| Shining Through | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | David Seltzer |
| Screenplay by | David Seltzer |
| Based on | Shining Through bySusan Isaacs |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Jan de Bont |
| Edited by | Craig McKay |
| Music by | Michael Kamen |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 132 minutes[1] |
| Countries |
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| Languages |
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| Box office | $21.6 million[2] |
Shining Through is a 1992 AmericanWorld War IIdrama film written and directed byDavid Seltzer and based on the1988 novel bySusan Isaacs. It starsMichael Douglas,Melanie Griffith,Liam Neeson,Joely Richardson, andJohn Gielgud, and the original music score was composed byMichael Kamen. The film was released in the United States on January 31, 1992.
In the present (1992), elderly Linda Voss is interviewed by a BBC documentary team about her experiences during World War II. Growing up inNew York City as a young woman of mixedIrish/German Jewish parentage, she dreamed of visiting Berlin and finding her family members there. In 1940, Linda applies for a job as a secretary with a major law firm but is hired as a translator for Ed Leland, a humorless attorney. She soon becomes suspicious of his strange behavior, and she suspects he is a spy. They eventually become lovers. After theattack on Pearl Harbor, when America joins the war with theAllies, Ed emerges as a colonel in theOSS. Linda accompanies him toWashington D.C., but he is posted away. Assigned to work in theWar Department, she hears nothing of Ed until he reappears with an attractive female officer. Reluctant to resume their affair, he does re-employ her. When one of their undercover agents inBerlin is murdered, Ed and his colleagues need to replace him on very short notice. Linda volunteers, and Ed is persuaded by her fluent German and passion to contribute to the war effort. Her mission is to bring back data on theV-1 flying bomb.
Ed and Linda travel to Switzerland, where he hands her over to elderly master spy Konrad Friedrichs, who hides her in his house in Berlin and introduces her to his niece, Margrete von Eberstein, a socialite working as an Allied agent. Linda assumes the identity of Lina Albrecht, a cook planted in the household of Horst Drescher, a social-climbingNazi officer. He is throwing an important party, but she arrives too late to prepare the food properly, causing the dinner to be a disaster. Drescher fires her. Later, Linda bumps into a guest from the dinner, officer Franze-Otto Dietrich, who takes her on as a nanny to his two children. She searches Dietrich's house for confidential papers on the V1, which he is also working on. She intends to photograph them but can find nothing.
Meanwhile, Ed chances to see her in a newsreel of Hitler in a parade in Berlin. Ed's agents identify Dietrich as the man standing next to Linda in the film, and Ed heads to Germany to rescue her. Because he does not speak German, he assumes the identity of a wounded high-ranking German officer, who had his throat injured and cannot speak. He tracks down Linda and tells her she must leave with him, but Linda reveals that she has located her Jewish cousins. The next day, with the children in her care, Linda tracks down her relatives' hiding place in the city but finds it empty, as they have just been captured. When an Allied air raid hits, Linda runs for cover with the children. Back at the house, the frightened boy inadvertently reveals the existence of a hidden room in Dietrich's basement. Linda sneaks down there that night and surreptitiously photographs Dietrich's secret V-1 rocket blueprints. Dietrich nearly catches her before he reveals he has fallen in love with Linda and invites her to the opera. While there, Linda's cover is blown when Margrete's mother recognizes her. Dietrich is heartbroken and, once back at his house, Linda sees him loading his gun.
Linda then catches Margrete using a pay phone to report in to her Gestapo superiors. Margrete shoots Linda and reveals that she is adouble agent. The two struggle, and Linda overpowers Margrete and kills her. Linda hides in the laundry chute, escaping the German forces who raid Margrete's apartment.
Badly wounded, Linda is found by Ed and Friedrichs, who take her to the railway station. Ed and Linda travel to theSwiss-German border. Ed's mute act fails to sway the border guards, forcing him to shoot his way out. Carrying Linda, he struggles toward the border. The Germansniper guarding it shoots and wounds him twice, but he gets himself and Linda across before collapsing. Back in the present, Linda reveals that while she and Ed recovered from their injuries in a Swiss hospital, themicrofilm of the secret German documents was retrieved from a hiding place inside her glove, and the Alliessuccessfully bombed the V1 installation. Ed then walks out to join the interview, and they reveal that they have been happily married ever since.
The film was first announced in the fall of 1988, just after the publication of the novel. It was to be written and directed by Seltzer, produced atColumbia Pictures and would likely starDebra Winger.[3] By late 1989, just after the fall of theBerlin Wall, Seltzer and producer Rosenman were reported to be scouting potential locations inEast Berlin,Warsaw,Kraków, andBudapest, andMeg Ryan andMichelle Pfeiffer were reported to be top contenders for the lead role.[4] The production moved soon after to Twentieth Century Fox, and in February 1990, it was announced that Melanie Griffith had been cast.[5] After permission was secured to shoot the film on location in East Germany, the majority of it was shot inBerlin andPotsdam starting in October 1990, just as Germany was being reunified. Studio work was done at theDEFA Studios, the state film studios of East Germany.
Because all of Berlin's great train stations were destroyed in World War II, the production traveled over 100 miles (160 km) to Leipzig at the end of October to shoot scenes in theLeipzig Hauptbahnhof terminus, built in 1915 and the largest in Europe. This was prior to the building's modernization by theDeutsche Bahn.[6]
The finale, set at a border crossing and involving a period train, was shot in Maria Elend,Carinthia,Austria, in November 1990.[7]
TheNew York City andWashington scenes at the beginning of the film were shot in and aroundLondon and at nearbyPinewood Studios.[8] Locations included theOld Royal Naval College in Greenwich,Hammersmith, andSt Pancras Station, which doubled for Zurich Station for a brief sequence set in Switzerland.
The film was released in the United States on January 31, 1992.[2] The film earned $6.4M in its opening weekend, and has earned $21.6M to date.[2]
The film was neither a commercial nor a critical success. TheRazzie Awards declaredShining Through theWorst Picture of 1992, with Melanie Griffith being votedWorst Actress (also for her performance inA Stranger Among Us) and David Seltzer forWorst Director. It also received nominations for Michael Douglas asWorst Actor (also forBasic Instinct) and for Seltzer in the category ofWorst Screenplay.[9] The film holds a 41% rating onRotten Tomatoes based on 17 reviews with an average rating of 4.80/10.[10]
Roger Ebert wrote in theChicago Sun-Times, "I know it's only a movie, and so perhaps I should be willing to suspend my disbelief, butShining Through is such an insult to the intelligence that I wasn't able to do that. Here is a film in which scene after scene is so implausible that the movie kept pushing me outside and making me ask how the key scenes could possibly be taken seriously."[11]
Janet Maslin wrote inThe New York Times that the first three-quarters of Susan Isaacs's book "never made it to the screen," including Linda Voss's love affair and marriage to her New York law firm boss, John Berringer. "David Seltzer's film version ofShining Through manages to lose also the humor of Susan Isaacs's savvy novel. Even stranger than that is the film's insistence on jettisoning the most enjoyable parts of the story."[12]
The film is listed inGolden Raspberry Award founderJohn Wilson's bookThe Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made.[13]
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Razzie Award for Worst Picture 13th Golden Raspberry Awards | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Stinker Award for Worst Picture 1992 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards | Succeeded by |