Disturbing yet enthralling

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This movie starts with an unpromising premise and proceeds with imperfect production values, but to my surprise the end result is fairly gripping. The acting talents of Reed and Tushingham drag what could otherwise have been pretty stolid daytime TV fodder (think Hallmark TV in more contemporary context) into a different league. Reed's performance as La Bête, the earthy, rum-swilling 'beast' with a (normally hidden) softer side is almost playing to type, but he makes a pretty good fist of it. Tushingham's mute girl is played with great expression too; and their primal struggles to survive in the wilderness are the backdrop against which their relationship slowly develops.I'm sure not everyone will find this film a '9' or a '10' , but it is well worth watching; recently screened on British TV channel 'talking pictures' it made absorbing viewing. This was despite the fact that they could only manage to show a fairly iffy transfer from a grubby print to 4:3 video, which meant the film lost much of its original visual impact in widescreen.

Considering Rita does not speak in the entire film she says so much through her eyes and facial expressions. Oliver Is his usual brilliant self. An absolute gem of a movie with some of the best scenery in cinematic history.

The movie The Trap made at Panorama film studios in West Vancouver and Kates Iland in BC was a delight to work on with such great actors as Oliver Reed and Rita Tushingham.Support bit players and character extras were people like Chief Dan George, his son Lenorad who now is a hereditary band Chief in British Columbia. My photo can be seen on the Wharf scene where a minor points out to me the woman on board the tug boat. My picture shows a taller person wearing a black Cowboy stetson hat.Of the productions I have worked on including various Little Hobo television productions doing character acting parts, my most memorable part of working in films was in the Movie the Trap Warren D.

Here's what I learned at 10 years old from "The Trap", watched on VHS TV almost once a year (subsequent experience with fathers and men confirmed it all): If you're female, you're screwed. The world is indeed a trap, and your emotional life--not to even mention your physical life--will be a living hell of emptiness. Unless he rapes you--then you better recognize a good thing, girl, and crawl back to him! Good men are hard to find! I watched this film later as a more reasonable adult to see if I'd just been in a bad mood all those years before. I didn't see a more comforting message at all, save perhaps this small caveat: Ladies, you are more powerful than you may seem, and he is LITERALLY nothing without you. If life provides you with any kind of a choice, then choose wisely.Performances are powerful as stated before, but Rita Tushington's the real prize here, in every way. Her look of betrayed hopelessness should be patented as a solvent--it'd strip paint. He's just a schmuck with a fragile ego--a violent house of cards ready to be fled at the first opportunity. As such, Reed's adequate.Okay, so maybe I'm bitter. But I believe some things should NOT be shown to children , and this is one of those films. Over half the world's population's hearts will break, and after all these years, I still don't know which half I'm in.