Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

***SPOILERS*** Very complex and confusing film about the Nazi Genesis Project during WWII in the mass production of synthetic fuel to run its war machine. It was that fuel, made from liquefied coal, that had Germany hold off defeat while inflicting millions of allied casualties for some two years after it's supply of oil, mostly from the Romanian Ploesti Oil Field, was obliterated by allied daylight bombings in 1943.Seeing in the spring of 1945 that the war was lost, for Germany, German General Helmut, Richard Lynch, makes a desperate dash with a truck full of Nazi secret documents towards the Swiss border only to get intercepted by a US Army patrol. It's then that Gen. Helmut makes a secret deal with US Army Major Tom Neeley, Robin Clark,to trade the documents for his safety out of the country and possible being tried as a Nazi war criminal. It's now 35 years later and Neeley now a retired L.A police chief is found murdered in his home with it made to look like it was some kind of mob hit. In fact it was but the mob wasn't the Mafia but those running the world's oil cartels.With Neeley's good friend in the LAPD Let. Barney Caine, George C. Scott, put on the case it becomes evident to him that those who ordered Neeley murdered originated, by a check on Neeley's recent travels, from Germany. That becomes even more clear to Let. Caine when within days Neeley's estranged wife Kay, Beatrice Straight, is also fund murdered in her Jacuzzi with the same murder weapon that murdered her husband! The film follows the same formula in that as soon as we're, or Let. Caine, introduced to a major character in it he, or she, ends up being murdered! Let. Caine traveling to, at that time in 1980, West Germany on official business starts to put all the loose ends in Neeley's murder together and uncovers his involvement with the Nazi Genesis Project! If the secret of the Genesis Project were made public it would put the world's oil cartels out of business!Hard to follow and very boring at times, with the action in the film about as long as a one minute TV commercial, the best part in it is the confrontation between Let. Caine and Titan Oil CEO Adam Steiffel, Marlon Brando, at the conclusion of the movie. It's that scene that explains to the audience what exactly is going on in the film.***SPOILER ALERT*** Steiffel who's the man behind all the murders in the movie comes across so likable, due to Brando's comedic mannerisms of him, that you find it hard to dislike him. In fact you look at Scott, as Let. Caine, to be more of a villain that he does in is verbally abusing the what seems like the helpless balding fat-man that Steiffel is. In the end it's Steiffel who ends up getting the last laugh by checkmating Let. Caine, despite all his efforts, in his trying to get the Genisis formula out to the public. Which shows that big bucks not morality or the public interest is the way to get things done in this world. There's also in the movie the husky voiced and very athletic looking Marthe Keller as Lisa Spangler in a role that she seemed to play in every film she was in back then; The mystery woman. Lisa was so mysterious that even when the movie was finally over you didn't quite know on just who's-Let. Caine or Adam Steiffel-she was on?P.S The film "The Formula" has the distinction of not only having two Academy Award winners, Geroge C. Scott & Marlon Brando, for best actor in it but also the very two who turned the coveted Oscar down for, in Brando's case, political and, in George C, Scott's case, personal or professional reasons.

This film may have even more relevance today than in 1980, when it was released. Most in this country would love to be left to their own devices by marketing/consuming fuel based on American coal derivatives like those delineated in the "Genesis" formula instead of depending upon foreign petroleum. The parallels outlined here are close to today's, especially the popular theories these days that big oil is suppressing valid fuel alternative projects that would undercut their energy dominance, hence, their financial status.Unlke some other reviewers, I thought the film moved along at a nicely orchestrated pace, making it, perhaps, a more analytical movie than a Hollywood flash-and-dash melodrama. The film follows a logical progression of events that lets the viewer absorb the contents in easy to swallow doses, that is, as long as he/she pays attention to the plot development.I was impressed by mostly all the actors, especially Marthe Keller, who acquitted herself very well in her portrayal by staying well within her character and by her impeccable timing and fluid delivery. Mr. Brando's rather short stint in the film was punctuated by terse, cynical and penetrating dialog, playing the enterprising villain who continually cuts to the chase with large doses of street-wise metaphors. George C., as usual, is a no-nonsense good cop who only wants to see justice prevail, regardless of who gets burnt. Yet inside him, demons from the past lurk and can't help but surface from time to time: you can see it in the non-verbal communication that Mr. Scott so characteristically exudes.Thanks to TCM for showing these kinds of films that are usually omitted on other movie channels.

This is a story about a man who discovers an evil plot and risks everything to thwart the scheme. He opposes the ultimate "establishment" and is weighed and found wanting when the time comes to take the final step to expose the ruling classes' determination to keep the lower class lower and the super upper class on top. After all his risks and frustrations and dangers the invisible powers that "be" casually regain the upper hand as if nothing has happened and once again it is business as usual. The movie is a powerful subliminal civics lesson for young people. The antithesis is another Marlon Brando movie titled "Burn." I suggest you see that one also.

The reviews for this movie have been rather consistently poor--both when it was released and on IMDb. For some reason, I actually liked this film--maybe I have bad taste, but I found it to be a very pleasant surprise! Maybe some of my positive regard for this is because I like George C. Scott so much and because I like paranoid and depressing movies (and this one has all these elements). In fact, I am guessing that the depressing nature of the film is much of the reason why others dislike it (there are a lot of murders in the movie). But I liked it for the odd plot--about the evil oil producers trying to suppress a secret for a cheaper fuel through murders and payoffs. But, if you do decide to watch this film, please try to remember that it's only a film. This is not a piece of non-fiction!UPDATE--8/08. I re-watched this film (something I rarely do) and was surprised how dull I found it a second time. While I still liked the paranoid plot involving a worldwide oil conspiracy, this time I noticed that the film was a bit too talky and the plot a bit too convoluted. Plus, and I know Brando fans will hate me for saying this, but his acting seemed a tad over-done. Still, it's a decent film even if I did knock my original score from 8 to 6.