Split Image (film)

Danny Stetson is a clean-cut, American college student and gymnast with dreams of Olympic gold when he's lured into Homeland, a youth-oriented religious commune, by a compellingly beautiful girl, Rebecca. Here he is programmed by the charismatic leader, Neil Kirklander, to believe that his new life now has the true meaning that it previously lacked.

Anguished by their son's disappearance, Danny's parents Diana and Kevin hire a modern-day bounty hunter, Charles Pratt, to abduct Danny and exorcise his brainwashed mind, but the psychological change could be traumatizing.

Ted Kotcheff said the film began when Peter Guber, then head of Polygram, approached him to make a movie about cults. Kotcheff was enthusiastic and worked on the film for two years.

The film was originally written by Scott Spencer, whose novel Endless Love had been filmed by Polygram. Spencer was replaced by Larry Gross, then Robert Kaufmann. "I was never actually fired," said Spencer. "The phone calls just stopped coming."{{cite news|title=And Back to Endless Love the Novel|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=26 July 1981|page=30|first=Clarke|last=Taylor}}

Kotcheff said, "I did a lot of research and spoke to a lot of people who had been in cults. Most of them felt that society had become too materialistic and too crass. They wanted something beyond that and more spiritual. I like that film a lot."{{cite web|url=http://www.money-into-light.com/2017/04/an-interview-with-ted-kotcheff-part-1.html|title=AN INTERVIEW WITH TED KOTCHEFF (PART 1 OF 2) |website=Money Into Light}}

Kotcheff said he cast Peter Fonda because "I wanted all his 60s resonances brought to his character."{{cite news|newspaper=The Boston Globe|date=26 September 1982|page= 83|title=Kotcheff and O'Keefe: Images of Split Image}}

The film was originally known as Captured. Filming took place in May 1981 in Dallas, Texas. Tatum O'Neal was originally cast in the film but she had to be let go as she was seventeen years old and not able to work night scenes, which the film required.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/donttelldadmemoi0000fond_r5r1/page/444/mode/1up?q=%22ted+kotcheff%22+%22split+image%22|first=Peter|last=Fonda| page=444|title=Don't tell dad : a memoir|year=1998}} She was replaced by Karen Allen, who was ten years older than O'Neal, requiring a rewrite of the script.{{cite news|title=Film Clips|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times|date=8 May 1981|page= 111}}

Kotcheff said "the film disappeared practically without a trace. It's a subject that American people don't want to hear about."{{cite book|page=151|title= Film directors on directing|last=Gallagher|first= John|year=1989}}

In 1982, Ronnie Scribner was nominated in the Category of Best Supporting Young Actor in a Motion Picture at the Youth In Film Award (now known as the Young Artist Award). {{cite web |title=4th Annual Youth in Film Awards |url=http://www.youngartistawards.org/pastnoms4.htm |access-date=2011-03-16 |website=Youngartistawards.org}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0084714|Split Image}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|split_image}}
• {{AFI film|id=56742|title=Split Image}}

{{Ted Kotcheff}}

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Category:1982 films

Category:1982 drama films

Category:Films scored by Bill Conti

Category:Films about religion

Category:Fictional cults

Category:1980s English-language films

Category:Orion Pictures films

Category:PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films

Category:Films produced by Don Carmody

Category:Films with screenplays by Robert Mark Kamen

Category:Films directed by Ted Kotcheff

Category:American crime drama films

Category:1980s American films