One man must learn the meaning of courage across four lifetimes centuries apart.
Acting
Robin Williams' understated vulnerability in four wildly different roles.
Direction
Bill Forsyth's quietly surreal touch that studios hated and buried.
Production
Four distinct historical periods on a modest budget, somehow cohesive.
Director
Bill Forsyth
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Warner Bros. hated Forsyth's original cut so much they fired him, reshot the ending, and dumped the film in limited release. It barely grossed $1 million.
The four Hectors represent Forsyth's own career anxieties — the caveman as commercial filmmaker, the Roman as sellout, the medieval as artist in retreat, the modern as hopeful synthesis. Studio interference made it unintentionally meta.
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