To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
Mar 14, 2017 12:35:30 GMT
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 14, 2017 12:35:30 GMT
"Everybody knows Rick Masters won't go near a job without front money. You should also know that I never fucked a customer out of his front money. My reputation speaks for itself. The fact is that if you can't come up with the front money you're not for real."
The United States Secret Service have been trying to put away the notorious and cunning counterfeiter Eric Masters (Willem Dafoe) for a long time now, but all the hard work and effort goes to pieces, the very moment one of their own is found brutally murdered at one of Masters many hideouts.
With an federal agent dead and their main target on the run, it is now up to the street tough, no-nonsense special agent Richard Chance (William L. Petersen) and his newly appointed "do-it-by-the-book" partner John Vukovich (John Pankow) to use every means possible, in order to take the dangerous Rick Masters out of business for good.
In this hard-hitting, unpredictable and explosive action/crime-thriller, director William Friedkin takes on another gritty journey into the urban chaos of the criminal world, and one that takes absolutely no prisoners along the way, including one of the best car chases ever put to the screen, and one hell of an incredible gifted cast, starring William L. Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow, Debra Feuer, John Turturro, Darlanne Fluegel and Dean Stockwell.
To Live and Die in L.A. really stands the test of time, as one of the absolute finest films to come out of the 1980s.
It is a damn shame that such a promising and talented guy like Will Petersen never went on to achieve stardom back then, as he within only a year took on two of the biggest bad asses the 80s had ever seen, first as the cocky-macho special agent, "who plays by his own rules" Richard Chance, then follows up with an all time great, with the portrayal of the unstable but highly determined Special Investigator, Will Graham in the brilliant crime-thriller Manhunter (1986).
In the end, I guess it was either just bad luck, or that he was not seen as a big enough box-office money draw amongst the audience, but still, Petersen finally managed to get his breakthrough almost a decade later on, with CSI.
Willem Dafoe is of course no stranger when it comes to playing the bad guy, and his role as Rick Masters stands easily among one of his most creepy and evil movie characters.
John Pankow does a damn fine job of following in the big footsteps of his far more agressive and unpredictable partner, and I like how things turned out in the end, which I guess did not sit all that well with the money men and test audience.
As I remember, either Bill Friedkin or William Peterson told that some of the producers wanted the film to be more like Beverly Hills Cop or 48 Hours, and there were big complaints about the main characters, and that they should come off as far more sympathetic.
Anyway, I am glad that Friedkin told them to go beep themselves by keeping the original ending, and throwing the incredible lame "Hollywood" ending into the garbage, as it would not fit in with the movies tone at all.
While the film did little at the box-office, and having several nasty critics going full on, claiming that To Live and Die in L.A. was just another overblown and violent rip-off of Miami Vice it has taken some time, but finally over the past years, more and more seem to be recognizing it as more than just another "forgotten" 80s gem and instead being a fullblown masterpiece of filmmaking.
And not to forget, Wang Chung, the british synth-pop/new wave band who went on to deliver a really solid soundtrack here, being handpicked by the director himself, and even though some of the tracks on the official release is, well not all that great, still most of the tunes perfectly fits and captures the atmosphere that Friedkin was looking for.