Killed for vagrancy in Jerkwater USA. Former ‘Nam vet, Green Beret John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) arrives in a small town in the Pacific North West looking for his former colleague whom he discovers has died from a cancer caused by Agent Orange. Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) doesn’t like the look of him and tells him to get out of his town but Rambo is hungry and comes back because he just wants something to eat. Teasle cites him for vagrancy and hands him to his colleagues to teach him a lesson. Rambo has flashbacks to his torture at the hands of the Viet Cong and beats up his assailants before escaping into the local woods where he is hunted by the police and then Teasle gets unwanted help from Rambo’s senior officer, Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna), who declares of the war hero, God didn’t make Rambo – I made him. He contacts Rambo by radio and tries to reason with him, promising him an escape route. But Rambo has a score to settle, escaping from the cave where he has secured a hiding place and confronting the National Guard before he has his revenge on Teasle … I’m going to pin that Congressional Medal of Honour to his liver. It may lack the irony and subtlety of the original 1972 novel about PTSD by David Morrell but it makes up for it in the pure thrill of pursuit, sustained justifiable violence and its morality narrative about what really separates the men from the boys: war. Let it go. Let it go! Crenna’s almost paternal pride in his killer progeny is laugh out loud enjoyable, Stallone’s ingenuity at survival is a must-see in these lockdown self-sufficiency days and the overall affect is one of sheer unadorned (but not unmotivated) violence. It’s wonderful when the police realise, He’s hunting us! Gripping and visceral by turn, it’s short, sharp and brilliant with a couple of really smart scenes between the marvellous Crenna and the late great Dennehy, who really doesn’t understand what he’s dealing with. People start fuckin’ around with the law, all hell breaks loose. A young David Caruso has a good role as a policeman disgusted by his co-workers’ attack on Rambo; while if you look quickly you’ll notice Bruce Greenwood as a Guardsman. Stallone rewrote the original screenplay by Michael Kozzoll and William Sackheim to make the protagonist more sympathetic and you truly empathise with this misunderstood soldier. There’s a notable score by Jerry Goldsmith with a theme song that enhances Rambo’s persona as more victim than villain. It’s all directed by Ted Kotcheff. The first of three in the series, this is iconic. Nothing is over. You just don’t turn it off
That great barrel-chested bear of an actor Brian Dennehy has died. An Irish-American to the core, he was a great exponent of Eugene O’Neill and made many memorable contributions to theatre including The Iceman Cometh on the Dublin stage in 1992. His Death of a Salesman was filmed in 2000 and he played Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. He might have been on your radar as a kid, in Big Shamus Little Shamus, or perhaps in First Blood, opposite Stallone, or in a run of fantastic thrillers like F/X, Gorky Park, Presumed Innocent and Best Seller; you might have admired him in his first truly great screen role, The Belly of an Architect; or maybe you watched him play in any number of TV Movies including the Jack Reed series, which he took to directing himself; or a slew of other roles – he could do romantic comedy (Foreign Affairs) or serial killers – remember his John Wayne Gacy? Or maybe you watched everything he was in because he was just that good. An actor who embraced everything with gusto and never lost his intrinsic appeal, getting even better with age, like the finest of wines. He will be missed. Rest in peace.
Objection, your honour. The defence has just fondled one of the jurors. Divorced New York City assistant District Attorney Tom Logan (Robert Redford) is busy alternately fighting and flirting with his defence lawyer adversary Laura Kelly (Deborah Winger) and her unpredictable artist client Chelsea Deardon (Daryl Hannah) who is on trial for a murder she did not commit and wraps Tom around her little finger as the case against her builds … I’m not going to lose him. Where is he? Truly a star vehicle from writer/director Ivan Reitman with Redford in his once-a-decade comedy but armed with a really good supporting cast too including Brian Dennehy, Terence Stamp, Christine Baranski and Davids Clennon and Hart. Styled as a Tracy-Hepburn battle of the sexes comedy it lacks the quickfire dialogue you’d expect and Winger plays her role kind of soft but Redford is really charming. The leads are slightly overwhelmed by Hannah, cast on point as the kooky performance artist in a story which recalls the scandal that descended upon the estate of Mark Rothko. The screenplay is by Jim Cash & Jack Epps Jr., that powerhouse screenwriting partnership, from a story by Reitman and the screenwriters. It’s a bit overloaded for such lightweight fun but it does have a lovely sense of NYC and if you look quickly you’ll see a bottle of Newman’s Own salad dressing on Winger’s dining table. Do you always cross-examine people?/Only when they lie to me
We’re talking about a very special effect here. Movie effects man Rollie Tyler (Bryan Brown) is persuaded by vanity to take on a secret assignment by FBI agents Lipton (Cliff De Young) and Mason (Mason Adams). It means pretending to carry out a hit on a Mafia boss Nicholas DeFranco (Jerry Orbach) in a witness protection programme to ensure he makes it to trial. When Tyler ‘kills’ DeFranco in a restaurant it appears he really does kill him with a gun supplied by Lipton – and he narrowly escapes being killed by Lipton himself in a double-cross. When his actress girlfriend Ellen (Diane Venora) is murdered in front of him he goes on the run with his co-worker and uses his special skills to get to the bottom of the setup. At the same time, Manhattan homicide detective Leo McCarthy (Brian Dennehy) is suspicious about the mob killing and starts sniffing around the FBI offices to try to figure out what’s really going on … The screenplay by novice scripters Gregory Fleeman (an actor) and Robert T. Megginson (a documentary maker) is slick and smart but always rooted in character with some terrific, sharp exchanges that propel the action sequences. This is very well balanced, extremely well performed by engaging actors and tautly handled by stage director Robert Mandel. Watch for Angela Bassett making her screen debut in a small role as a TV reporter. Hugely enjoyable with a brilliant payoff! Produced by Dodi Fayed.
Beware the dwarf! San Francisco. Catholic archbishop Thorncrest (Eugene Roche) returns home, walks into a room and puts on a record. He opens his cupboard and sees the reflection of a similar looking man staring back at him. He turns around quickly and is killed by a knife thrown into his chest. While attending a party overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, recent divorcée and shy librarian Gloria Mundy (Goldie Hawn) sees a handsome young man, Tony (Chevy Chase) at the bar, who ruins the moment by stumbling and spilling all the drinks and making inappropriate comments. Gloria’s friend encourages her to open herself to new experiences so when she’s driving home, Gloria picks up an attractive man named Bob ‘Scotty’ Scott (Bruce Solomon) when she sees him next to his broken down car at Powell and Market streets. She impulsively accepts his invitation to join him at the movies that evening, and before they part ways, he asks her to take his pack of cigarettes to help him curb his smoking. Unknown to her, Scotty has secreted a roll of undeveloped film in the cigarette pack. That evening, a seriously wounded Scotty meets Gloria at the Nuart cinema and asks her about the film. He bleeds into her popcorn and warns her to beware of the dwarf before he dies. When his body mysteriously disappears while Gloria seeks help from the manager (Chuck McCann) she is unable to convince anyone of what happened. At home she tells her elderly and eccentric neighbour and landlord Mr. Hennessey (Burgess Meredith) of the events. He shares his life with a snake called Esme (Shirley Python) and practises martial arts and is immediately sympathetic to Gloria. The following day, Gloria is attacked in her library by albino Whitey Jackson (William Frankfather) who tries to use ether on her. She runs off and hides in a singles bar where she asks a stranger, Stanley Tibbets (Dudley Moore) to take her home. Stanley is an aspiring British womaniser, assumes she is picking him up to have sex, mixes a cocktail laced with Spanish Fly and puts the Bee Gees on the record player while lowering his bed from the wall to have sex with what he assumes is a willing Gloria who is shocked and flees, returning to her apartment. There she is attacked by a man with a scar (Don Calfa) who demands the cigarette pack Scotty had given her. When he attempts to strangle her with a scarf, Gloria stabs him in the stomach with a pair of knitting needles and calls the police for help. When the attacker tries to stop her, he is killed by a knife thrown by Whitey through the kitchen window, and Gloria faints. When she wakes up, all traces of what has happened have disappeared. She is unable to convince two San Francisco police officers, Lt. Tony Carlson (Chevy Chase) – whom she had met at that party – and his partner Inspector ‘Fergie’ Ferguson (Brian Dennehy), or even her landlord Mr. Hennessy that she was attacked. Gloria is then kidnapped by Turk Farnum (Ion Tedorescu), the chauffeur of a limousine in which she earlier had seen Whitey, but she manages to subdue him with mace and a set of brass knuckles given to her by her friend and fellow library employee, Stella (Marilyn Sokol) who is consumed with the idea of being raped. Tony discovers that Scotty, an undercover SFPD inspector who had received a tip that a major assassination – on the Pope (Cyril Magnin) – would take place in the city on a certain night, was investigating contract killer Rupert Stiltskin (aka the Dwarf). Now that he is assigned to protect Gloria from her would-be killers, Tony takes her to his houseboat, where the two fall in love… What’s that? Binoculars? Are you into that, too? Me, as well. I read about it in Penthouse. Just a second. We just love Goldie Hawn. And we love pretty much every single thing she’s ever done: now how many actors or actresses can you say that about? Seeing her makes us smile. Was she ever more utterly adorable than here as the woman tangled up in a web of intrigue not of her own doing? And this Hitchcockian farce from the pen of Colin Higgins is screamingly funny. As quiet divorced librarian Goldie becoming embroiled in a plot to assassinate the Pope offers up several set pieces recognisable from Hitchcock’s films. The ensemble that includes an albino killer, a dangerous dwarf, a snake, a sexy cop Tony Carlson (Chevy Chase making his charming debut) and a most unseemly setup at the Catholic bishopric with the Archbishop/his identical twin brother and Miss Casswell (Rachel Roberts) encompasses a world of silliness and threat as well as opportunities for a slew of ridiculous antics, all gleefully purveyed. You’re a really nice girl and I’m a nice guy, and you’re very pretty with or without cleavage, and what do you say… would you like to take a shower? There’s a brilliant sidebar relationship with sex addict Stanley (Dudley Moore, in a star-making role offered to Tim Conway for whom it was originally written), regular interludes with Stella who’s convinced every man is after her for sex; and all the while Goldie is trying not to get killed for something she knows nothing about. Calling this a romantic comedy or a neo-noir thriller or police procedural or a skit on the untoward goings-on behind closed Catholic doors (this was after all the era of the Pope dying mysteriously supposedly at the hands of an American-Lithuanian cardinal with ties to the Mafia…) doesn’t quite do it yet it’s all those things and more with that ineffable quotient of star power or pizzazz that’s hard to replicate or express. It’s laugh-a-minute hilarity from the get-go with Barry Manilow’s songs to soothe the fevered brow as the antics proceed at breathtaking pace performed with gusto by a wonderful cast. By the end, can we even remember why the roll of film was so important?! Or amid Goldie’s ditzing and Chevy’s bumbling that this was potentially a Farrah Fawcett-Harrison Ford starrer?! A must-see. Gee Scotty, I don’t think there is a dwarf in this movie
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