Split Image (film)

Split Image
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ted Kotcheff
Screenplay by	Scott Spencer Robert Kaufman Robert Mark Kamen
Story by	Scott Spencer
Produced by	Don Carmody Ted Kotcheff Jeff Young
Starring	Michael O'Keefe Karen Allen Peter Fonda James Woods Elizabeth Ashley Brian Dennehy Ronnie Scribner
Cinematography	Robert C. Jessup
Music by	Bill Conti
Production company	PolyGram Pictures
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date	October 3, 1982 (1982-10-03)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$8 million[1]
Box office	$263,635[2]

Split Image (also known as Captured) is a 1982 American drama film directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring Michael O'Keefe, Karen Allen, Peter Fonda, James Woods, Elizabeth Ashley, Brian Dennehy and Ronnie Scribner. It tells the story of an all-American college athlete who becomes involved in a youth-oriented cult, and his family's struggle to bring him home.

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.^[3]

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."^[4]

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."^[5]

Kotcheff said he cast Peter Fonda because "I wanted all his 60s resonances brought to his character."^[6]

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.^[7] She was replaced by Karen Allen, who was ten years older than O'Neal, requiring a rewrite of the script.^[8]

Kotcheff said "the film disappeared practically without a trace. It's a subject that American people don't want to hear about."^[3]

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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). ^[9]

• Split Image at IMDb
• ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› Split Image at AllMovie
• Split Image at Rotten Tomatoes
• Split Image at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films