Streets of Fire (1984)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Dreadfully Boring

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is probably going to be the least useful review ever, but I'm still going to try. I saw this film about a year ago, during one of the "watch random unknown things" marathon, expecting nothing from it. And when it was over, my reaction could be summed up in "okay, not bad but nothing special, next one". I moved on, being 100% sure that I'll forget about this film in a few days. Yet, after some time, bits of it started returning to me. Again and again and again. Things I didn't think I would care to remember just dropped by my thoughts by themselves without any effort. Then I would start listening to the soundtrack. Then I would look up the names of the characters I couldn't recall. Then I would look at the poster and add it to the list of ones I'd like to put on my wall some day. Then I would look up some scenes. Then... then. Now it's been a year, and I'm re-watching this film, as I rarely do. This little film I was sure I wouldn't remember the day after. I should probably blame the ending. Yeah, I probably should. Beginning with the soundtrack. Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young, written at the very last moment. The song my mind tried to connect with Steinman the first time I heard it and failed to do so. Leading to the moment when, upon watching Dance of the Vampires the musical, I was the only person in the crowd nearly falling out of my seat upon recognition of the song, once again used as the most suitable closing theme. This alone could elevate even the most clichéd ending in existence. Which wasn't the case here. While I'm almost sure there have been similar ones in (probably better) films I've never seen, even aside from Casablanca, an ending in a campy action flick where the guy voluntarily DOESN'T get a girl? Now that's something you don't see every day. And that's the type of thing that gets me, too. That line, "Yeah, she needs me, but she loves you...?" One can feel how much it is placed here as a part of the machine, you see how it's supposed to affect you, you see how it's supposed to work. Usually this lack of subtlety, of "movie magic" covering the mechanisms behind it, leads to the whole thing not working. I thought it wouldn't work. Yet it worked. And that's the case with many things in this film. Blunt and simple. The guy's cool? Well, give him a badass car and a long coat. That guy wants a girl? He'll kidnap her. The bad guy? Let's make him Willem Dafoe in black leather dungarees (haha, oh man, I'm still not over that. I really didn't need to see Willem Dafoe in leather dungarees) They're having a badass fight? Well, guns or fists are for pussies, let's use sledgehammers! Basically a collection of tropes and symbols, if you retell it, it really starts sounding like a modern-day myth or legend. Or a fable, if you please. And if you look at it like that, it works. Do I recommend seeing it? I don't know. I mean, I still cannot fully explain why these little parts of this film keep casually slipping into my head, as there're films that I love that don't do that at all. All I can say is, I don't mind them doing that. And watching it again, I can honestly say I enjoy Streets of Fire. And you might enjoy it, too.

Story-wise the movie's a mess; visually it's sometimes striking. Couching the events as a "fable" was a wise move since that can rationalize the general lack of coherence. Seems cool tough guy Cody is hired by promoter Billy to rescue his former flame and popular singer Ellen from motorcycle gang who's kidnapped her. Along the way, he enlists tough gal McCoy who proves a big help.So why do the producers background events with styles and autos from the 1950's. I guess that's just part of the fable. For me the ducktail hair style and old Studebakers are nostalgic, but may do nothing for younger viewers. Too bad lead actor Pare appears to walk through the part, lending his Cody character nothing apart from the script. Instead, it's Madigan's butchy ex-soldier who manages to rivet some interest. And, of course, Dafoe gets to contort his features into a comic book like villain. In fact, the movie's flash and machine-gun pacing come across more like a comic book effect than anything else. Put a Spiderman's costume on Pare and the movie would morph easily into one of today's comic book epics.I'm not surprised the movie didn't do well at the box office (IMDB). There's some pizazz and flash, but the effects failed as a whole catch on with the teenage crowd, its natural constituency. Needless to say, the goulash is not a movie for all tastes, but for those fans of mainly visual effects, it may fit the bill.

Walter Hill's seventh feature as a director stars a very young Diane Lane and Willem Dafoe in one of his first roles. The dialogue is quick and funny. Amy Madigan makes an early version of the tough girl choosing to literally take the fight rather than be a passive bystander. The soundtrack is great, reminding of Bonnie Tyler and Meat Loaf. Hill was one of the directors who set the standards for many action movies to come. 33 years after it's release, the intensity of Streets of Fire is still felt.

Walter Hill's Streets Of Fire is just too good to be true, and yet it exists. It's like the type of dream concept for a movie that you and your coolest friend think up after a bunch of beers and wish you had the time, money and resources to make yourself. It's just cool right down to the bone, a beautiful little opus of 1950's style gang trouble set to a so-good-it-hurts rock n' roll soundtrack devised by the legendary Ry Cooper, Hill's go to music maestro. It's so 80's it's bursting at the seams with the stylistic notes of that decade, and both Hill and the actors stitch up those seams with all the soda jerk, greaser yowls and musical mania of the 50's. Anyone reading up to this point who isn't salivating right now and logging onto amazon to order a copy, well there's just no hope for you. I only say that because for sooommeee reason upon release this one was a financial and critical dud, floundering at the box office and erasing any hope for the sequels which Hill had planned to do. I guess some people just aren't cool enough to get it (can you tell I'm bitter? Lol). Anywho, there's nothing quite like it and it deserves a dig up, Blu Ray transfer and many a revisit. In a nocturnal, neon flared part of a nameless town that looks a little like New York, the streets are humming with excitement as everyone prepares for the nightly musical extravaganza. Darling songstress Ellen Aim (young Diane Lane♡♡) is about to belt out an epic rock ballad in a warehouse dance hall for droves of screaming fans. There's one fan who has plans to do more than just watch, though. Evil biker gang leader Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe, looking like Satan crossed with Richard Ramirez) kidnaps her as the last notes of her song drift away, his gang terrorizes the streets and disappears off into the night with poor Ellen as their prisoner. The locals need a hero to go up against Raven and rescue Ellen, and so estranged badass Tom Cody (Michael Paré) is called back to town after leaving years before. He's a strong and silent hotshot who takes no guff from no one, and is soon on the rampage to Raven's part of town. He's got two buddies as well: two fisted, beer guzzling brawler chick McCoy (Amy Madigan), and sniveling event planner Billy Fish (Rick Moranis). That's as much plot as you get and it's all you need, a delightful dime store yarn with shades of The Outsiders and a soundtrack that will have your jaw drop two floors down. The two songs which Ellen sings are heart thumping legends. 'Nowhere Fast' gives us a huge glam-rock welcome into the story, and 'Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young' ushers us out with a monumental bang before the credits roll, and damn if Hill doesn't know how to stage the two songs with rousing and much welcomed auditory excess that'll have you humming for days. Paré is great as the brooding hero, and you won't find too many solid roles like this in his career. He's a guy who somewhat strayed off the path into questionable waters (he's in like every Uwe Boll movie) but he pops up now and again I'm some cool stuff, like his scene stealing cameo in The Lincoln Lawyer. Dafoe clocks in right on time for his shift at the creepshow factory, giving Raven a glowering, makeup frosted grimace that's purely vampiric and altogether unnerving. Him and Paré are great in their street side sledgehammer smackdown in the last act. Bottom line, this is one for the books and it still saddens me how unfavorably it was received... like what were they thinking? A gem in Hill's career, and a solid pulse punding rock opera fable. Oh, and watch for both an obnoxious turn from Bill Paxton and a bizarre cameo from a homeless looking Ed Begley Jr.