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AdventureAnnée1988Durée1h 42mIMDb5.9

Les imposteurs

AdventureCrimeDrame

Fact-based account of a secret society of murderers, and of the man who exposed them in British India 1825.

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Bande-annonce

Casting

Nicholas Meyer

Director

Pierce Brosnan

William Savage

Shashi Kapoor

Raja Chandra Singh

Saeed Jaffrey

Hussein

HM

Helena Michell

Sarah Wilson

Keith Michell

Colonel Wilson

David Robb

George Anglesmith

Tariq Yunus

Feringea

Jalal Agha

The Nawab

Gary Cady

Lt. Maunsell

Salim Ghouse

Piroo

Neena Gupta

Gopal's Wife

NH

Nayeem Hafizka

Sepoy

BJ

Bijaya Jena

Harlot

HK

H.N. Kalla

The Nawab Servant

K

Kammo

Official

Goga Kapoor

Shor Dil

Manmohan Krishna

Old Rajput

Harish Magon

Sepoy

JM

John Masters

Writer

Michael Hirst

Writer

Commentaires

10 commentaires

Fadima CeesayMay 29, 2023

source: The Deceivers

Not Charli d'AmelioMay 23, 2023

Don't let the fact that this is a Merchant Ivory production put you off in any way. There's little delicacy, intuition, or nuance in this colonial adventure story. As everyone knows by now -- everyone who has seen "Gunga Din" at any rate, which is everyone -- the Thugs were a sect in India who strangled their victims after digging their graves. "Gunga Din" tells us that they worshiped Kali, who stood for destruction, but it doesn't tell us that their favorite way of acquiring victims was in posing as frightened proletarians and joining the caravans that offered them protection in dangerous country. They may have worshiped Kali but they had nothing against robbing the caravans after murdering its members. They were something like organized American gangsters -- the Mafia or Murder Incorporated -- if the American gangsters have worshiped their own god. Needless to say, in 1840, when the British East India Company more or less ruled India, with the army as its instrument, this was a noisome situation. Lots of potential here. It almost calls for Errol Flynn. The Indians wear familiar garb and some of the customs are known to us -- suttee, for instance. But there's a touch of authenticity in the British uniforms. What outlandish caps -- like upside-down vases! The film is undone by clumsy writing and direction that is pedestrian and commercial. In the opening scene, a small camp of British soldiers is quietly wiped out, off screen. The lone officer who survives is waked up by the quiet, steps out into the night, looks around at the handful of corpses, fires a shot at a noise in the jungle, and then the camera rolls in for a gargantuan close up of the officer's face in an expression of shock and surprise. His eyes bulge, his mouth drops open, his tongue lolls -- and we don't know if he's just been stabbed or strangled or had a wetting accident. End of scene. Writing and direction that is that careless needs something close to being sacrificially burned. That scene is just an example. I don't mean that it's a terrible movie. Heck, those flamboyant hats alone might make it worth watching. It's just that, if most recent Merchant Ivory productions are exercises in sluggish elegance, this one leans too far in the other direction. Not enough advantage is taken of the location shooting. I hate to say something like watch "A Passage to India" to get some idea of how fruitful staging can add quality to a film -- but watch "A Passage to India" to see. Or even "Kama Sutra", a far lesser film, in which you can almost smell the incense. There's a hunt for a wounded tiger here that lands with a thud. It's hard to screw up a hunt for a wounded tiger but there's simply no suspense in the scene. On the plus side, the writer and director didn't shy away from the realities accompanying death in the tropics. The flies buzz all over the place. The performances aren't bad either.

user2568319585609May 23, 2023

Pierce Brosnan looks a bit too European (and hairy-chested) to be completely convincing as a Kali-worshipper, but he gives an intrepid performance as an Englishman undercover with the Thugees, a sort of Donnie Brasco of the 1800s. The movie itself has some harrowing moments as we watch the thugs ply their killing trade, and the inevitable one-against- many showdown, coming when Pierce's ruse is revealed, is suitably tense. A lot of the drama, however is rather flat and unmemorable and the movie lags in the middle. There is a nice period look here, though, similar to that of the Sharpe TV series, and fans of that one might find this an interesting diversion.

edomMay 23, 2023

I'm sure every schoolboy knows where the word " Thug " originates from . If not I'll reeducate you by saying the word is derived from the word " thugee " which apart from being the Hindi word for " thief " is also the name of a notorious cult from India where a group of men would befriend travelers along the Indian sub-continent and then strangle them . THE DECIEVERS based upon the John Masters book tells of the story of a British army officer who infiltrated the group It doesn't seem to be able to tell the story well and one can't help thinking that being a Merchant Ivory production this might be to blame . It's rather stodgy and director Nicholas Meyer seems to be more interested in exotic beauty and cultural diversity of 1820s India than he is in telling a tension filled cinematic thriller . Ironically enough when it does try to mirror the classic era of Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s it comes across as being clichéd A great pity because there's so much potential here that the production gets right such as pointing out that in the 1820s it was the British East India company and not the British monarch or the British government who ruled India . If you're worried about corporate capitalism in the 21st Century I can guarantee you it was much worse two hundred years ago . As you'd expect with this production company the costume design is exemplary . It's also a film that makes good use of sound editing where when the Thugees commit their murders a spine chilling " SWISH " type sound blasts out from the screen and is so effective it left me truly puzzled why Meyer didn't more to make THE DECEIVERS a more enthralling film

Joel KabambaMay 23, 2023

When a British officer gets wind of a gang of murderous highwaymen he joins their ranks with the intention of shutting down the organization. Spys and counterspys in both camps offset each other until a final battle settles who will remain in charge. Hard to believe that during all the time the officer was with the thugs they never noticed how foreign he appeared or that the stain he used never washed off. Entertaining with plenty of action and great scenery.

QuinNellowMay 23, 2023

This is a highly entertaining historical film that had the great misfortune to be released during the height of Schwarzenegger/Van Damme/"Lethal Weapon" era. It is a film about cultures in collision and the people who are crushed by that collision. Pierce Brosnan, in one of his best roles, plays Captain Savage, an honorable British soldier in India who is dissatisfied with the "do nothing" policies of his superiors. One day, he and his fiancée see a gathering on a riverbank. They learn that a young woman is preparing to burn herself alive in the authentic practice of "suttee"...her husband has been missing for a year and custom demands she immolate herself. Savage's girl is horrified and begs for him to think of a way out. He disguises himself as a native man and hopes the widow will see a brief glimpse of him and believe it is her husband. The suttee can thus be postponed. The scheme works, but a mob then chases Savage to ask why he has not appeared earlier. He frantically avoids the mob, but then sees a horrible sight. A band of wealthy Hindu travelers is suddenly strangled, robbed and buried. Savage has seen the secret cult of Thuggee at work! He appeals to the base commander (also the father of his intended) to apprehend the Thugs but bureaucracy prevents him from doing so. Savage becomes obsessed with uncovering the Thugs and hits upon a scheme where he will "go native" and infiltrate the Thugs himself. That way he can get incontrovertible proof of their existence. He enlists the reluctant help of a captured Thug (superbly played by Saeed Jaffrey) and goes undercover. Savage finds himself immersed in the strange and deadly world of the Thugs. As time goes by, he is forced to participate in the ritual murders to keep his cover. His identity is starting to give way. Will his sanity last long enough to reveal the secrets of "The Deceivers"? There's a huge amount of tension in the movie. Its attention to historical and cultural detail is excellent. Doing some research on the Thugs, I discovered the exact words of their "Sugar of Kali" ritual are used in the movie. Most confusing for Savage is the fact that, when not killing innocents, the Thugs appear to be normal and even kind people. The interesting contrast is that the former Thug feels his own loyalty to his people weakening as he sees Savage losing his way. The ending is bittersweet and not sugarcoated at all. I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes tense historical drama as well as those who want a glimpse inside a forbidden, exotic culture.

maëlys12345679May 23, 2023

Good production values, but here and as usual, these David-Lean-wannabes Merchant & Ivory tend to be pretentious (The Remains of the Day) when not downright pathetic (Le Divorce). Good photography and a good recreation of the early XIXth century India, but probably is there where all verosimilitude ends. The hollywoodesque daring escape of the hero when surrounded by a multitude of thugs and his last minute rescue by the requisite cavalry regiment; his appropriate delivery of justice by his own hand or the betrayal by an unsuspecting friend indicate that the whole thing was 99% fiction (one Amazon reviewer even reports that the thugs never existed in reality). You also have to suspend disbelief on the thugs accepting Pierce Brosnan (or any British officer) as one of their own. Let alone the impossibility of avoiding speaking with an accent when talking a foreign language; think of the colour of the skin (at one point, Brosnan is naked before a thug, who notices nothing) or the many cultural details a foreigner cannot possibly know, which could spell disaster any minute. Many subplots (the seemingly ominous butler, the comrade-on-arms that tries to seduce the hero's wife and turns out to be something else) lead nowhere, suggesting the producers were trying to fill the 98 minutes with anything. Similarly, the film drags for the first twenty minutes until it starts moving. The story is also handicapped with a tribute to extrasensorial nonsense: "I've seen your husband in my dreams, and he is in danger" says an Indian character, and the wife acts upon that --apparently reliable-- orientalism. Summing up: the film is good and moderately entertaining, but it could be much better. They could have omitted the "based on a true story part" since probably the only factual bit was that in 1825 there was a country called India, with British soldiers riding around wearing funny hats.

Muhammad AmareMay 23, 2023

This handsome looking Merchant Ivory film is great for its exotic visuals and location footage, some of it remarkably cinematic and glorious from that perspective. This is based on the legend of the Indian cult of the Thuggee, documented in other films and dealt with in detail here. The handsome Pierce Brosnan is rugged and brave as a British officer out to expose those in charge of this brutal cult, and when he does a series of arrests, he is forced to resign and thus decides to go in Disguise to complete his duty. Putting on brown makeup and not shaving for days, he doesn't feel the audience but manages to full members of this violent group whose methods of murder are quite vile. A major flop in 1988, this apparently gets a little business that it slipped into a level beyond obscurity. Brosnan is quite believable in his British uniform, but he looks ridiculous in the makeup and not at all like an Indian peasant who would strangle on orders and take the famous sugar that makes the taker vulnerable to the female goddess that this cult worships. When they show a corpse of one of the victims, it is obvious that there was more than just strangling going on, and a few of these crimes are quite graphic in detail. It's a shame that this film is not better known as it is quite sumptuous to look at, but it's missing a certain element to make it completely successful. Obviously very little expense was spared so the production values are superior, almost epic like in scope. But information about the movie outside of general resources makes it almost appear that this was straight to video even though it did have a very brief theatrical release.

DJ Fresh SAMay 23, 2023

Although it displays the usually reliable Merchant-Ivory production banner this tale of high adventure and skullduggery in British India is only a routine B movie with exotic pretensions. The background is historically factual, drawn around the ritual murders committed by a secret religious cult of so-called 'Thuggees' (from which the word 'thug' was later derived). But the far-fetched story of a British soldier infiltrating their ranks and losing himself in a netherworld of violence and vices is, at best, contrived, even by the lowest standards of romantic fiction. The idea might have looked better on paper, before its artistic and commercial potential was crippled by a lackluster, coincidence-filled script and a star performance that drains the hero of any charisma. Director Nicholas Meyer tries to convey the allure of an ancient culture, but the film doesn't have enough style to camouflage its slapdash lack of substance, and the token gestures to period flavor and atmosphere don't extend beyond the costume design and some cut-rate esoteric mysticism. When, for example, hero Pierce Brosnan is seduced by a mysterious native girl, their shadows on the wall show him embraced by the six-armed Thuggee goddess Kali (cue the ominous tabla music)

غيث الشعافيMay 23, 2023

It may seem a trite point to many that this historical drama is surprisingly authentic, but I find it very refreshing after seeing so many films throw details to the wind. There are very few movies, if any dealing with Britian's famous "Honorable East India Company", but the costuming on this movie was researched very well indeed. I think this fact alone holds a lot of the appeal as a 'History' buff's movie. I couldn't imagine Pierce Brosnan's tiger hunting scene to be much more accurate, as every detail seems excellent to me, especially the uniforms of the HEIC. I think that the movie captures the mystic of India very well and is generally based on true historic events. Whatever people think of Pierce Brosnans' acting ability, this movie has very good entertainment value, apart from showing a unique side of the history of India. My close associate shot a documentary in very remote parts of India, and many of this movie's scenes look similar today, though I doubt he experienced anything quite like the 'death by elephant' scene in today's India !

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