loading loading...

The Osterman Weekend Details

1983 Certificate 18
  • Rated:
  • 50
  • from 491 members

Once a year John Tanner spends a long weekend with his three best friends from college. When he is approached by a CIA agent who has evidence proving that his three pals are actually spy's working with the Soviet Union, he reluctantly allows, his house to be wired with video surveillance equipment so that the CIA can monitor .. Read more

Starring Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, Dennis Hopper, Craig T. Nelson
Director Sam Peckinpah
Genres Thriller

Sign up The Osterman Weekend DVD

loading loading...

The Osterman Weekend cover art

The Osterman Weekend

Once a year John Tanner spends a long weekend with his three best friends from college. When he is approached by a CIA agent who has evidence proving that his three pals are actually spy's working with the Soviet Union, he reluctantly allows, his house to be wired with video surveillance equipment so that the CIA can monitor the men over their weekend together in hopes of putting the traitors behind bars. However, Tanner soon realizes that the CIA's agenda is not all that it appears to be

Starring Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, Dennis Hopper, Craig T. Nelson, Burt Lancaster, Chris Sarandon, Chris Sarandon, Meg Foster, Helen Shaver
Director Sam Peckinpah
Studio ANCHOR BAY HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 38 mins
Certificate Certificate 18
Genres Thriller
Language DVD: English
Released DVD: 29 Mar 2004
Production year: 1983
Format DVD

The Osterman Weekend (2 discs) (1983)

Sign up The Osterman Weekend DVD

Or you can rent each disc individually:

  • Sign up Osterman Weekend, The - Disc 1

  • Sign up Osterman Weekend, The - Disc 2

  • Critics' reviews (3) of The Osterman Weekend

    View all
  • 3 stars out of 5

    Sam Peckinpah's final film before his death is not a western but a thriller, an adaptation of the Robert Ludlum bestseller that still manages to display the director's trademark slow-motion action sequences. Burt Lancaster is the CIA chief with presidential ambitions, who for his own murky reasons gets operative John Hurt to persuade TV journalist Rutger Hauer that there are Soviet agents among the guests assembled for a weekend get-together. Video gadgets push the atmosphere of post-Watergate paranoia to breaking point, but the confusion experienced by the characters is nothing compared to the audience's bafflement at the convoluted plot. Compelling, though.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006

  • Adapted from Robert Ludlum's thriller, this trails a McGuffin about an un-American spy ring, but really revolves around... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
    • Posted 04 Nov 2008

  • Most helpful member's review of The Osterman Weekend

    View all
  • 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars [Highly rated reviewer]

    A Great Big Mess of Meaningless and Misogyny

    Peckinpah saddled himself with a no-win situation in attempting to make a comeback with The Osterman Weekend.

    Whilst the Ludlum novel may differ, certainly the screenplay makes the fatal error of asking us to care about a group of thoroughly dislikable characters. Furthermore, once the studio suits began chopping up the finished version, what was merely a tale of unpleasant folks getting what they deserved turned into an incongruous mess. The viewer is introduced to conversations halfway through, characters suddenly completely change their behaviour, and all because scenes were either shortened or cut.

    Peckinpah's women are either mothers or whores. Hurt's wife is murdered whilst masturbating, Yates' is a doomed and dim, gum-chewing bubblehead, and Shaver's coke-addled nympho' is so unsympathetic, who care's what happens to her? Only Foster is allowed to keep her breasts off camera, but then again she IS a mother...

    Gets two stars for Hopper's timidity and Hurt's oiliness. Watch only if you are a Peckinpah completist, otherwise avoid!

      • robertconnor from Gloucestershire
      • Posted 07 Feb 2005 15:10

  • Most recent members' review of The Osterman Weekend

    View all
  • 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    terrible movie

    this was a awful movie i would not recommend this movie to anyone

      • A customer from northern ireland
      • Posted 06 Apr 2005 11:36

  • More like this

    View all
    Showing 1 to 4 of 20

    loading

Find cinemas


Rating breakdown

491 Member ratings
  • 100
15
  • 90
16
  • 80
50
  • 70
60
  • 60
107
  • 50
75
  • 40
69
  • 30
41
  • 20
40
  • 10
18

Related user collection

Buy from the LOVEFiLM shop

    • The Osterman Weekend

    • The Osterman Weekend
      Once a year John Tanner spends a long weekend with his three best friends from college. When he is approached by a CIA agent who has evidence proving that his three pals are actually spy's working with the Soviet Union, he reluctantly allows, his house to be wired with video surveillance equipment ...