To Live and Die in L.A., 1985 - DVD

This is a strange film. Smack in the middle of the 1980's and directed by the man who brought us The French Connection, it stars two relatively unknown actors in a proven genre that usually starred proven action stars.

A strange movie, because this is one of the earliest modern anti-hero films I can remember. William Peterson's character, Richard Chance, is an ass. He works for the secret service... though it's difficult to say which department. At first, he's protecting the President. Then, he's working in the counterfeiting department. Very strange.

He's an ass because he doesn't mind breaking the rules to justify the ends. He uses a woman on probation for information and sex. He holds putting her back in jail over her head. He steals money from would-be criminals to catch other criminals. He ropes his straight laced partner into the void with him. He's a risk taker, and doesn't mind making others share the risks.

Petersen wasn't bad in this film. And it's understandable that his next feature was Manhunter, playing FBI agent Will Graham. The two characters, though morally different, were rather similar in personality.

John Pankow, who plays Petersen's partner, John, was actually in The Hunger with Willen Dafoe in 1981. Both played 'Phone Booth Youths'. I wonder if Dafoe got Pankow the job, or visa-versa. John was an interesting character. Straight laced, he ends up going over the deep end because of circumstances that Chance gets him involved in. He has an interesting character because he changes through the course of the film, until the finale, where we find he's exactly like Chance.

I've always been a big fan of Dafoe. I just finished watching The Last Temptation of Christ, and thought he did a wonderful job. This was Dafoe's big break. Directly after this film, he was cast in Oliver Stone's Platoon. He would go on to have a fantastic career, including one of his most memorable roles in David Lynch's Wild At Heart, as Bobby Peru (like the Country). He was the strongest character in this film. He displayed a serious talent in this role.

The remainder of the cast all did respectable jobs. Turturro looks so young! Jesus.

My biggest problem with the film is the ending. The DVD gives us an alternate ending, with Chance and John stationed in Alaska. It makes absolutely no sense. The original ending of the film gives us John going back to Chance's informant, played by Fluegel. He goes to her to tell her that she had set the two of them up, and that from now on, she was going to be working for him. For John.

And then we're given a shot of Chance's truck, in the distance. But, you see, we saw Chance shot in the head, dead. This opened ended ending is sloppy at best, a cheap trick at worst. Showing us John standing over the dead body of Chance, and showing us him getting shot in the head with a shotgun blast... I think they broke one of the cardinal rules of filmmaking. Don't show someone dead unless he's dead. Now, this doesn't go for horror films... who knows how those guys come back to life. But in dramas, crime films, even some action films... you show someone dead, they're dead.

Now, don't get me wrong. It works sometimes, but its done very carefully, so the audience doesn't feel cheated, or see it coming around the corner. When you see Karl (Alexander Godunov) hanging by his neck in Die Hard, and then he's alive at the end for Al Powell to shoot him... that's different. That works. This... this is just a poor choice.

I've only enjoyed two additional films of Friedkin's (not including The French Connection). The Exorcist and Deal of the Century. I did not see The Hunted. I wasn't interested. Nor did I see Rules of Engagement. Those two films, on the star power alone, weren't enough to get me interested in the films. The trailers were poor. Not to say that I might be surprised... but Friedkin, for me, wasn't a powerful enough draw to get me to see those films.

He's a competent director, but his earlier work is more original, more entertaining and more suspenseful than the majority of the work that is coming out today. So, I'd rather just attribute his work to his earlier films. This one is not included. The French Connection took home five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Actor, Best Adapted Writing. It was nominated for an additional three. Friedkin was also nominated as best director for The Exorcist.

The film was shot by two men. Robby Muller and Robert Yeoman. Muller has been a DP since 1970. He's worked with a number of talented directors including John Schlesinger, Alex Cox, Jim Jarmusch, and Lars Von Trier. Robert Yeoman has quickly become one of my favorite DPs. His latest work has been with director Wes Anderson of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaum's fame. He is working on Anderson's latest film, The Life Aquatic.

The film is shot well. It's certainly got one of the best car chase scenes I've seen in a while, but you can't expect anything less from Friedkin, who gave us one of the best car chase scenes in cinema history (French Connection). The car scenes are the most inventive in the movie, although I will say that there were some interesting death scenes that were, I'm sure for the time, original.

One thing that surprised me were some of the death scenes. They were quite graphic, for 1985. Some well done make-up and blood work in this picture.

The biggest problem with this film is how dated it feels. This film feels more dated than Manhunter will ever feel dated. And one of the biggest reasons for this feeling is the soundtrack, performed by Wang Chung. I'm a huge fan of Dancehall Days and Everybody Have Fun Tonight, but these guys should not have been doing a soundtrack for a crime movie.

Queen doing a soundtrack for Flash and Highlander... it worked. Prince doing the soundtrack for Batman... eh, ok. Brian Eno and Toto doing the soundtrack for Dune... it wasn't that bad. But this... this was just awful. The music got in the way more than it helped with the atmosphere of a scene.

All in all, this isn't a bad film. There were some redeeming qualities, for certain, Dafoe being the major one. The story was pretty solid, the characters were pretty solid, and I think it was gutsy to have an anti-hero like Chance. I just wish that the film would have had a better soundtrack and a solid ending that made sense.