This is an astonishing documentary that will wring your heart while it bends your mind

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

In its two unsubtle references to Franz Kafka, Stanley Kramer's The Domino Principle seemingly means to impress on us the immensity of what its protagonist finds himself within - a network of such reach and influence and connection that any attempt at defiance or assertion of free will is doomed to failure. But the effect, if anything, would be instead to point out the relative artistic blandness of Kramer's film; how the character's dilemma largely fails to illuminate anything meaningful about power and connection, or about our own natures, at least not in the way it intends to. Gene Hackman plays Tucker, languishing in prison with at least fifteen years left on his murder sentence; the unnamed organization, fronted by Richard Widmark's Tagge, offers him freedom, a well-funded new identity, and a resurrected relationship with his wife (Candice Bergen), all in return for unspecified services to be performed later (given that the movie starts off by flashing the term "Assassination" on the screen in several languages, the services will be obvious to the viewer at least). It might seem like a simple narrative weakness that of all the available stooges in all the country's prisons, the organization chose in Tucker just about the most contrary, uncooperative subject imaginable. On the other hand, that points to the most intriguing sub-textual question - if these guys (they're mostly although not exclusively guys) are so powerful, shouldn't their control on things be tighter, removing the need for such expensive, drawn-out convolutions? In this sense the movie resonates against incomprehensible contemporary theories of the "deep state" and the like, which mainly serve as rather plaintive assertions of (if not disguised wishes for) dark underlying order, even as all the evidence only suggests we're being dragged into increasing global chaos and erosion. Kramer's direction is perhaps a little more fluid than his sticky reputation suggests, leaving aside the thumping quasi-sermon at the start, but given such fanciful underpinnings it's all doomed from the first narrative domino.

This is one of those films which stars a great movie actor, Gene Hackman. The premise is from the Adam Kennedy novel called " The Domino Princiiple. " Roy Tucker, (Gene Hackman) a Viet-Nam veteran who is serving time in prison for murder is visited by a strange, and apparently powerful man Richard Widmark) who offers to get him released if he will use his special abilities. Having nothing to lose, Tucker agrees, with a single condition, to have his wife Ellie (Candice Bergen) released as well. The organization grants his request and promises much more. After a few weeks, Tucker is given the secret assignment and he quickly realizes the job has no future for him or his wife. However, he also knows to fight the organization will not be easy. If you have already seen the earlier version called 'The Paralax View' you'll realize this is a less convincing version. Despite the fact, top notch director, Standly Kramer, Mickey Rooney, Edward Albert, Jay Novello and Eli Wallach, were all involved in this project, it fails to match the earlier movie with Warren Beatty. Still, with Hackman doing his best, it remains interesting. ***

The greatest games of Kasparov or Fischer can be a mess for a total rookie. This is a great movie. There is no special agency involved in the plot. This is the clue! This is a PRIVATE plot, built as a PRIVATE enterprise. This is a self-destructive and a self organized plot. As a conclusion, the scenario described the perfect professional plot: private, self –organized, self-destructive, with no trace at the end. Anyone can be behind the plot: a smart "director" with some money. All can be done just by delegation. The "director" must be just trigger. If the normal viewer cannot see the essence of the plot in the explicit sequences of the movie, a real plot has fewer chances to be discovered. All the actors' performances are well done , with some special mention for Gene Hackman and Mickey Rooney.

Gene Hackman gets himself busted out of prison by a nameless government agency who want him for an assassination. It's a given of course that Hackman has the proficient skills for the job.Nobody tells him anything though, he's given as the audience is given bits and pieces of information. That's supposed to be suspenseful, instead it's annoying and boring. Hackman goes through with the mission, but the getaway is messed up and the guy at the top of this mysterious entity orders everybody dead to cover it up. So everyone in the cast dies and at the end you don't really care.One of the other reviewers pointed out that the film was originally twice as long, almost three hours and got chopped down quite a bit. Maybe something really was lost in the translation, but I tend to think it was a mercy act on the audience.A very talented cast that had people like Richard Widmark, Candice Bergen, Mickey Rooney, Eli Wallach, and Edward Albert is so thoroughly wasted here it's a crime. And we never do find out just what federal agency was doing all this, the FBI, the CIA, the DEA or even the IRS.