The Ninth Configuration (1980)

[akatemple]

The Ninth Configuration (1980)
(also known as Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane)

Written by William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist)
Directed by William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist)

The plot is a good one, and people who enjoy thrillers and mysteries will find enough action and plot twists in the film. But what makes this movie so special are the terrific performances (by Stacy Keach, Scott, Wilson, and Ed Flanders), the witty dialogue, and the religious undercurrents. Too often movies treat religious belief with sentimentality, but the Ninth Configuration deals with faith and doubt in with a dignity that isn't patronizing to either side.

It’s Vietnam and a number of soldiers have gone psycho, during the film you will find yourself trying to figure out if they are faking or are they really crazy. The soldiers are being held in a abandoned castle in a remote forest, top USMC Psychiatrist is sent in to investigate. For his part Kane is determined to help the men, especially their leader Capt. Cutshaw. The film has many confrontations between Kane and Cutshaw. There debates are mainly about the impossibility of a God with so much evil in the world. 

Cutshaw: " You're on your way out! I'm acting on orders so to inform you. "
Kane: " Who ordered you Cutshaw? "
Cutshaw: " Unseen forces far too numerous to enumerate."

https://signup.netflix.com/movie/The-Ninth-Configuration/60020860

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081237/

[akatemple]

I couldn't say without seeing the VHS copy.

[Sevorin]

I got my hands on an old VHS print of this that's just under two hours long. I don't know what has been cut.

 

When it was still being broadcast on pay-TV stations I'd always come into it at the bar-fight scene.