They Might Be Giants

Justin Playfair was a wealthy judge; after his wife's death he began to believe he was Sherlock Holmes. His brother wants him committed so as to take the estate, and needs a psychiatric report for it. The psychiatrist assigned to the case is called Doctor Mildred Watson. Justin takes it as a sign and the two go out into the streets of New York, looking for Moriarty. Anthony Harvey directs. George C. Scott plays Justin and Joanne Woodward plays Watson. The source is James Goldman's play, and he wrote the screenplay. The question is who is mad. The world Justin sees is coherent and meaningful; the world around him rests on money, interest and indifference. At a certain point the narrative moves the audience to his side. The title refers to Don Quixote; taking windmills for giants and looking for Moriarty are built as two states of the same idea. It did not perform commercially at the time and became a cult film later; the New York of the seventies is among the things most discussed about it now. The supermarket sequence is its best known scene. The ending is left open, which caused an argument with the distributor, and a cut version is also in circulation. Who it is for: viewers who like seventies American independent film and odd two handers. Who it is not for: the tone is uneven, the narrative is scattered, and the ending will not satisfy everyone.