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The Spanish Prisoner

The Spanish Prisoner

Drama · Mystery · Thriller · 1997

An inventor of a secret process suddenly finds himself alone as both his friends and the corporation he works for turn against him.

Movie details

The Spanish Prisoner

“It's the oldest con in the book.”

1997 Drama · Mystery · Thriller 1h 50m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.1 / 10

26.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

89 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

71 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

An inventor of a secret process suddenly finds himself alone as both his friends and the corporation he works for turn against him.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Spanish Prisoner?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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The Red House

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2073

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Primer

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The Mask of Dimitrios

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Dark City

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Elephant Song

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

David Mamet

Written by

David Mamet

Steve Martin

Steve Martin

Jimmy Dell

Campbell Scott

Campbell Scott

Joe Ross

Ben Gazzara

Ben Gazzara

Mr. Klein

Rebecca Pidgeon

Rebecca Pidgeon

Susan Ricci

Ricky Jay

Ricky Jay

George Lang

Felicity Huffman

Felicity Huffman

Pat McCune

David Pittu

David Pittu

Resort Manager

Court is in session

Put The Spanish Prisoner on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Auteur Devotee

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.