Don't listen to the negative reviews

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Writer/Director William Peter Blatty, whose novel THE EXORCIST was made into a groundbreaking horror masterpiece by THE FRENCH CONNECTION Oscar-winner William Friedkin, takes personal, independent pride in his very own picture, THE NINTH CONFIGURATION...Mostly because the critics deemed how insanely original it is since "Robert Loggia sings Al Jolson in blackface" and "Jason Miller rehearses HAMLET using dogs" and "Moses Gunn wears superhero spandex" or "a man dressed as a nun tries exorcising a soda machine" or "an image of the crucifixion on the moon," and on and on the weirdness goes but, in the reality of this surreal anti-war, existentialist vs religion fable: being set inside a castle that serves as an insane asylum, there could have been even more nutty stuff... Anything goes in a story about human beings who are seemingly without logic or limits... And in that, NINTH is actually an extremely grounded vehicle...Upon a wide-shot glance it's an esemble comedy, as if the members of MASH's 4077th practiced witchcraft on benzedrine, but there are really only two characters that actually matter. One is Scott Wilson, playing the same astronaut that Linda Blair warned was "gonna die up there" before she soaked the rug in THE EXORCIST, based on Blatty's famous novel (yet that is never mentioned)...His Captain Billy Cutshaw is the type of 'Crazy like a Fox' character who can spout as much meaningful dialogue as is allowed to counter his rambling residual of meaningless gibberish, and he's nicely balanced by Stacy Keach's silent and seemingly non-troubled Col. Vincent Kane...As the new psychologist inside the castle of war-weary loons, he's there to listen yet is just too perfect, somehow... As Billy puts it, foreshadowing BLADE RUNNER by a few years, "Too human to be human" (and here's a personal favorite line, "the essence of suicide is not collecting the insurance")...There's probably not a more downright quotable motion picture ever made, despite Blatty, the writer, aiming words like sharpened arrows within this Gothic locale that could've used a little more suspense and intrigue to complete its dark, formidable canvas: this includes creature-statues right out of THE EXORCIST's Iraqi tomb-digging prologue... Leaving any kind of mainstream fare to a third-act sequence involving a popular cinematic device during the late 70's/early 80's: Rowdy bikers in a crowded tavern. Although the "bar-fight scene" is more DELIVERANCE-eerie than action-packed, and is part of an important twist that, had they used the source novel's title for this adaptation, would be a spoiler in itself, marring what really connects two polar opposites... the believer and the non-believer... into a labor-of-love cult film that seemed, by the screenplay alone, meant to be that and nothing else: Some movies haven't got a choice. (cultfilmfreaks.com)

If you just love sit-com's , especially the ones that like to make sure you know where the jokes are, via canned laughter (I've always thought that if you have to tell me where the joke is, then it's not very funny in the first place) but I digress... back to the point, sitcoms, don't you just love em? If you answered yes,, maybe Ninth Config may not be for you.. If you've evolved slightly beyond the trees, and you can at least work up a chuckle at some of Monty Python,, then watch this movie. It's brilliant.. Funny, serious, metaphorical, theological, bar-fighting, rich philosophical questions, and Shakespeare re-written for dogs, what more can you ask for?

William Peter Blatty will be better known to most as the writer of 'The Exorcist', and here he makes his sterling directorial debut with what is (once the abomination of 'The Exorcist 2' is exorcised) the spiritual sequel to that consummate horror. Having said that, lest the reader get the impression that you're in for more supernatural shenanigans (and pea soup) it should be said that this movie is a million miles away from the horror genre. What's more, 'The Ninth Configuration' is virtually unclassifiable as far as traditional genre categories go and will leave you reeling from the barrage of bizarre images, comedic one-liners, theological debates, and a bar room brawl to end them all! William Peter Blatty wrote 'The Exorcist' as the first part of a trilogy of novels, the other installments being 'Twinkle twinkle killer Kane' and 'Legion'. 'Twinkle twinkle killer Kane' was adapted to the screen by Blatty as 'The Ninth Configuration' and where 'The Exorcist' explored the argument for the existence of God through the palpable presence of evil, 'The Ninth Configuration' continues the argument through exploring the presence of good in a universe purported by science to be empty, blindly deterministic, and amoral.At the start of the film we are introduced to a motley band of members of the military who, in the course of the Vietnam War, have all suffered various kinds of mental breakdown and for their treatment have been sent to a reconstructed European castle in some remote American mountains (the film was actually shot in Hungary). Chief among these is the astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw (Scott Wilson) whose illness is seen as somehow key in that it is clearly not feigned due to cowardice as he was never scheduled for combat. This introduction sets the tone for the first part of the film and the portrayal of mental illness is somewhat zany and comedic and continues as we are introduced to the other main character, the psychiatrist Colonel Kane (Stacy Keach). Col. Kane, with the support of fellow psychiatrist Col. Fell (Ed Flanders), then institutes an unorthodox treatment which indulges the fantasies of the inmates in an attempt to invoke a catharsis…which is when all (comedic) hell breaks loose and it is against this anarchic backdrop that Cutshaw argues with Kane for the absurdity of believing in God in a world in which undue suffering proliferates.The light-hearted whacky tone gives way in the second half as Kane and Cutshaw's arguments become more penetrating (although not completely, as Cutshaw's choice of wardrobe to a Christian Mass will testify!) and the climax of the film is a double-whammy of a plot reveal that casts the performance of Ed Flanders as Col. Fell in a pathos infused light (which can only be fully appreciated with repeat viewings), as well as a bar room fight that will have you stuck to your screen as the tension builds and builds to an explosive finale.Unfortunately, owing to the fact that a theological tragi-comedy is not the stuff the popcorn and soda crowd really go for, 'The Ninth Configuration' has fallen into the "cult" film category, which is a shame as another film with as fine a plot carried off by as fine a cast (not to mention a wealth of quotable one-liners) you are unlikely to see. However, while the film clearly deserves wider recognition (especially given it's conceptual relationship to 'The Exorcist'), those that seek it out, or fortuitously stumble upon it , are in for a real treat!

After all these years I still enjoy watching this movie. Some movies are timeless and this is one of them. In the intro, the stage is set. And the players defined. You don't need to know your history to watch the movie. I am sure this can be translated to modern times, replacing the Vietnam war with any of the several going on in 2011. A sensational cast of actors were assembled for this movie. They all were astounding. They movie is not action, comedy, thriller, but yet it is all of them. Mostly it is an exploration of faith. It explores the loss of one mans faith and another mans attempt to restore. Though the man attempting to restore it, has become arguably unstable himself. The intrigue of the characters and their development is key in the movie. Because the twists in the plot reveal the final end play. I love movies with twists that work. Those are rare. 9th does not let down. Promises are kept!