Jack McCann (Gene Hackman) fights off his partner, witnesses a shocking suicide, and hallucinates about his wife Helen. During a long, harsh Arctic exploration, he stumbles into a cave where he literally unleashes a river of gold. Years later, he is filthy rich with his own island. He doles on his daughter Tracy (Theresa Russell) but dislikes her pick Claude Maillot Van Horn (Rutger Hauer) to marry. Charles Perkins (Ed Lauter) is his business partner. Mobsters Aurelio D'Amato (Mickey Rourke) and Mayakofsky (Joe Pesci) want to buy the island to build a casino but Jack refuses. It's WWII and everybody wants to kill Jack.
The first act has so many surreal touches which doesn't always fit the rest of the movie. There are also some weirdness in the rest including a voodoo orgy and a crazy kill. All the strange touches distract from a more tense thriller. Although I can say that I've never seen a blowtorch used that way. This does have a killer cast which keeps it interesting. This is a cross between Hitchcock and an experimental art-house film. The trial is extraneous and adds no tension to the movie. That's par for the course.
The first act has so many surreal touches which doesn't always fit the rest of the movie. There are also some weirdness in the rest including a voodoo orgy and a crazy kill. All the strange touches distract from a more tense thriller. Although I can say that I've never seen a blowtorch used that way. This does have a killer cast which keeps it interesting. This is a cross between Hitchcock and an experimental art-house film. The trial is extraneous and adds no tension to the movie. That's par for the course.