To Live and Die in L.A.

I ran across:

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985),

and it seemed cool, so I watched it.

This movie is based on the novel of the same name by former US Secret Service agent Gerald Petievich, who also co-wrote the script with the director William Fridkin, yes he of Exorcist fame.

Our main protagonist is William Chance (William Petersen), a Secret Service agent with a love for recklessness. His partner Jim Hart (Michael Greene) is a few days from retirement when he is killed at a solo stake out hunting the notorious forger Eric Masters (Willem DaFoe). Chance swears to get Masters by any means necessary, and together with his new partner John Vukovich (John Pankow) they get to work blurring the line between justice and revenge.

All I wrote above is a huge cliché, but being made in '85, To Live and Die in L.A. kind of gets a pass on that. To be fair, the movie is a visual celebration of 80's cinema in general. Chance stares at the ocean while brooding on his partners murder. The sunset shots of L.A. are dime a dozen shots these days, but I think they work.

Besides the names I mentioned, To Live and Die in L.A. also stars John Turturro, Dean Stockwell, Robert Downey Sr, Steve James and more. The names might not mean much to you, but anyone who has watched movies from this era knows their faces well. All told, this movie has some sterling actors, and it shows.

A quick note about the music. If you like 80's music, To Live and Die in L.A. has a great score. Let's leave it at that. It works.

Now lets look at Friedkin. I've seen a handful of his movies by now; The Exorcist, The French Connection, Sorcerer, Cruising, the video for Laura Branigan's song Self Control, and now To Live and Die in L.A.

I've come to understand his style a bit, a gritty sense of realism overlaid with a gloomy, almost grim sense of doom. You get the feeling that, besides the obvious danger, there is something sinister just around the corner, something nasty hovering behind the camera waiting to pounce. With Friedkin you never know if things are going to be alright. They might not be.

To Live and Die in L.A. is no exception. Shots of palm trees swaying hard in the wind, silhouetted against a red smog gives the feeling that things are not well. There is a fair amount of nudity and sex in this movie, but it isn't erotic and exciting. Friedkin makes it all seem tawdry and a bit nasty. It's more about sating a need than emotion, like watching someone wolf down food. It's hunger more then enjoyment. There is also a fair bit of blood, but set against the rest of the movie, it seems almost trivial.There isn't really a good guy here as lines become more and more ill defined as the end increasingly justifes the means.

So, do I recommend this movie? Absolutely. To Live and Die in L.A. is not a masterpiece, it is absolutely an 80's action thriller, from its neon green credits to the music and the frankly cliché plot points, but it's also something more. Lots of movies do the 'tormented maverick out for revenge' thing, but I have rarely seen it done as well as Friedkin does it in To Live and Die in L.A.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!