''Second Sight'' is a 1989 American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

film from

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

starring

John Larroquette John Bernard Larroquette (; born November 25, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for his starring roles in the NBC military drama series '' Baa Baa Black Sheep'' (1976–1978), the NBC sitcom ''Night Court'' (1984–1992; for which he recei ...

Bronson Pinchot Bronson Alcott Pinchot (; born May 20, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Balki Bartokomous on the ABC sitcom '' Perfect Strangers'' (1986–93). He also performed in films, such as ''Risky Business'' (1983), ''Beverly Hill ...

Stuart Pankin Stuart Pankin (born April 8, 1946) is an American actor. He is known for his role as anchor Bob Charles in ''Not Necessarily the News'' and as the voice of Earl Sinclair in '' Dinosaurs''. Stuart is also known for his portrayal of Commander Edward ...

, and

Bess Armstrong Elizabeth Key "Bess" Armstrong (born December 11, 1953) is an American film, stage and television actress. She is best known for her roles in films '' The Four Seasons'' (1981), '' High Road to China'' (1983), ''Jaws 3-D'' (1983), and ''Nothing i ...

. In the film, a paranormal detective (Larroquette), a psychic (Pinchot), and a nun (Armstrong) search the streets of Boston, Massachusetts for a

missing person A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, de ...

who has allegedly been kidnapped. Although scripted by Patricia Resnick (who previously co-wrote ''

9 to 5 Working(laboring) time is the period of time that a person spends at paid Wage labour, labor. Unpaid work, Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week. Many countries regula ...

'') and Oscar-winner

Tom Schulman Thomas H. Schulman (born October 20, 1951) is an American screenwriter best known for his semi-autobiographical screenplay ''Dead Poets Society'' based on his time at the Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA), a college-preparatory day school located in ...

(who won for ''

Dead Poets Society ''Dead Poets Society'' is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir, written by Tom Schulman, and starring Robin Williams. Set in 1959 at the fictional elite conservative boarding school Welton Academy, it tells the story of an English t ...

''), the film was a critical and commercial failure; it garnered mostly-negative reviews, and earned only $5.3 million at the United States box office.

Production

''Second Sight'' was being produced around the time of the

1988 Writers Guild of America strike The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike was a strike action taken by members of both the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) against major United States television and film studios represented by the ...

, which led to problems with both the script and the cast. Filming was completed in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. Bronson Pinchot spent about three months meeting with psychics to research for the part, largely with one who was retained by writer Patricia Resnick as a technical advisor for the film. Pinchot said he found that most of them were very straightforward, intelligent and normal people, unlike the quirky and weird character he planned to play; Pinchot said the research was nevertheless helpful in determining how to play the part differently than actual psychics. Pinchot was directed to other psychics by actress

Shirley MacLaine Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, April 24, 1934) is an American actress, author, and former dancer. Known for her portrayals of quirky, strong-willed and eccentric women, MacLaine has received numerous accolades over her seven-dec ...

, who is well known for her beliefs in

new age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

and

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...

; a photo of MacLaine was hung in the bedroom wall of Pinchot's character as an homage. In the middle one of his research sessions, Pinchot collapsed, which doctors said was due to exhaustion but the film's psychic technical advisor believed was due to his response to the extra-sensory perception and hypnosis he had been exposed to over a long period of time. One psychic Pinchot talked to would randomly begin

speaking in tongues Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of sp ...

repeatedly during conversations, which the psychic said was the result of a spiritual sensation he could not explain; Pinchot said the encounter was helpful in establishing his character. During one scene in the movie, Pinchot is in the office of a man who is in another location and has to urinate, and as a result Pinchot's psychic character begins squirming as if he has to use the bathroom. Pinchot said this scene was inspired by a visit he had with a psychic who used to get drunk whenever she was near somebody who was drunk at a party. The character wears slippers throughout the movie because when Pinchot met psychic

Peter Hurkos Pieter van der Hurk (21 May 1911 – 1 June 1988) known as Peter Hurkos, was a Dutchman who allegedly manifested extrasensory perception (ESP) after recovering from a head injury and coma caused by a fall from a ladder when aged 30. He came to t ...

during his research, they went out to lunch and Hurkos wore sandals because he forgot to put on his shoes. The

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

song "

Freeway of Love "Freeway of Love" is a song by American singer Aretha Franklin. It was written by Jeffrey Cohen and Narada Michael Walden and produced by the latter for Franklin's thirtieth studio album ''Who's Zoomin' Who?'' (1985). The song features a notab ...

" plays during a chase scene in the middle of the film.

Reception

The film was not successful commercially or critically. It made only $5.3 million at the United States box office, $2.16 million of which were earned during the opening weekend. ''Second Sight'' received mostly negative reviews. Hal Hinson of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' said it appeared the film "looks as if it was shot on an everything-must-go, discount basis", and that Pinchot's character "is utterly lacking in either charm or wit". Hinson said the dialogue and direction style were terrible and that Larroquette was rehashing his character from the television comedy series, ''

Night Court ''Night Court'' is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984 to May 31, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan municipal court presided over by a young, unorthodox judge, Harold "Harry" T. Stone (portray ...

''. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reviewer

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

said Joel Zwick's direction "is so outstandingly maladroit (that) it squelches any possible humor". Maslin also said the film featured too many car chases and had such a pacing of such "artificial liveliness from beginning to end" that "there's nothing in the last reel to distinguish it from the first".

Availability

The film was released on VHS in 1990. Some 20 years later, in 2010, ''Second Sight'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

as a

MOD Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...

title from the

Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

, marking its first release in said format.

Cast

as Wilbur Wills *

as Bobby McGee *

as Kate / Sister Elizabeth *

as Dr. Preston Pickett *

John Schuck Conrad John Schuck Jr. (born February 4, 1940) is an American film, stage and television actor. He is best known for his role as Sgt. Charles Enright in the 1970s crime drama ''McMillan & Wife''. He also played Herman Munster in the late-1980s ...

as Lieutenant "Noogie" Manoogian *

James Tolkan James Stewart Tolkan (born June 20, 1931) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Mr. Strickland in ''Back to the Future'' (1985) and ''Back to the Future Part II'' (1989), and as Marshall Strickland in '' Back to the Future Part ...

as Captain Coolidge * Will Le Bow as FBI Agent Alman *

Christine Estabrook Christine Estabrook (born Mary Christine Estabrook; September 13, 1952) is an American actress, known for her roles on the television series '' The Crew'', ''Nikki'', '' Desperate Housewives'' and ''American Horror Story''; she had a recurring ...

as Priscilla Pickett *

Leonard Jackson Leonard Jackson (8 April 1848 – 21 March 1887) was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire from 1877 to 1882. Jackson was born at Holme Hurst in Norton Woodseats, on the border of Yorkshire and Derbyshire. He first played cricket ...

as Brian, Doorman At Hampshire House * Marisol Massey as Maria Soledad * William Prince as Cardinal O'Hara *

Dominic Chianese Dominic Chianese (; born February 24, 1931) is an American actor, singer, and musician. He is best known for his roles as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO series ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007), Johnny Ola in ''The Godfather Part II'' (197 ...

as Father Dominic *

Michael Lombard Michael Lombard born Michael LaBombarda (August 8, 1934 - August 13, 2020) was an American actor. His parents, both from Giovinazzo, Bari, Italy, emigrated to America and settled in Gravesend, Brooklyn. In 1977, he was nominated for a Drama Desk ...

as Bishop O'Linn *

Adam LeFevre Adam LeFevre (born August 11, 1950) is an American character actor, poet, and playwright who works in cinema, television, theater and commercials. Biography LeFevre was born in Albany, New York, the son of Helen (née Rhodes), a hospital patient ...

as Mike * Ron Taylor as Carl * Andrew Mutnick as Elmore * Lucy Johnson as Stripper * Michelle Fortune as Stripper (uncredited)

References

External links

* * *
Moria.co.nz review
{{Joel Zwick 1989 films 1989 comedy films 1989 directorial debut films 1980s science fiction comedy films American comedy mystery films American science fiction comedy films 1980s comedy mystery films 1980s English-language films Films about missing people Films directed by Joel Zwick Films scored by John Morris Films set in Boston Films shot in Boston Films with screenplays by Patricia Resnick Warner Bros. films 1980s American films