Title: Magic Hunter
AKA: 
Year: 1994
Original title: Bűvös Vadász
Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
Country: Hungary | Switzerland | France
Language: Hungarian (and some German & Russian)
Subtitles: English (Custom) (.srt )
Genre: Drama | Fantasy

Director: Ildikó Enyedi

Cast

Cast overview:

Gary Kemp ... Max
Sadie Frost ... Eva
Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy ... Maxim
Péter Vallai ... Kaspar
Mathias Gnädinger ... Police Chief
Alexandra Wasscher ... Lili
Ildikó Tóth ... Lina
Natalie Conde ... Virgin Mary
Zoltán Gera ... Shoemaker
Philippe Duclos ... Monk
Andor Lukáts ... One-Eyed Monk
György Bárdy ... Theologian
Eszter Csákányi ... Nanny
Tibor Bitskey ... Surgeon

Plot / Synopsis

The gifted Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi followed her brilliant debut, My Twentieth Century, with this ambitious but uneven second feature. Like her first film, Magic Hunter tries to blend a range of cultural, historical, and dramatic elements into a surprising whole in which seemingly arbitrary associations turn out to have deep thematic connections. But this time the material is too uneven to hold together.

Magic Hunter begins as a fairy tale told by a mother to her frightened daughter during a World War II air raid and then shifts into the contemporary story of Max, a police marksman (British actor Gary Kemp, dubbed in Hungarian) who loses his nerve when he wounds an innocent hostage. He manages to pass his annual shooting test only when a sinister colleague lends him three magic bullets that won't fail to miss their target; to get a new supply, Max will have to strike a deal with the devil.

As this tale of satanic temptation unfolds, Enyedi introduces a parallel story of Christian redemption. In medieval Hungary, a painting of the Virgin Mary stirs to life long enough to protect a frightened rabbit that is running from a trio of hunting dogs by allowing it to hide beneath her robe. There's a wide-eyed, gee-whiz quality to these scenes that contrasts harshly with the sly, insinuating tone of the contemporary story. Enyedi amasses a wealth of other images, which often depend on a charmingly primitive use of special effects, yet the film doesn't succeed in linking them dramatically. --Dave Kehr

Reviews:

The fact that I had trouble finding an adequate title for my review points to some agreement with other reviewers who cite there are so many pieces of this movie experience that the resulting tapestry is perhaps not as tightly woven or as continuous in pattern as many would like. But for me, it didn't have to be: the work is a wonderful, jumbly evocative blend of history and culture and movie thriller. Many elements in the Hungarian cultural un/consciousness (for example pagan/folk nature motives woven harmoniously into Christian ideology) represent quite vividly, I think, the mishmash tumble of many eras of influence upon a given nation's culture. Forget the demands of trying to make all the subplots and cross-time experiences merge into a conveniently logical storyplot; I don't think this is what the movie intended. It feels more like an immersion in an art gallery... where connections between paintings begin to make sense on an emotional level, not a mental one. Embedded in all these Hungarian socio-historical colors, there is actually a story and it's a great old legend of a tale. The plot is really a modern remake of the wonderful Weber opera, Der Freischutz (the spooky Wolf's Glen scene from the opera is vividly used, as is music from other multi-cultural influences). The hero marksman (as in the original story) frightened of his loss in shooting ability, is tempted into a fatal deal with Satan, who hands him magic bullets... all but one to fly exactly where the hero intends. The final one is reserved for Satan's target, although of course the hero is not to know that. And, as in the opera, Satan's target is the same innocent one whose death would destroy the hero the most. It's a very difficult story to portray in logical terms; the movie's ending is as strange (though different) as the opera's... but the result is the same feeling of magic and faith and love and weirdness. I thought the modernization of the old story worked very well; I loved the added colors of a people rich in diverse roots; and all the different kinds of music are tremendously well placed in helping to tell the story. My only question is why the lead actors were not Hungarians and were dubbed... surely charismatic, attractive Hungarian actors exist and have been seen on screen before. I did notice the dubbing. But it's still a fabulously unique and romantic work... I waited a long time for it to become available on video and I'm happy to own it. Now where's the soundtrack?

Not one of the movies that jumps at you, but one that resonates with your sense of destiny. Those of us who crave killing and other mind smut will probably quit watching early on. The plot hovers eerily between a postmodern present and occult fantasies of bygone centuries. The acting is OK, not the center of attention. The dazzling camera work, the musical mix (medieval, german romanticism, new wave etc.) and the wildly creative montage are what stirs you up in this film. I watched with skepticism at first, but by the end I knew I wanted to watch it a second time -- usually a good sign, particularly when the second viewing stimulates the mind even more.

Wow, what a film. Enyedi is a masterful director and the blend of fantasy, myth, magic, and spy-oriented suspense in this film is wonderful. Dialogue, acting, story, action, it's all here; wrapped in a mystical package that will keep your eyes dazzled and your mind buzzing even after the end. Anyone who sees this film will get caught up in it.

PLEASE NOTE, THE SUBTITLES ARE CUSTOM MADE, AND THEY WERE HAVING THEIR DEBUT ON EUTORRENTS. I USED ANOTHER VHS-RIP WITH HARDCODED ENG SUBS  FROM A RUSSIAN SOURCE AS BASE, AND THEN DID THE  TIMING MYSELF.

THIS VERSION IS ALSO A VHS-RIP, IN DECENT QUALITY, AND FOR THOSE, FAMILIAR WITH THE MOVIE, THIS IS THE UNCUT VERSION.


Technical Specs
 
File Format: AVI/XviD

Video Format: avi 
Video Bitrate: 1200 Kbps
Frame Rate: 25.000 fps 
Aspect Ratio: 8:7
Resolution: 720 x 576
Bits/(Pixel*Frame): 0.122

Audio Format: 0x0055 (MP3)
Audio Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Sampling rate: 48.0 kHz


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