I just did a rewatch of a classic 1950's sci fi movie titled Conquest Of Space now that I have my bd copy of it. The special effects were well done for the era it was made but the prevailing racial attitudes of the 1950's were on display in regards to the way a japanese american character was treated but the movie tried to be accurate from a scientific point of view. I'll give the movie 7 1/2 out of 10 points. In my estimate there were only about 10 exceptional sci fi movies made in the 1950's, most of the rest of them are low budget schlock.
Holy moly this was fantastic. Somehow despite a few Michael Mann films being amongst my all time favourites (Man Hunter, Heat, Collateral, Miami Vice 2006) I'd not seen Thief! What a movie it is. James Caan is a no nonsense master diamond thief, an outsider who lives life on purely his own terms, yet is hoping to stitch a normal life together after one last big job for which he's got into bed with some nasty mobsters who of course have other plans.
It's nice, after having been happily binging on John Woo films lately (as much as I adore them), to see a genre film that mostly goes in the opposite direction and presents an absolutely believable story and quietly nauced protagonist, as well as a male female relationship that has depth. The late night cafe scene where Caan and his girlfriend (excellently played by Tuesday Weld) discuss their pasts is one of my favourite scenes in the movie, elegantly imbuing their relationship with so much weight. The depiction of the actual robbery is also wonderfully weighty and detailed. There's nothing fancy or flashy or even particularly deceptive about it, it's presented as something more akin to hard labour performed by consummate professionals, with lots of time spent showing the blow torching and grinding during the safe cracking process, with the look of exhausted satisfaction on Caan's face afterwards perfectly capturing the feeling of a hard job well done. There's something amazingly nostalgic now in this depiction of expert crims who work hard with manly tradesmens tools.
The whole cast is brilliant but Caan in particular is just perfect in this role, really believable as the reasonable but hard edged ex con with a quiet danger about him. And the film is beautifully shot and has really great style, with some really impressive lighting and composition. The synthy soundtrack by Tangerine Dream is also a standout feature of the film giving the realistic scenes an otherworldly feel. A cracking film!
Thanks to your post I went back to Thief after watching about half of it many months ago.
It might be unkind but I would give it about a 6 or 7.
Maybe it's because it's an early film and Mann hadn't quite got his mojo yet but I think it's James Caan.
It did have John Santucci and Dennis Farina so that was a plus. I love playing the spot the actor in a Mann film/TV show that's been in another. He certainly loves his regular extras.
Oof! Horses for courses and all that, but conversely I was actually impressed by just how much mojo Mann had already. I'd say it's easy amongst his very best. But also Caan absolutely makes the movie in my opinion, it's one of those performances where I genuinely couldn't imagine anyone playing the role better. But I respect your opinion!
Where do you stand on Miami Vice 2006, Otomo? From what I gather it splits opinion but it has its ardent fans of which I am one! Such a weird, ridiculous, silly but deadly serious, unique film that is way more badass than it has any right to be. I love it!
I'm old enough to have been watching Miami Vice when it was on TV and loved it. Sadly the complete edition is expensive so I just own the first two seasons. These do include the 2 Abel Ferrara episodes and 2 with Dennis Farina. When America sneezes, the world catches a cold.
Although there are some Mann films I haven't seen, I went to the cinema to see Miami Vice simply because he directed it.
I'm a big fan. All the actors did a great job at capturing the vibe.
Wowsers, I seem to have coincidentally seen some of best films of the 80s over the last couple weeks. To Live and Die in LA is definitely in that category for me without a doubt! An absolute blood pumping, thrill ride of an 80s neo Noir from William Friedkin. Insanely 80s, from the awesome Wang Chung soundtrack, the sex on a stick outfits, the random weird touches like the crazy dancers or William Dafoe's villain artisanally forging dollar bills wearing a kimono etc. But what really makes this film great is that despite it initially being set up like just another 80s cop movie with all the familiar trappings and tropes, it ends up veering off into something unexpectedly strange and dark.
William Petersen is the Secret Service agent, Richard Chance, out to catch Dafoe's counterfeiter villain, Eric Masters, who killed his partner. But as the film progresses you realise both are mirror images of each other, both complete and utter adrenaline junkies. We're introduced to Petersen's character through two early scenes: one featuring an encounter with a suicide bomber where he appears almost transfixed at the act of self detonation, and another scene where he's shown enthusiasticly bungie jumping. And similarly, we're given a slight hint into Dafoe's reckless death drive when he's introduced to us in a scene where he burns his self portrait for no apparent reason.
Chance isn't the kind of maverick cop you see in loads of other films, heroes who don't play by the rules but save the day. Chance is an awful human and an even worse cop, the kind of guy who became one just for the thrill and power of it, a completely self serving nihilist. What initially seems like a restless passion to catch his partner's killer, eventually starts to seem more like a pretext for him to chase the ultimate rush as things spiral out of control, him loving every second of it. He has a coercive relationship (sexually and otherwise) with his informant who he controls through the threat of prison if she ever stops giving him what he wants. He emotionally manipulates his his new partner Vukovich to go along with his insanely reckless plans. And yet the film does such a great job of making you feel the rush of it all that you almost get swept up in Chance's lifestyle. Your mind reeling from heart racing car chases (the big chase is easily one of my all time favourites! So good!) and seeing Petersen's tight booty swaggering around in jeans and cowboy boots and leather jackets to pumping 80s synth, cocksure and unstoppable. Even as it becomes clear the man is completely off his rocker and doesn't care who he hurts or kills.
So it's a jaw dropping moment when the film cuts his invisible bungie cord and casually, unceremoniously has a baddie blow his brains out. Not a drop of heroism or sentimentality at all. You're dropped back down to earth. It took me a few seconds to actually process what I was seeing as it was such a surprise to have this magnetic force of sexualised toxic masculinity you've been glued to for the last hour and a half reduced to a hunk of lifeless flesh so nonchalantly. Not long after this Masters' fate is also fulfilled as he (semi deliberately?) burns to death. And ending on a dark note, Chance's up to this point humane partner, Vukovich, is now changed and infected with the same sickness as Chance, and literally dressed like him too, turns up at the informants home to tell her that she'll working for him now, as disconcerting flashbacks of a naked Chance flash across the screen.
You could say To Live and Die in LA belongs in that category of things that subvert genre conventions while also existing within them. But TLADILA does it especially well. It blows up the mythos of the maverick cop while also being an exceptionally entertaining maverick cop flick, and each side only enhances the other. The film has a lot to say about the psychology of America.
And to put this film in anime terms, it's like Gurren Lagann but infinitely better.
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