miscellanium | rituals (1977)

the "is it worth watching this for lawrence dane" rating: 5/5 (and the movie itself is a 5/5 as well)

i stumbled across this movie entirely by chance - it was on shudder and happened to be playing when we started up the tv, right at the tail end of a pretty brutal scene. at first i didn't want to watch it because of that, lol, but my spouse convinced me to since it was visibly from the 1970s and i generally have an easier time with older horror films (they're the horror buff, not me). maybe they regret that now that i've watched it five times since the beginning of march, haha.

this is the performance of his career. a real tour de force. which isn't to say it was all downhill from here, of course, but he inhabits his character so completely that i never once thought to analyze his acting the first time i watched this. mitzi is a fully-realized character and dane brings ian sutherland's already organic-feeling dialogue to life. it's a good script, though the mechanics of the story itself could use a little polishing, and the little details that dane and the other actors bring to their roles make it easy to believe that these characters have known each other for a long time. we don't need to be hit over the head with it; just tagging along for the hike is enough. according to dane the majority of the film was shot in sequence, so the exhaustion they embody as the narrative progresses is real enough and only enhances their performances.

the ensemble cast is phenomenal but it wouldn't work nearly as well without holbrook and dane tying it together, and the juxtaposition of their suffering with these sublime landscape shots makes for a very compelling film.

the plot: let's get one thing out of the way - if you look this movie up you're bound to find people comparing it to deliverance. (apparently dane himself acknowledged that comparisons would be inevitable but knew that they were doing something different.) maybe this is a controversial opinion but rituals is a far better film - there's no homophobic rape scenes and no "villainous redneck" stereotypes. there's a fleeting instance of homophobia, sure, but it's literally one line snapped during a moment of frustration. (side note: that's the scene that cemented the idea of mitzi/dane as my oc maurice, since maurice is a self-hating closeted old-school homosexual and would have said the exact same thing. while we don't learn that kind of information about mitzi and we don't need to, thinking about him like that is still interesting/amusing to me.)

this thoughtful review gets into the plot very nicely so i won't rehash the details here. do give that link a read if you're interested in the film - my focus is on dane/mitzi rather than a "proper" review.

rituals is arguably more of a suspense/thriller film than a horror film, at least in the sense that horror is commonly understood today, but the rawness of the situation is visceral either way and the sparing use of gore is quite effective. the emphasis is on thoughtful character studies, not shock value, and that helps it hold up better than certain other films. it's not a perfect movie but it's a damn good one nonetheless (and perhaps even because of its flaws, since there's more openings for someone to sink their analytical teeth into).

unfortunately, dane's audio commentary is inaccessible to me so if i remark on anything that's already covered by the audio commentary then you can blame people's reluctance to provide closed captions for "bonus" material (if the film itself warrants captions then it stands to reason the other material included with the home release should as well, assholes). anyway, buckle in! rituals can be watched on the streaming service shudder, if you have a subscription, or for free on archive.org as well as youtube, so if you want to check it out before reading the rest of my post go for it. just make sure you watch the version that's closer to an hour forty, because if it's shorter then that's the version where a distributor cut out a bunch of character development fsr.

(the person in the comments on archive.org who's complaining about the bickering is dumb because that's the best part of the movie imo. it's so funny sometimes in a way that doesn't detract from the high stakes, since it feels realistic. like of course these guys who are scared and upset and already have strained relationships aren't going to be having a great time!)

highlight of the first half of the movie: grr bark bark etc he is so sexy when he looks condescending

screenshots and further commentary under the cut. several images have been altered to try and compensate for the poor film preservation. warning for surgical gore and other violent imagery

the movie starts with him eating while looking at graphic surgical photos...... tells us so much about his and his friends' characters without saying anything.

SIR...... why are you holding your cup like that....................................

harry: don't start.
mitzi: who's starting? who's starting? .... *proceeds to talk shit anyway*
LMAO I LOVE U

his insouciant body language in this scene is so fun and exactly how i always imagined maurice's to be.
part of what makes mitzi such a great character for me is that he is a walking embodiment of "you're right but why do you have to say it like THAT". love us a man who can piss people off just by existing uwu

even tho i think those terrycloth(?) bucket hats look stupid hes so cute here im gonna shriek

and then this next sequence was a real treat that i only caught during a rewatch - mitzi was about to light up when the primary pilot turned around in his seat and caused turbulence lmao.

WHY WERE YOU TRYING TO SMOKE ON THE PLANE............ makes me think of that elevator scene in all the president's men where hoffman lights up and redford is like "come on man". fantastic

i'm going to skip the group photo because you can see that in most reviews lol.

the part where he missteps here and gets his fancy watch wet is really cute but doesn't screencap well :(
re the watch - this is a nice way of showing us just how out of their element these men are without being too heavy-handed about it. like you'd think the logical thing to do would be to leave expensive watches at home, but apparently not! also his yelping and cursing is adorable. pls watch the movie.

both times they come to a stop - first for the group photo, then when they arrive at the place dj has decided they'll make camp - mitzi immediately sits down to catch his breath, lol. that's how you know he's a heavy smoker <3

mitzi is such a fucking smartass i love him. goes from "why are we yelling :(" to making snide remarks about harry's high moral standards without batting an eye. he'd probably be insufferable irl but as a fictional character he's an absolute delight

another scene that doesn't screencap very well at all but is fun nonetheless - this song/dance is clearly a ritual from their time in med school together, a nice reminder of how shared experiences can keep a group together despite their differences, and it's cute seeing them goof around (mitzi is the one holding the lantern, on the right). it's all downhill from here, lads

this is the only time we see his bare chest.... fuzzy..........

his hair becomes progressively curlier each time he gets it wet and it's adorable

hehehe *points* hehehehe

muscle..... also bare thighs, thank u sir

i love u aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

thank u for emphasizing your luscious schnoz sir
they're sarcastically doing a "see/hear/speak no evil" thing, since he, harry, and marty (robin gammell, guy with the shades/flask on the plane) are sitting on a log while abel takes a photo of them. marty starts it with "see no evil," then harry is "hear" and mitzi is "speak". some clever little foreshadowing here, since marty's upcoming injury is related to not seeing and then harry doesn't want to listen to what mitzi has to say.

the first death :( but also look at his ASS WOOOOO

ok this is more about marty/gammell than dane but 1) gammell's performance as he's grieving his friend/trying cpr even though it's hopeless is very affecting here, heartbreaking job, and 2) it makes marty's later confession to harry less surprising in retrospect. and i wonder if mitzi knew or if this was what helped him connect the dots. it was likely common knowledge already, given how long they've known each other, but i imagine having it in his face like this affected mitzi's feelings when everyone's emotions were already running quite high.

some more subtle visual foreshadowing - harry and mitzi in opposition with marty between them, lagging behind. it's a damn shame the nighttime/low-light scenes are so crunchy as a result of the film negative getting messed up because the director and cinematographer did do some solid work.

his little sarcasm tantrum after harry says they shouldn't build a fire to cook a meal is so endearing to me lol. "all right, what have we got for din-dins? harry doesn't want a fire, so we'll see what we can eat. that's no good. oh that's not good, no good, rice, no good. ah, powdered milk, terrific!" SIR YOU ARE SO CUTE

it's so fun seeing how he shows more and more of his real personality the more stressed he becomes; it feels very authentic and tells us a lot about his character and his relationship with harry - it's later made clear that they've known each other for quite a long time, perhaps longer than some of the other characters, and have been through some awful things together. so it makes sense that when it comes down to essentially just the two of them he doesn't bother keeping up the façade.

after marty gets his foot caught in a beartrap when they were trying to cross the river :( mitzi does most of the work manhandling him back onto shore, which makes sense considering he's the tallest of them and would have the best leverage. but this little pat he gives marty shows that despite everything he does care for him, since it's a gesture of reassurance he didn't need to make.
also his forearm hair is very nice and his hand is so big................

i touched on this already in my scanners review but this scene, where they're getting marty drunk for painkiller purposes and mitzi gets drunk as well because why the hell not, is the one that helped me start coming to terms with some issues i have wrt self-perception and body types. in something of a roundabout way, i'll admit, since it was within the context of thinking about how mitzi's personality is identical to maurice's, if maurice were a doctor in the 1970s; maurice is a guy who does not really bother with taking care of himself beyond the minimum it takes to stay alive and be acceptable for public appearances, largely because he's never allowed himself a reason to care that doesn't involve advancement in his organization. so he's a bit shocked when someone expresses sexual interest in him and consequently becomes dangerously possessive, etc, but to stay on topic i'd been trying to visualize what his body might look like as a result of his disordered eating and drinking and chainsmoking and hard drug use. i'd already settled on the fact that he'd have something of a paunch but not much more than that, since his work does sometimes require a decent amount of physical activity and agility, and seeing mitzi here was like connecting the dots. i'm not trying to say that dane didn't "take care of himself", but that i can believe this being someone who doesn't make a point of vigorous exercise or following strict dietary standards or whatever. mitzi seems very average, and we know that the character drinks and smokes (and dane likely did as well since we see him smoking in several other roles), so thinking of him as sexually attractive is refreshing when pop culture expects us to feel inadequate if we're physically average at all and denigrates those who would smoke or make other choices widely accepted as harmful. if someone's making those choices from a place of depression or apathy, criticizing them doesn't help.

but to get back to rituals - none of this plays into the narrative at all, except for the part where the majority of the men on this trip are clearly ill-equipped for what befalls them. even harry, the war veteran, struggles - he's not any better than the rest of them physically, but he at least has the survival instinct of someone who's faced enemy fire before. however, that instinct has to also contend with his moral principles...which is where mitzi's valid points stoke conflict between the two of them. (at least, i think they're valid lol)

drunk sarcastic mitzi is soooooooo cute!!!!! also im sorry the color correction for this scene is all over the place because this is one of the crunchiest low-light scenes.... i did my best

he looks so good with curly hair.......................... *licks his face*

he manhandles marty into his lap almost as if it's nothing my god. muscle but also tummy.... best of both worlds right here

🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵
his sardonic expressions here are so sexy jesus fuck

another tantrum when he realizes his last cig is wet and useless after they try carrying marty on a makeshift stretcher via water.... so cute. also lol, marty asking for a cig and mitzi going "it's my last one" like fuck off

just yeets his shit into the river lmao

imagine he just sucked dick. hell yeah babey

and that concludes the first half of the film! saving the juicy slur scene for next time lol. after i write up part two i'll link it here. i just have a lot to say, ok, but pls feel free to go ahead and share any thoughts/questions you might have!

part two is here

rituals (1977) - part 1 of 2

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