The Cinematheque

A Klondike prospector strikes it lucky, then very unlucky, in Nicolas Roeg’s grossly underrated, deeply unsettling, and almost unreleased whodunit. (MGM reportedly hated the film.) A densely-packed labyrinthine tale told in two distinct parts, Eureka begins in the 1920s with fortune hunter Jack McCann (Gene Hackman) discovering an ocean of gold beneath his feet thanks to some bizarre occult intervention. Two decades later, he’s holed up in the Caribbean with a drunken wife, willful daughter (Theresa Russell), and scheming son-in-law (Rutger Hauer), who Jack suspects is conspiring to steal his fortune, possibly his soul. After Jack’s savage murder—an extraordinarily brutal scene—the film pivots to the ensuing homicide investigation and trial. Cinema’s masterpiece Citizen Kane is a clear inspiration. Roeg’s visual pyrotechnics are, as ever, in good supply. Director John Boorman called it ​“the best picture ever made—for an hour.”