Eureka

Director: Nicolas Roeg

1983 / 130min / 35mm

Loosely based on a real-life 1943 murder case in the Bahamas, Roeg’s psychodrama shocker stars Gene Hackman as a Yukon prospector who finds enough gold to buy his own Caribbean island—but not enough to purchase peace of mind as, 20 years on, he has to face off against his rebellious daughter (Theresa Russell), her sleazy wastrel husband (Rutger Hauer), and the Miami mobster who wants to make his tropical paradise into a casino (Pesci at his most nefarious.) Doomed to financial failure by an X rating in the US, presumably thanks to a scene in which a blowtorch is put to inventive use, Roeg’s film maudit can now be seen as a more than worthy entry in the director’s towering oeuvre—and a memento of a time when studio films took genuine risks.