Times Square (1980)

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Times Square is rightly regarded as a cult item. It is one of those classic could-have-been movies... a potentially great, offbeat indie film with some terrific elements, which was sadly let down by some naff story/script elements and especially by the regrettable interference of producer Robert Stigwood, who was determined to make a punk version of Saturday Night Fever, but wouldn't let director Alan Moyle make it his way. Stigwood sacked him before the film was complete, cutting a number of scenes including those that e presented a clear exposition what was intended to be a lesbian relationship between Nicky and Pammy, and shoehorning some howling duds (a Bee Gees track in a punk movie??) into the otherwise solid punl/New Wave soundtrack, just to pad it out to a double album.Sure, not all of it works .... The DJ subplot is frankly woeful, poorly written and badly handled, and whilst Tim Curry does his best, it comes off as pretty cringeworthy today. But this film is definitely worth seeing just for the powerhouse punk performance of 15yo first-timer Robin Johnson, who was recruited straight off the street and proceeded to act everyone else in this movie right off the screen. She is *electrifying*, really magnetic, the camera loves her, and she gives everything to the part. That has to be admired, it shines through still, and it is an absolute tragedy that what should have been a big career never took off, through no fault of her own. Her performance of her own song, "Damned Dog", at the club, is terrific, and if the film had allowed more of that kind of action in, it really could have gone somewhere. Trini Alvarado too is admirable, as restrained as Johnson is out-there.The film is of course also a marvellous visual time capsule of New York in all its seedy, decayimg late 1970s glory ... the Times Square porno pits, the grungy street life, the ruined piers ... sadly not the film it should have been, but when it works, you get tantalising glimpses of what a great little film this nearly was, and Robin Johnson deserves an honorary Oscar.

'Times Square' is a film about a young girl named Pamela (Trini Alvarado) whose father is determined to clean up the sleazy streets of New York. Pamela is a shy and timid girl whose nervousness lands her in a hospital for tests. Pamela's roommate at the hospital is a troubled girl named Nicky, played wonderfully by actress Robin Johnson.Nicky talks Pamela into escaping the hospital and the two rough it on the streets of New York. Nicky is used to living the wild life, but Pamela has never escaped the clutches of her overprotective father. Nicky and Pamela start a rock group while word spreads thanks to radio DJ Johnny, played by the sensational Tim Curry. The girls become heroes to young folks all over the town, and girls begin dressing in trash bags, the famous look created by the "Sleaze Sisters". Pamela decides she wants to go home, and Nicky does not it take the news well. While on the air, Nicky has a mental breakdown and announces a concert on top of a building. This film is widely unknown, but there are many who look at it as one of the greatest cult films of all time. The soundtrack features incredible artists such as Roxy Music and The Cure. If any film paints a picture of life in The Big Apple during the '70s, it is the fabulously entertaining 'Times Square'.

**SPOILERS** Movie about two punk rockers Nicky & Pamala, Robin Johnson & Tirni Alverado, who set the city of New York on fire with their Punk Rock music and flying TV's! It was the girls way of expressing themselves, in their total disgust with modern society, in a way that had people's heads turn! Especially when an 19 inch TV dropped from a high rise building was about to land on top of them!This all started when the two troubled girls met in the New York Neurological Hospital and realized that it was not them but the adults who put them there should have been committed. Nicky was a homeless person who didn't know in which direction to go with her life but the well off and far fortunate, in having a home and family, Pamala's hang-us even exceeded hers. Her old man the city's Environmental Commissioner David Pearl,David Coffield,now wants to turn Times Square, what turned out to be her and her friend Nicky's happy stomping grounds, from the gritty and anything goes swinging district that it is into a Disneyland on the Hudson gaga-land with no personality at all!It's not until popular radio disk jockey Johnny LaGuadia, Tim Curry, started giving the on the run from the law, and men in white suits, girls free publicity on his all night radio show that their, Nicky and Pamala's music as well as Punk Rock ideas about life, really started to take off! To the point where entire New York City's, and it's surrounding, population of disenfranchised and ignored young people revolted against the establishment with both Nicky & Pamala leading the way.The road to the top of the heap, in the Punk Rock world, was not without is hard knocks for the two girls who had to suffer through a number of heartbreaking incidents that almost had them beak up and join the crowd, the entrenched establishment, that they so desperately tried to escape from. It was late in the film when both Nicky and Pamala went on their own, with the behind the scenes help of Johnny LaGuadia, as the popular "Sleaze Sisters" to express their feelings about life hope and the future of America's youth as well as their relationship with each other. It's then that the whole Times Square District exploded, in a pre-announced concert that they gave there, that even Pamala's stuffed shirt dad David finally saw the light and joined in along with them!Sing along and snap your fingers type of movie that despite its many inconsistencies you just can't dislike or turn off no matter how ridicules it gets! Even though the film was the non actor Brooklyn born Robin Johnson's debut she did as good a job playing the punk rock and incorrigible Nicky Marotta as any establish and polished actress could have possibly hoped to do. The scenes with both Nicky and Pamala even though corny were touching in that they seemed to come straight from the heart not the script. Among all the other good things to say about the film "Times Square" what stuck out more then anything else, beside Nicky and Pamala, was it's memorable and catchy soundtrack that packed some twenty, count em' twenty, songs in the less then two hours in length motion picture!

I must confess up front to a favorable bias toward "Times Square". Just before its release I recall seeing the trailer and being won over by the scene in the hospital where Nikki begins eating the flowers. Since this was only about 10 seconds into the trailer it is fair to say that I immediately connected with the film. The same trailer is included with the DVD and I was happy to see that my memory of the event was accurate. After seeing the actual feature I went out and bought the double album, which I still own.I know more about films now than I did 25 years ago and thanks to the DVD commentary (by Director Allen Moyle and Robin Johnson-who played Nikki) I now know a lot about what went into the making of "Times Square". Unfortunately Robin's co-star Trini Alvarado (Pammy) was not available for the commentary. Although most viewers consider Nikki the central character, Nikki really needs Pammy to play off (much like Charlize Theron needs Christina Ricci's reaction shots in "Monster"), plus Pammy's scenes without Nikki are some of the best in the film and Pammy is the character who undergoes all the changes in the story, so you can't really say that one of them is more important than the other."Times Square" suffered the same fate that Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons" did 40 years earlier. The producers took control of the final cut, re-shot some scenes, deleted others, and released a version that did not reflect the director's vision. Apparently no one has ever been able to find the deleted footage for either film. Although "Times Square" was butchered even more than "Ambersons", it seems to have been less damaged. In part that is because the originally intended version would never have approached the perfection of the original "Amberson's". Perhaps more importantly, "Times Square" has a Haskel Wexler gritty documentary style that simply transcends the narrative elements of the story. So changes to the storyline could not take away from its basic ambiance nor from its preservation of the look of 1979 Times Square-something that was even then a ghost world.Moyle now wishes he had not left the production after a dispute over including additional songs (so they could have a double album) because his continued presence would at least have had some damage control value. Producer Robert Stigwood ("Saturday Night Fever", "Saying Alive", "Jesus Christ Superstar", Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" ) was determined to release yet another of his musical exploitation films designed to make a lot of money on the soundtrack. This accounts for the inclusion of the completely inappropriate "Help Me" (The Bee Gees), the movie actually goes out on that song although they switch to something more appropriate midway through the credits.The commercialization of the film also included dropping all obvious hints of a lesbian relationship between the two girls. This was probably a commercial mistake because a public controversy might have actually increased attendance. Ironically, if the lesbian angle had remained Moyle would have been accused of exploitation because it is really unnecessary for the storyline. Likewise the script changes needed when Alvarado refused to dance topless saved Moyle from looking like an exploiter.While what survives has major continuity and character development issues, the core of the story may actually work better. Two emotionally damaged girls-polar opposites- bond and help each other. It ends with Altman's cool "Kansas City" twist where the seemingly weaker girl becomes protective of the tough girl. I like the way that Pamela's father finally gets it and backs away, letting her continue to help Nikki until she feels that Nikki can continue without her. You first realize how strong and together Nikki has made Pammy by the end of my favorite montage sequence. After ordering her out, Nikki trashes their room, tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide, and completely breaks down at the radio station. Inter-cut with this is a shot of Pammy standing outside her father's home. At the station Nikki is screaming "Pammy" over and over as they agreed to do earlier in the film in moments of total despair. The audio of these screams is extended into the morning after establishing shot of their dock building. Johnny comes into the seemingly empty room and lifts the blanket revealing a peacefully sleeping Pammy sucking her thumb-she has returned to help Nikki.Another highlight is the scene I already mentioned of Nikki eating the flowers in their hospital room. What makes this work is its point-of-view dynamic. Moyle artfully connects us to Pammy for the first time by allowing us to see Nikki from her POV. Later he places us back into Pammy's POV as Nikki non-verbally convinces Pammy to leave the hospital with her. The hospital exit scene only works credibility-wise because the first scene set us up for it.Finally there is Nikki's "people dig dyin on me" line.