To Live and Die in L.A.

1985 Directed by William Friedkin

A federal agent is dead. A killer is loose. And the City of Angels is about to explode.

A fearless Secret Service agent will stop at nothing to bring down the counterfeiter who killed his partner.

William Petersen Willem Dafoe John Pankow Debra Feuer John Turturro Dean Stockwell Robert Downey Sr. Darlanne Fluegel Steve James Michael Greene Christopher Allport Jack Hoar Valentin de Vargas Dwier Brown Michael Chong Jacqueline Giroux Gary Cole Jane Leeves Gregg Dandridge

Alternative Titles

Police Fédérale Los Angeles, 驚天大行動, Отмъщение в Ел Ей, Elää ja kuolla L.A:ssa

thriller action crime

116 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★½ 9

This is the kind of movie where when someone gets shot, their head explodes, the blood is super bright red, and Wang Chung is playing. Masterpiece.
Review by Wesley R. Ball ★★★★★ 3

Purely quintessential 80's cinema- a blood laced, coke-induced thrill ride set to the timeless backdrop of a neon sunset and the eternally melodic bars of Wang Chung.
Possibly William Friedkin's masterpiece.
Review by Jake Isgar 10

"Guess what? Uncle Sam don't give a shit about your expenses. You want bread, fuck a baker."
Removed from the partnering of the other stylish cop picture featuring William Petersen (Manhunter) and whatever feeling you have about Wang Chung (it's probably wrong), this sleaze jam is as deserving of the praise now being bestowed on the first film in tonight's Friedkin double bill: Sorcerer.
Friedkin's continual fascination of the internal struggle between good & evil roars through the grimy & steamy haze of Los Angeles. Petersen's Richard Chance is a thrill junkie, stretching each case, bust, and interpersonal relationship to a breaking point; his nemesis, Willem Dafoe's Rick Masters is an icy artist/counterfeiter who never makes a false move. The image of…
Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★½

William Friedkin’s thematic extension/reversal of The French Connection with gritty 70s semi documentary given to 80s synthetic artifice (all warm colors, decadent behavior, modernist architecture). This would be a gem for Robby Mueller great cinematography alone. It is pure pulp, a dance of seduction and death between cinema’s toughest mannequin (William Petersen) and an ambiguous capitalist zombie (Willem Dafoe). A tale of bad crooks and even worse cops that plays against the usual hyper competence of the genre with a comic series of blunders and failure (I don’t think Petersen does a single thing that actually helps him catch Defoe the whole movie). It starts around Christmas but the only thing shared here is brutality and obsession. It is one…
Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★½ 7

Well that's one way to end a film.
Review by Logan Kenny ★★★★★ 6

aesthetically invigorating, formally incomparable to any of its contemporaries, paced immaculately with no moments of fat or sluggishness. fronted by two incredible leading performances, one a sweaty psychotic william petersen whose dilated pupils and intensity inflect every inch of the frames he's in, his reaction to finding his partner's body is one of the greatest 20 second performances in film history, and on the other end a flamboyant merciless queer coded willem dafoe who was always just the greatest performer, one of those rare antagonists who is genuinely unpredictable, not necessarily in what he does but in how he executes them, and his posturing and wide eyed grin leaves you feeling rot underneath your skin. the whole movie is essentially…
Review by zeno 🛸 ★★★★½ 6

People talk about the neon '80s, or recent movies that attempt to evoke that aesthetic, but I feel like this is a gross oversimplification of what defines the look and feel of a film like To Live and Die in L.A. or ostensibly similar stuff like Manhunter, Scarface, Repo Man (which was also shot by Robby Müller, along with this one and Paris, Texas), or even RoboCop. It's also defined by stark whites and eye-catching compositions, and grit (in the setting and the film grain) that really gives the 'neon' colors a textured glow I have yet to see replicated in any genre throwbacks to this particular era. Vibrant hues bleed into the sleaze and absurdity, literally coloring our perception…
Review by sydney ★★★★★

ACAB canon. one of the only totally rotten, cynical, mean-spirited movies i adore, so beautiful and so disgusting. knowing william petersen is a chill gentleman in real life makes his full body son of a bitch performance even more breathtaking. i've decided it's feminist because the women are cool and smart and the men are nude psychopaths
Review by Warp ★★★★ 11

Treated myself with the Arrow Blu-Ray from this and it didn’t disappoint. Great photography, brutal shoot violence at times and fast pacing. It’s similar to a Michael Mann film although it never knows to top his style. I also can also see Refn watching this before he made Drive. Willem Dafoe is great in this as this scum criminal but also William Peterson was doing his thing quite well. The car chase and that unexpected ending were also crazy.
The soundtrack also bangs hard, especially that money making scene with City of Angels - Wang Chung is almost pure ASMR. Fantastic cult flick, best Friedkin film I’ve seen from him yet.
The 2000th film I’ve seen!
Review by Alex Engquist ★★★★ 1

Friedkin car chases > other car chases, because in a Friedkin film everyone's already careening wildly toward death; cars let them do it even faster.
Review by Liam Trump ★★★ 10

A super fun crime triller presented through vibrant colors, stylish fonts, and an energetic soundtrack. The performances weren’t anything special but Willem Dafoe gave it his all as the antagonist. The plot, while very simple, had some very satisfying payoffs (especially toward the end). There were a few clichés here and there and some noticeably bad ADR but I had a great time watching this movie and I think anyone could enjoy it.
This film was recommended by CReviews03
You can recommend me something here.
Review by Laurie Strode ★★★★★ 1

What an impression this movie left on me. It's cool, full of swag, and the ultimate 80's detective crime-boiler. Subversive as well, To Live and Die in L.A. caught me off-guard, and ended up becoming an absolutely new favorite of mine.

Recent reviews

Review by Chris ★★★★

4 stars for an epic car chase and William Petersen wang
Review by J.V. Jowett ★★★★★

Each time I revisit this I wonder if it isn't a lost work of Michael Mann. Not that Friedkin doesn't bring some exceptional flair to this steamy story of counterfeiters and secret servicemen, but it has that Mann grit. What makes this world work isn't the acting, the plot, or even the score.
No it's those colors!
Drive only wishes it could have the style and bravado of To Live...
A perfect blend of high crime and subtly surreal action.
Review by Matt Gourley 2

First time watch. Lifetime watch for young kimono-clad Willem Dafoe making step-by-step funny money to the tunes of broodcore Wang Chung.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Drove by the church they say is at Walnut and Los Robles in Pasadena, and by God, it was.
Review by Erkki Lindpere ★★★★

William Friedkin’s answer to Thief? Not quite as masterful across the whole movie, but close.
Review by Flicks With Friends ★★★★

Take all the tension of The French Connection and relocate the story to the West Coast in the 80s. Replace Gene Hackman with William Peterson. Keep the car chase. Lose Roy Scheider but add Wang Chung and Willem Dafoe. You're getting close.
Review by The Black Lodge ★★★★½ 7

Filmwelt Filmclub - To Live and Die in L.A. - ausgewählt von mir
Ich freue mich richtig, dass To Live and Die in L.A. mein Filmclub-Pick ist. Lange hat mich dieser schon interessiert, aber vor allem nachdem ich so begeistert von Manhunter war, der ebenfalls ein 80er-Jahre Thriller mit William Petersen in der Hauptrolle ist, musste ich den Film von The Exorcist-Regisseur William Friedkin möglichst bald sehen. Nun habe ich es endlich getan und meine Begeisterung ist riesengroß.
Ich bin mir sicher, To Live and Die in L.A. ist die perfekte Beschreibung für die 80er. Dies fängt schon beim Soundtrack an, welcher von Wang Chung beigesteuert wurde. Wie die erste Szene schon anfängt mit dem wundervollen Song To Live and…
Review by Dorian Griffin ★★★★½

Willem Dafoe & William Peterson
Review by Trevjmas ★★★

So 80’s.
Review by Ben Buckingham ★★★★★

I've been rewatching this one fairly regularly now. I wonder if I alwats rewatch it in a Sunday. It has good energy for when you are too tired for anything but kinda want to go up in flames.
If this was one of the millions of films it inspired then it would have a line such as "Death's just lke falling over, only you don't get up". A totally truthful & utterly stupid line, which is precisely the kind of thought that regularly goes through the momentary-hero-identification-figure played by William Petersen. Friedkin doesn't entertain this dumb shit though, Friedkin the upstart wunderkind probably has too much evidence of saying similarly daft, edgelord things. He doesn't have time for the macho dipshit…
Review by Ludwig Mattsson ★★★½

Robby mullers cinematography is amazing. Loved to see Los Angeles depicted in a new way. The action was raw and heartless.
Review by Cinemistery ★★★½ 2

Filmwelt Filmclub #42 - To Live and Die in L.A. - Ausgewählt von The Black Lodge
Deutscher Titel: Leben und Sterben in L.A.
FSK 16 🔵
Noch nie was von gehört, bin aber jetzt durch den Pick darauf aufmerksam gemacht worden, wofür ich erstmal dankbar bin.
Mit To Live and Die in L.A. bekommt man einen tollen, klassischen 80er Action-Krimi. Es macht Spaß der spannenden Geschichte zu folgen. Ab und zu gab es Szenen, die den Handlungsfluss etwas ausgebremst haben, aber das wurde durch andere tolle Momente wieder ausgebügelt.
Am besten gefallen hat mir dabei die fantastische Musik und Willem Dafoe als Antagonist.
Der Film macht eigentlich nicht viel falsch und ist definitiv einen Blick Wert, für eine höhere Wertung hat es mir persönlich aber dann nicht gereicht.
Dafür hat er mich zu wenig überrascht und gefesselt.
Könnte sich vielleicht bei einem Rewatch ändern, denn ich war beim Schauen nicht ganz fit und auch nicht immer 100% konzentriert dabei.
Review by ramabiera ★★★★★

fue la mejor