# Vierde man, De (1983)

### reviewed by
Jason Overbeck

    THE FOURTH MAN
    **** of **** grade is A

People think of extreme vience and sex when Paul Verhoeven's name is meantioned, I think of his best film The Fourth Man. It offers evrything you'd expect in a Verhoeven film and adds horrific imagery and a wonderfull story.

A gay writer comes to town for a speech, q&a session, he meets a nice lady. He always seems to be hallucinating, and this and the seemingly 'nice' lady start to drive him crazy. Has this lady been married before, has she been divorced, or did she kill them? This is all handled in an outrageous style that fills each scene with blood or sex.

Back in 83 this Dutch film was a bit of an art-house success, and it deserved it. Along wih the sex and violence you have cool, flashy direction and engaging black comedy. It also has very erotic scenes mixed in with the nude bodies and blood.

I am not a big fan of dreams in film, to be sure. I usually find them distracting and undream like. Every once and while a film will offer dream sequences that work and help the movement of the story. The dreams in Blue Velvet, for example, or in The Fourth Man. I followed this writer through every dream and hallucination, on the edge of my seat (actually couch).

I like Verhoeven films. I have only seen one bad one (Showgirls - and that wasn't THAT bad), and seen many which have made my years best list. This is one of them, a film that takes you through an exciting plot of hallucinatory and hipnotic imagery and plot details. This is a great companion piece to Starship Troopers, Basic Instinct, or Total Recall, the directors other fine films - two of those made my top ten list for there respective years.

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