr Rogers… I can’t take anymore…,” saysMartino about not going back to Neptune. It now sounds like another alien placeanyway. “I am in a constant state of panic Mr Rogers, my mind is poised forflight. I’m on the edge of screaming all the time…”
But then, as Martino says, if he did scream, even morepeople would stare.
Gould and the FBI have pushed Martino too far in theirspying and interrogation… but to the bitter end, Gould will still not believeit is the real Martino. Like an objective psychiatrist, Martino will always beonly a patient.
“Identity doesn’t depend on physical appearance,” says arecruited spy in flashback with Howard in Russia, who they hope will be turnedinto Martino’s Roboman and work as a spy on Neptune.
So the question remains unanswered until the dying minutesof the film, although it looked like it was the real Martino made into abrainwashed spy… but there could even be a tussle over this within Martinohimself. Does he even realise?
But what does it matter, now that he’s on the farm? AndGould goes there to ask him to come back to Neptune even though he doesn’tbelieve it’s Martino.
“Will you believe I didn’t like treating you like I had to,”says Gould. If only the world could be so apologetic to those who aren’t“real”, who are “invalidated”.
And the film cuts back to Russia where the recruited spy whois made to look like Roboman and impersonate Martino dies after his face andbody operations….
“I am a farmer now and I’m accepted for what I really am, aman with a metal face. It doesn’t matter ‘who’ – I know.”
Despite memories and dreams, Martino settles to toil and useand change the soil of the Earth and not change the world with the disciplineof physics. It is still his perfect universe and Martino on the farm finds thatinside he’s stopped screaming.
Gould questions his own actions again but Martino tells himto beware, as it could be him being extra clever in the end.
“Tell them I’m not Lucas Martino anymore,” says our “metalman staring out of a metal skull” as he starts up his tractor and forgets hisformer life as a scientist.
Or maybe he dwells on it occasionally. He is, after all,only human.
Who? keeps us guessing to the end and while it is not agreat movie, it is certainly one that shouldn’t have remained on the shelf solong, as it fulfils its promise of posing many more questions than just the oneof the title.
The intense scrutiny of the self can cause more scrutiny bythe self on the self and that can be life changing for the positive – if that’swhat you want it to be and if it doesn’t destroy you instead. Thus Camus’ ruleof thumb about the question of suicide as the most important decision you willever make as you may well feel the scream inside. You must really want to livelike Martino, metal face and all, and only you know who you are and perhapswhat you once were. Hopefully, in the end, you will also know better.
