Post by ronnierocketago on May 31, 2008 7:10:54 GMT
STREETS OF FIRE (1984) - ***
Talk about a movie I've been dreading to review.
The very underappreciated Walter Hill is one of my favorite filmmakers, and he's shot some great shit over the years from the Chuck Bronson fight flick HARD TIMES, to the wonderful western THE LONG RIDERS with the late David Carradine, and of course the goddamn THE WARRIORS, one of my personal favorites. Undoubtedly though his biggest hit was 48 HRS., and after that early 80s smash box-office success, he had the power to effectively make any movie he wanted, so he jammed together everything he liked, as he put it:
"Custom cars, kissing in the rain, neon, trains in the night, high-speed pursuit, rumbles, rock stars, motorcycles, jokes in tough situations, leather jackets and questions of honor."
Thus was STREETS OF FIRE, Hill's would-be summer blockbuster, "A Rock & Roll Fable" made for the MTV Generation...and there was Fire alright, as the flick crashed and burned on opening weekend. Afterwards, Hill was just never the same, shooting only a solid gem here and there like the WILD BUNCH-inspired western EXTREME PREJUDICE, the Mickey Rourke film noir melodrama JOHNNY HANDSOME, and so forth. I guess you could say FIRE was Hill's HEAVEN'S GATE: Not as bad as it's reputation, but the director's profile never really recovered from it.
So on one hand, I would like to see some merit in a career crippling effort like FIRE, and yet I've had a slight personal grudge for years against this unseen picture. You see, Universal had such high hopes for FIRE, they bolstered its already considerable advertising budget by totally cannibalizing the campaign funds of several smaller studio pictures, like the superior RUMBLE FISH and Alex Cox's REPO MAN. So if you want a chief reason why a damn fine Francis Ford Coppola effort and a cult classic were financially D.O.A. before hitting theatres, blame FIRE. Coincidentally, Diane Lane was in both FIRE and RUMBLE.
But I must say, I actually sorta enjoyed STREETS OF FIRE, or at least the idea of it. Within the "Another Time, Another Place" of FIRE, the Hippies and Yuppies of the 1960s and 70s never happened, and the music and culture of the 1950s evolved right through the Reagan Decade. So yes, Studebakers drive under bright neon lights, women in skirts stroll down the sidewalk, and greasers gracing the pompadour haircut watch the latest music videos on TV.
If Hill used the comic book storytelling narrative for THE WARRIORS, then he tried the comic book visual narrative for FIRE. The electric opening concert, the best editing scheme of Hill's entire filmography, uses pulsating quick cuts to resemble the cognitive pastiche of imagery that we absorb from the connecting panels of a comic book page. When the faceless bikers, masked by darknesss, sulk into the night club as Lane is singing onstage, you just know that these phantoms within this fresco crowd are nothing but trouble. Then the gargoyle mug of their leader Willem Dafoe slowly fades into the light....It's such a creative groovy sequence, its unfortunate that most of the movie just isn't this cool, or riveting or interesting.
After Dafoe kidnaps Lane, we cut right into a Hill's usual streamlined hard-knuckles plot: Lane's pal telegrams her Ex-juvenile delinquent/ Ex-soldier brother Michael Pare to come back home to town and rescue Lane, his ex-girlfriend. Like Michael Beck in THE WARRIORS, its easy to accuse Pare of wooden acting, but he's only your typical Hill hero: a tough guy that doesn't talk much, not necessarily always likeable, and believably could kick your ass. How I know this? Because when he's alone at a cafe, and some punks walk-in, with plate-glass window behind them...yeah you know what's gonna happen, and you enjoy it.
David Poland's MovieCityNews website some time back had this blog series of journals from Larry Gross (Hill's frequent co-writer) penned duringthe production of 48 HRS., and he explicitely details Hill being depressed and jealous of the critical and financial success of THE ROAD WARRIOR and E.T., how they both "touched upon the cultural emotional geist" or whatever mumbo jumbo. So I assume FIRE was meant to be his attempt at such a narrative you know be hip though quite honestly if you ask me, he already pulled such a thing with THE WARRIORS, which was on a path of being a monster hit when the gang riots broke out in some theatres, the film got yanked by Paramount, and the momentum was broken. Poor Walter.
Anyway, towards that point I'm trying to make, I liked how Pare initially refuses to save Lane, but he pulls out an old Black & White photograph of her, and Hill dissolves into an effectively nostalgic flashback, or the hero's memory making that image come alive. You buy why Pare changes his mind, even if he charges $10,000 from her manager/beau (Rick Moranis) for the job. He's gotta keep his imagine up. Again, I wish the rest of the movie was as clever and stirring as such sequences, but shit happens. Anyway, Pare is pretty solid for the part, just too bad his career went direct to video. He's better than that.
Interesting tidbit: The movie was named after the Bruce Springsteen song, which was originally planned to be used in the film. But after The Boss found out about the project and its name to be usedwithout his approval, he refused to clear it. Also they used a giant tarp to cover the outside studio sets to shoot the night scenes during the daytime. So that's where alot of the budget went to....
Now the best thing about FIRE that I just totally dig is Amy Madigan (aka Ed Harris' wife), the tough sidekick. Apparently the role was originally written for a man, but Madigan so impressed Hill, he re-wrote the part for her. Now action figure women in such genre movies either work, or simply don't. It's a gimmick that the audience can easily reject because unfortunately I don't think most folks in general buy a "scrappy female." But I tell ya, Madigan sold it for me when she demanded another drink at a tavern, and knocked out bartender Bill Paxton when he refused. Not to sound sexist, but how many actresses could pull off such a scene without it coming off as darn silly?
Then there is Moranis. Usually back in the 80s either played the nerd (LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS) or the punchline (GHOSTBUSTERS), so it's nice to see him be surprisingly fun as a total asshole. And yet in retrospect, he's the only smart person in this story. Yeah he's a weasel and doesn't do much at all to save the day, but he's got enough brains to pay others to risk life and limb to retrieve his meal ticket. And for once in such a tale, he's not knocked off his pedestal at the end.
But Dafoe man...The only way I can describe Dafoe in FIRE is that, imagine if Charles Manson hadn't gone mad in obsession with The Beatles or "Helter Skelter," but instead with James Dean and wearing latex rubber coveralls without shirts. Dafoe makes so much out as a fun psychotic villainous maniac (jeez breaking news) out of so little given to him, I actually hate Hill for not giving him more scenes. Plus, I forgot how (even more) goddamn scary-looking the dude was when he was fresh and young.
In retrospect, STREETS OF FIRE is more interesting in concept than in execution. If the opening of FIRE was brilliant, the rest of the 1st half is fun if not ground-breaking pulp action. Then the movie just loses most of its momentum in the 2nd half when Pare and troupe return back home, as nothing really happens, or to use pretentious film criticism, "the thin story can no longer piggyback on the film's aesthetics." FCM will like that.
I really groaned when FIRE teases Pare and Lane possibly getting back together because despite him sharing some deep past feelings for her....honey, that ship has definately sailed. I mean, yeah Lane is drop-dead gorgeous and most of us men want to bed her, but she seems like a rather boring person. Moranis and Lane do make a better couple ultimately because they share something in common: Her singing career. Most men would probably rather be in Madigan's company, even as just a friend. Besides, she wouldn't force Pare to go see the SEX & THE CITY or whatever new chick flicks.
Also, this is random but Hill gives conflicting answers regarding race. While you have a black Cop try to keep the peace between Dafoe and Pare, you then have Pare's group meet up with a Motown-like music act in the back of a bus, who're pulled over by the police and called a "gang of spades." Maybe its just too provocative of an interesting idea to simply throwaway in a picture like this. I mean imagine a movie speculating a universe where racial segregation never ended in America? I'm sure someone already did that, but if not, someone should.
Ah Screw it, I sorta ike this movie in spite of itself. Maybe I'm a sucker for flicks where a major violent brawl between bikers and civilians, each side armed to the teeth with bats, chains, knives, and guns, is eminent until its delegated to simply Pare and Dafoe. Maybe I mark at them dueling with railroad spikes(!), and maybe I just like that Moranis gets the girl for once.
But babe, if you don't like it, I won't hold it against you.