William Friedkin

otm

spoilers tho

lol I don't remember that at all, mostly I just remember the homoeroticism and hilarious dialogue which seemed to have been written by a 12yo that just learned how to swear. also it looks great.

i mainly remember bill petersen's butt in those jeans

I remember something else *not* in those jeans

yeah the boiling-a-frog atmosphere is great - by the time vuckovich realises his partner is a total psycho he’s in way too deep and has no option but to become him

the equal-opportunities approach to nudity in this feels very european

the car chase where Vukovich is in the back seat correctly freaking the fuck out vs Chance flashing back to bungee jumping is key (and hilarious!)

US film industry gen squeamee about peepee

Worst line in the film (or maybe so-bad-it's-great for some people): "You want bread, go fuck a baker."

I'll grant that this particular car chase did have some thematic importance in terms of Vukovich melting down. I don't think it would been that missed if it hadn't be there--that point had been made in other scenes, too--but clearly I'm just not big on car chases.

"would have been"

Turturro’s “you want a pigeon, go to the park” line was better and less try-hardboiled.

that car chase is fucking insane, and yeah it's earned / not superfluous bc of Vukovich's meltdown in the backseat

is the DVD out of print? bcz the NY library does not have it.

there’s a pretty sweet dvd/blu-ray in print via arrow video in the uk

Shout Factory Blu-ray stateside

yeah the Blu Ray I have is fantastic

well i'll wait for the next rep screening cuz i hardly ever buy discs

the car chase is kinda key in the realisation that we are watching an entire genre being lampooned as well as everything else

this movie somehow is perhaps the origin story for the action cliche, "i'm too old for this shit"

if anything, the fact that the two protagonists are oh-so-excited TREASURY AGENTS kind of signals that up-front. I mean we all know how exciting the Department of the Treasury is, why they're right up there with the FBI and the DEA and ATF when it comes to hottt thrills

oh-so-exciting

I meant to say

this movie somehow is perhaps the origin story for the action cliche, "i'm too old for this shit"

― omar little, Friday, July 13, 2018 2:55 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I noticed that line when I watched it a few weeks ago! and was going to ask itt (or the other one) if that line had appeared elsewhere before. I know Lethal Weapon came out after TLADILA, but I assumed it was a gag. That's pretty amazing if it is the origin.

I would be surprised if there isn't something earlier from some 70s hardboiled cop movie

i mainly remember bill petersen's butt in those jeans

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand),

I can still feel it in my dreams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCuYg9I5NTg

might be predated by Steve McQueen in the Hunter, it looks like?

it’s nuts that friedkin gave the leads in this movie to basically total unknowns but it for sure pays off

I asked this about TLADILA in another thread, to no avail, but it's still bugging me:

What was the point of the whole subplot with John Turturro's character, Carl Cody? Chance gets him out of jail so Cody will help him get to Rick Masters; Cody tricks Chance and escapes; Chance eventually gets him back... and that's it? Quite a bit of the movie is dedicated to all this, but it doesn't seem to lead anywhere. The person who actually connects Chance and Vukovich with Masters is Masters's crooked lawyer. What am I missing?

cant recall for sure but doesnt taking him out of custody and letting him escape establish both the risktaking nature of chance vs partner and also puts a tension/dependence into play btwn the two, once partner doesnt shop that the fuckup has happened hes on the slide into being 'that cop' himself

i think it also largely ties in with some of Masters' other moves, like when he hires that gang to kill Cody and they blow it. i think his response there is to show his ruthlessness. i think the scenes with Cody and Chance exist to show the latter's recklessness in trying to get Masters. I forget what occurs after he gets Cody, maybe nothing.

the subplot there is that iirc Vukovich is the one who actually is most instrumental in connecting them w/Masters, via meeting with the lawyer? Maybe showing his lack of recklessness paying off. I gotta watch it again ASAP.

xp

from iMdB trivia re casting:

The chain of events that led to William Petersen and John Pankow's casting in the film began when director William Friedkin decided to not bother trying to cast established film stars due to the project's relatively low budget ($6 million). Friedkin was born and began his career in Chicago and was familiar with fellow Chicagoan Petersen's work, and with him in mind for the lead role of Chance, he called Petersen in for a reading of the script and immediately offered him the part. When Petersen came in to accept the role, he brought Pankow because the two men were longtime friends and had acted in many Chicago-area projects, and told Friedkin he thought Pankow would be perfect for the role of Vukovich. The director ran a scene with Pankow and then cast him on the spot.

Remember that Friedkin had laid four box-office eggs following The Exorcist. This was his low-budget sleeper.

yeah, there’s a v engaging interview with peterson on the blu-ray where he talks about the unlikely chain of events which led to his cinematic debut

and also about how blown away he was by friedkin’s absolute confidence in his own filmmaking, eg shooting wide master shots and then not bothering with any other coverage cuz he was sure he knew he’d gotten what he needed

Peterson storming into Darlanne Fluegel's apartment all hyped up chattering on about the Chicago Bulls while she's freaking out about the shootout and car chase. great shit.

also just this moment discovered Darlanne Fluegel died last year of early onset Alzheimer's, fucking hell. :(

aw shit, that’s awful :(

this movie somehow is perhaps the origin story for the action cliche, "i'm too old for this shit"
― omar little

I think you were at last night's Toronto screening! Brendan Ross, who I mentioned earlier introducing the film, said exactly that beforehand. So when the line came up (early, first five minutes), the theatre exploded.

I was looking up Darlanne Fluegel yesterday and discovered the same thing. She was gorgeous.

Fluegel was quite good as Dennis Farina's wife-then-exwife in Crime Story.

I watched Blue Chips the other night it was better than I expected

I don't know if To Live and Die in LA is a good movie, but it is a great movie. Also, possibly the first mention of Michael Jordan in pop culture? Had the events of the filmed played out differently I could see it as a prequel to Heat, with the Peterson character a younger version of the Pacino character. As it is, Mann or not, it would slot well between a screening of Thief and Heat, for lots of reasons.

There are a couple of shots in the car chase that I have no idea how they captured.

i think its good also, i mean theres definitely enough competence and elements that work to argue for it as the tale itself

but yeah its the everything else that make it the magnificent beast it is

JiC otm. lots of this movie is bad, silly, or nonsensical but it also a blast

i think it is good and great. the parts that are bad or silly can often be chalked up to a particular '80s badness (though some particular lines of dialogue should have stayed written down and subsequently crossed off). i'm willing to forgive the silly shit.

it's such a competently crafted film with such a quiet invisible shift from "good guy agent chasing insane crook" to "insane agent chases his own death wish" that the shift has occurred and the movie's walls have closed around you by the time you notice it, it's a frog-boiling-in-water story in that regard. the greatness comes from the unrelenting march towards its goal with no room for anyone the audience can identify with at the end and its very sharp suggestion that action movie heroes are psychos with zero regard for anyone but their own glory, and their righteous mission is just an excuse for really cool action shit. i'm not saying it's a critical take on the genre (though maybe it is???) as much as it's an interesting twist on the genre.

(though some particular lines of dialogue should have stayed written down and subsequently crossed off)

You pulling my dick???

yeah i bet if you listed those lines id be totally in love with each of them tbh

BTW the Michael Jordan reference in the film is one where he disses Jordan by saying Quintin Dailey is better, which is interesting bc QD was mainly notorious as a player for complaining about not getting attention compared to Jordan, being a general shithead, up to and including having committed sexual assault in college and subsequently having been protested by various groups upon his NBA arrival. Dailey was a solid third year player when MJ was a rookie but Jordan was already obviously a guy who was going to change the game and dominate.

He does call Jordan a "great fuckin' ball player."

I mean, have you seen Cruising and Sorcerer? moments of lowbrow craziness are common

not to mention the hideous 10 minutes I saw of The Exorcist

I really enjoyed seeing The Boys in the Band again. I can see why it was dismissed in the late 70s and in the 80s as representing an earlier era of self-hatred, but I think it's easier for someone gay to watch it more dispassionately now. I loved the plot of the clueless straight man dropped into the middle of a gay party. Lots of reviews have compared it to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but the over-the-top self dramatizing jokey quality of it makes it feel less self-serious to me. The set, an apartment apparently on East 65th St, was beautiful. And the acting, from the entire original 1968 stage cast, was for the most part really good I thought

I read somewhere that Friedkin has said it's a favorite, one of the few films of his that he still likes watching