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The Formula

1980

Big Oil. Big Money. Big Mystery. Everyone’s out to make a killing.

While investigating the death of a friend and fellow cop, Los Angeles police officer Barney Caine stumbles across evidence that Nazis created a synthetic alternative to gasoline during World War II. This revelation has the potential to end the established global oil industry, making the formula a very valuable and dangerous piece of information. Eventually, Caine must contend with oil tycoon Adam Steiffel, who clearly has his own agenda regarding the formula.

George C. Scott Marlon Brando Marthe Keller John Gielgud G. D. Spradlin Beatrice Straight Richard Lynch John van Dreelen Robin Clarke Ike Eisenmann Marshall Thompson Dieter Schidor Werner Kreindl Jan Niklas Wolfgang Preiss Calvin Jung Alan North David Byrd Ferdy Mayne Gerard Murphy Francisco Prado Louis Basile Ric Mancini Weston Gavin Craig T. Nelson Herb Voland Diane Tyler Nathan Roberts

Alternative Titles

La formula, La Formule, Den hemliga formeln, Die Formel, La Fórmula, Záhadný vzorec, Формулата, Wzór, A Fórmula, Формула, Η Μυστική Φόρμουλα, Salainen kaava

Genres

Thriller Mystery Crime

Themes

Thrillers and murder mysteries Exciting spy thrillers with tense intrigue Suspenseful crime thrillers Intriguing and suspenseful murder mysteries Nazis and World War II Show All…

Theatrical

19 Dec 1980

USAR

19 Feb 1981

Italy

Italy

19 Feb 1981

Theatrical

USA

19 Dec 1980

TheatricalR

117 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Michael501 📺 ★★½

1980 In Review - December

While investigating the death of a friend and fellow cop, Los Angeles police officer Barney Caine (George C. Scott) stumbles across evidence that Nazis created a synthetic alternative to gasoline during World War II. This revelation has the potential to end the established global oil industry, making the formula a very valuable and dangerous piece of information. Eventually, Caine must contend with oil tycoon Adam Steiffel (Marlon Brando), who clearly has his own agenda regarding the formula.
A really interesting film involving the discovery of a synthetic fuel that obviously big oil companies would want to suppress. Unfortunately I think this wastes that idea on a long and meandering murder mystery that ends up a…
Review by UltimateMovieRankings ★★

This movie not only stars Oscar winning actors Marlon Brandon and George C. Scott but is directed by Oscar winning director John G. Avildsen...so it should be good right? Sadly this very drawn out movie concerning a formula that will make oil irrelevant is simple not very good. I had more fun noticing Brando's screen time....or lack of screen time. It takes 30 minutes for Marlon to show up.....after 2 scenes and 9 minutes he disappears for another 60 minutes....and reappears for a long 12 minute scene...for a grand total of 3 scenes and 21 minutes of screen time. This is ranked 36th of 37 Brando movies on my Marlon Brando Cogerson Movie Score table....http://cogersonmoviescore.com/marlon-brando-movies-best-to-worst.html
Review by Burrows ★★★½

I'm checking in on THE FORMULA as I try to embrace the cinema of both George C. Scott and John G Avildsen. Avildsen doesn't give us the gritty Frank Capra "Feel good about humanity or self" messaging that I feel we get from him at times. However, this works as an engaging procedural. A function of 1970s cop films, to be certain. And on paper, it probably had some marketing and awards appeal--although I don't think it really succeeded in either regard. Brando gives an interesting supporting performance while George C Scott leads the audience through an international mystery that cuts through local police noise AND international story threads whose tentacles stretch into modern oil-price fixing AND back into the…
Review by Xebeche ★★½ 2

SPRING CLEANING - FILM #52
George C. Scott is an LA detective tasked with unravelling the murder of an old friend. He stumbles onto a conspiracy involving a synthetic fuel formula that dates back to Nazi Germany.
The entire film is made of up scenes where Scott interviews a witness/suspect, leaves, and then that witness/suspect is assassinated. This happens at least 4 times. It becomes pretty tedious because the mystery is far from mysterious. Just waiting for it to end. The ending, by the way, does feature some good dialogue that hits the movie's theme nicely.
Brando is in his lazy, don't-give-a-fuck period with a very distracting set of false teeth that look fake and fuck up his already garbled…
Review by PacificNil ★½

"Die geheime Formel" ist ein Roman, den Steve Shagan 1978 veröffentlichte. Der schnell zu lesende Roman beginnt 1945 mit einem Nazipanzerzug, der geheime Dokumente über allerlei technische Erfindungen transportiert und von amerikanischen Verbänden festgesetzt wird. 33 Jahre später ereignen sich in den USA und später in der BRD Morde, die damit in Zusammenhang stehen - gegen Ende des Dritten Reiches wurde eine Treibstofformel erfunden, die nach dem Krieg aufgrund des billigen Öls kein großes Interesse weckte, nun aufgrund der Ölkrise aus finanziellen Gründen für diverse Staaten attraktiv geworden ist. Doch die Ölkartelle wollen sich von neuer Konkurrenz nicht das Geschäft vermiesen lassen.
Obwohl der Roman bereits fast wie ein Drehbuch geschrieben wurde, gibt es in Avildsens Film deutliche Abweichungen von…
Review by LukaBC ★★★★

What can I say, I'm a sucker for this kind of thriller.
Review by DrewMcWeeny

Once more into the breach, and hopefully this is the last time I'll have to watch this Teflon film that slides off my brain completely every time I try to pay attention to it.
Review by Greg F ★½

You know you're in trouble when George C. Fucking Scott and Marlon Fucking Brando can't keep the movie from lulling itself to sleep.
Single high point: when Scott leans in at the end, looks Brando in the eye, and says, "if I didn't have a son I love and who still loves me, I'd blow your fucking brains all over that map on the wall." I watched that part about a dozen times.
Review by savvybulge ★★★½

There are 2 primary reasons no one likes this film:
1) Because the Brando character is total shit and only has about 10 minutes of screen time. (Unofficial reports say Brando demanded in his contract minimal screen time to avoid disruption to his daily feeding schedule. Very important that feeding schedule.) And
2) Because Big Oil wants you to hate it--the movie is essentially about a real way to produce synthetic oil using coal. The movie doesn't say it I think but it's apparently called the Bergius Process, which Big Oil stifled decades ago. "The alleged objection to it by "Big Oil" in Houston was that the cost estimates for commercial production were so low that the corporations' oilfield resources would be rendered worthless. Conspiracy theorists further alleged that the program, therefore, had to be terminated to protect the profits of "Big Oil."
Review by Dan O'Neill ★★

So slow and plodding that it feels like almost nothing is happening. And really, not much is - just Nazis popping up and oil tycoons scheming (?). Meanwhile George C. Scott is doing anything he absolutely can to liven up this material and he barely succeeds. Brando does his usual Brando-isms and is easily the best thing about the whole movie, which sucks because he's in only about fifteen minutes of this two hour movie. Yay.
Review by AuteurTheory ★★★½

This doesn’t look good, but it’s part of this Marlon Brando box set, so I’m gonna watch it.
⏰ Two hours later…
I didn’t expect Nazis, elephants, and alligators.
Honestly, I don’t think the plot is interesting enough to warrant the talents of George C. Scott and Marlon Brando. The idea of big oil suppressing alternative forms of fuel is compelling in real life, or as a documentary, but it’s not very cinematic. Maybe that’s why they needed to add Nazis, elephants, and alligators.
That said, our two stars do make it worth watching. George C. Scott walking around talking to people can never be boring! Plus, it was a great time for mainstream movies in general. It’s that 1970s…
Review by Michael_Elliott ★★

Lt. Caine (George C. Scott) begins to investigate the murder of his friend and this leads him to Germany where there seems to have been a special formula for synthetic fuel that the Nazis were working on.
As the new decade kicked off you'd think that THE FORMULA would be a certain hit. After all, both Scott and Brando had won Oscars in the previous decade and director John G. Avildsen also picked up an Oscar. So three Oscar-winners and a story involving a cover-up with the Nazi party and yet, somehow, this film turned out to be a major dud, which is really too bad.
There are all sorts of problems with this film but I think the biggest…

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The Formula

Synopsis

Big Oil. Big Money. Big Mystery. Everyone’s out to make a killing.

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Casting

Editor

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Releases by Date

Theatrical

19 Dec 1980

19 Feb 1981

Releases by Country

Italy

19 Feb 1981

USA

19 Dec 1980

Popular reviews

Where to watch

The Formula

Synopsis

Big Oil. Big Money. Big Mystery. Everyone’s out to make a killing.

Cast

Director Director

Producers Producers

Writer Writer

Original Writer Original Writer

Casting Casting

Editor Editor

Cinematography Cinematography

Production Design Production Design

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Stunts Stunts

Composer Composer

Costume Design Costume Design

Makeup Makeup

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Studios

Countries

Primary Language

Spoken Languages

Alternative Titles

Genres

Themes

Theatrical

19 Dec 1980

19 Feb 1981

Italy

19 Feb 1981

USA

19 Dec 1980

Popular reviews

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Original Writer

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Set Decoration

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Makeup

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