Synopsis
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.
1985 Directed by William Friedkin
A fearless Secret Service agent will stop at nothing to bring down the counterfeiter who killed his partner.
Rodger Pardee Gary Alexander Robert Glass Chris Jenkins Louis L. Edemann Sergio Reyes Jeff Bushelman Jean-Louis Ducarme Mike Dobie
Police Fédérale Los Angeles, 驚天大行動, Отмъщение в Ел Ей, Elää ja kuolla L.A:ssa
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.
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.
"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…
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…
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…
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…
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
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!
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
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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.
The Shout Select Blu-ray release.
Scan looks awesome. Great extra on making of the chase scene with interview with Buddy Lee Hooker.
Friedkin goes big here, turning this story of loyalty and counterfeit cash into a sort of crime neo-opera.
The music is big and thick with synth, the LA. background full of sun-kissed texture, and the archetypal heroes and villains, almost like soap opera characters, burst out of this thing. It has such an interesting energy to it; completely idiosyncratic and unique.
Maybe my new favorite Friedkin.
Is it silly to comment on how perfectly 80s this looks? I've seen a lot of 80s films and I feel like very few of them approach this purity of aesthetic, between the colors and the backgrounds and the costumes and the general vibe
The first half of this had me skeptical but once it starts going it GOES. friedkin’s cinema is always one of kinetic energy, ricochets and cascading. Incredible cast, incredible script, AMAZING cinematography, bless u Robby Muller. Young Willem Dafoe is beautiful beyond words
When I was in high school I was talking about The Exorcist with a classmate and this coach substitute teacher with a W. Bush vibe said “who directed that? Friedkin? Well he made a Friedkin good movie!!” and I think about that every time I watch a Friedkin and it whips ass
Friedkin + Müller + Wang Chung. It's an absurd combination, and there's almost no chemistry between the three, and it's awesome. The contributions of the latter two make this distinctively 80s, which adds such a strange layer to distinctly dark story. It's The French Connection on the West coast. Shinier, and more attractive, but equally nihilistic and indifferent toward the feelings and aspirations of its own characters. In one brief exchange, Peterson visits his nervous informant after a partially botched, morally iffy heist. She's concerned about the violence and the impending fallout; he won't shut up about a rising NBA star. If you look away for even a second you could be fooled into thinking you're watching another one of Shane Black's loose cannon cops. For Friedkin it's a literal madman. Wrapping the director's pitch black soul in a pretty package is a nice trick.
William Friedkin: okay I need you guys to just fuck it up on this one. It's about an adrenaline junkie cop chasing an aggressively bisexual painter and counterfeiter played by Willem Dafoe. It's sexy as hell. Can you do this for me
Wang Chung (collectively): We can do that
always best to end your movie with flashbacks to all the characters fucking
Malheureusement, je n'ai guère adhéré à ce polar de William Friedkin que j'aurais voulu apprécier. L'ensemble m'a semblé très conventionnel, sans éclat sauf la présence de Willem Dafoe et la fameuse poursuite automobile. Les personnages m'ont paru fades, tout comme leurs interprètes. Quant à cette histoire de faux monnayeurs, elle peinait à soutenir une durée de presque 120 minutes. Dans le registre, la comparaison avec la série MIAMI VICE m'a semblé inévitable, à l'avantage de cette dernière.
When William Friedkin said that he wanted to make The Artiest Action Film Possible, he wasn’t joking.
King shit right here. Doesn’t need to exist like this, but my god I’m glad it does.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact ingredient that makes this such an indelible classic, thinking on it further, if you isolate all of its components they shouldn’t work as a whole. And maybe because the 80’s were one of excess it’s uncompromising and self assured, it’s a period that resonates with me the most. It’s verging on complete self harm in this regard.
With most of Friedkin’s best I have to resort to a Mmmmwwwwwhhaaaaa *chefs kiss*.
Friedkin directs films in a very lean way, he said of Exorcist for example that he didn’t want to talk about evil, he wanted to show you evil. And here he doesn’t want to agonise about the existential murmurings on criminals and crime…
Was going to give this a three, but towards the end it takes one of the strangest turns I’ve ever seen in a film hahahahaha.
Brilliant.
You can see William’s Peterson in this movie
Friedkin do car chase
Semi spoiler maybe?
There’s a scene where Willem Dafoe is throwing all off his counterfeit money in the fireplace. The money is in paper shopping bag and he’s reaching in and tossing handfuls at a time into the fire. Why not just put the whole bag in there?
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