Streets of Fire
Jun. 10th, 2024 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brainwaneThe 1980s action movie Streets of Fire is, in the US, up on YouTube in its entirety to watch free-with-ads right now. Saw it last night.
A few thoughts:
It's infernokrusher. It's pretty. It kind of reminds us of Dark City, Batman: The Animated Series, and Brazil in how it synthesizes a stylized 20th century urban aesthetic that sort of is unmoored in time. And it's a MOVIE, visual and sonic spectacle. According to the English Wikipedia article, one co-screenwriter said that the director/co-writer wanted a comic book movie but wasn't satisfied with any existing comic book to base the film on, so it's like a comic book movie, and the director said:
What more do you need in a trailer? Although the trailer itself is also fun, and perhaps helps illustrate my belief that Streets of Fire could fit somewhere in the Mad Max franchise without a ton of changes.
Spouse and I, fairly early in the runtime, started suspecting that the character of McCoy had originally been written as a man, then genderswapped -- so much so that, at one point, Leonard forgot the character's name and called her Starbuck. We were right. According to IMDb trivia, originally the filmmakers had Edward James Olmos in mind!
What a treat to see Rick Moranis playing someone so loathsome, given how I grew up on his Honey, I Shrunk The Kids character. (Also, that's a marvelous title.) Also, funny how Willem Defoe's Raven is the actual threat and does dangerous and reprehensible things, but we have way more screentime of Billy (Moranis's character) just being incredibly irritating.
More elevated municipal rail than I had expected -- not just as stanchions that serve as obstacles during car chases, but also as a relevant mode of transport.
Spoiler for the ending: I think this film, more than most others that I've seen, helps me appreciate this shape of resolution for a love triangle. Tom loves Ellen, but the configurations of their personalities just will not work together as a mated pair; he is a hero and he can do big things for her but not little things. Billy is happy to play second fiddle to her career and to be there for her day-to-day, and neither Tom nor Ellen can be that kind of support to each other. Even polyamory in the modern 21st century form would probably not work for them. But Tom's available to show up if Ellen ever needs a hero in the future.
Thank you Jim Steinman for those opening and closing songs - in his obituary I read the deathless quote "If you don't go over the top, you can't see what's on the other side," which is the essence of infernokrusher.
A fun ride.
A few thoughts:
It's infernokrusher. It's pretty. It kind of reminds us of Dark City, Batman: The Animated Series, and Brazil in how it synthesizes a stylized 20th century urban aesthetic that sort of is unmoored in time. And it's a MOVIE, visual and sonic spectacle. According to the English Wikipedia article, one co-screenwriter said that the director/co-writer wanted a comic book movie but wasn't satisfied with any existing comic book to base the film on, so it's like a comic book movie, and the director said:
the film's origins came out of a desire to make what he thought was a perfect film when he was a teenager, and put in all of the things that he thought were "great then and which I still have great affection for: custom cars, kissing in the rain, neon, trains in the night, high-speed pursuit, rumbles, rock stars, motorcycles, jokes in tough situations, leather jackets and questions of honor".
What more do you need in a trailer? Although the trailer itself is also fun, and perhaps helps illustrate my belief that Streets of Fire could fit somewhere in the Mad Max franchise without a ton of changes.
Spouse and I, fairly early in the runtime, started suspecting that the character of McCoy had originally been written as a man, then genderswapped -- so much so that, at one point, Leonard forgot the character's name and called her Starbuck. We were right. According to IMDb trivia, originally the filmmakers had Edward James Olmos in mind!
What a treat to see Rick Moranis playing someone so loathsome, given how I grew up on his Honey, I Shrunk The Kids character. (Also, that's a marvelous title.) Also, funny how Willem Defoe's Raven is the actual threat and does dangerous and reprehensible things, but we have way more screentime of Billy (Moranis's character) just being incredibly irritating.
More elevated municipal rail than I had expected -- not just as stanchions that serve as obstacles during car chases, but also as a relevant mode of transport.
Spoiler for the ending: I think this film, more than most others that I've seen, helps me appreciate this shape of resolution for a love triangle. Tom loves Ellen, but the configurations of their personalities just will not work together as a mated pair; he is a hero and he can do big things for her but not little things. Billy is happy to play second fiddle to her career and to be there for her day-to-day, and neither Tom nor Ellen can be that kind of support to each other. Even polyamory in the modern 21st century form would probably not work for them. But Tom's available to show up if Ellen ever needs a hero in the future.
Thank you Jim Steinman for those opening and closing songs - in his obituary I read the deathless quote "If you don't go over the top, you can't see what's on the other side," which is the essence of infernokrusher.
A fun ride.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-10 11:54 am (UTC):-)
Date: 2024-06-10 11:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-10 01:00 pm (UTC)This is a fabulous movie, and I hate that it didn't get as big as it deserved.
My father had a VHS of it and I watched it so much as a child.
Baby Willem Defoe
Date: 2024-06-10 07:01 pm (UTC)...is so pretty and queer and wild!
(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-11 01:49 am (UTC)…Interesting quote from director and co-writer Walter Hill, in the Wikipedia article about him:
"every film I've done has been a Western[…] the Western is ultimately a stripped down moral universe that is, whatever the dramatic problems are, beyond the normal avenues of social control and social alleviation of the problem, and I like to do that even within contemporary stories”
(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-11 02:41 am (UTC)Rick Moranis always plays such a pushover in the other films I've seen of his, so this was an interesting thing to see before he became typecast. He still dressed like a dweeb, but really had the mouth on him to spar with the hero and carry a scene convincingly.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-11 03:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-11 04:19 pm (UTC)(BTW, for folks wondering about the Infernokrusher Manifesto, enjoy some links.)
I have, in the past, read it as:
a call for/celebration of artwork that embodies the infernokrusher aesthetic
an initiation of an improv game inviting people to celebrate the infernokrusher aesthetic using highfalutin litcrit jargon
probably other stuff too