Movie Details
| Title: | Streets of Fire | |
| Director: | Walter Hill | |
| Year: | 1984 | |
| Genre: | Rock 'n Roll Fable | |
| Times Seen: | 2 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.22.08 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (6)
- Brewster's Millions
- The Driver
- Hard Times
- Last Man Standing
- Southern Comfort
- The Warriors
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.22.08 | Music Monday | Kier-La Returns! I think it's pretty cool that the Alamo basically threw this event just for her as a send-off or a tribute or whatever you want to call it. I also think it's cool that they got Michael Pare and Debra Van Valkenburgh to come out AND that they bought the print and gave it to her as a present. It must be pretty awesome to be Kier-La right now. So, the big thing I want to say about this show is that it had the glimmer of how I feel the Alamo used to be and the real reason why I love the theater so much. Streets of Fire is a movie I saw once under pretty uncomfortable circumstances and didn't like it much at all. We stopped the DVD several times, dogs kept trying to lick my face, we were under pressure to leave lest we miss another movie, etc. It all added up to me thinking it was kind of cool but too 80s for my taste. Seeing it tonight, however... I got it. It was loud, the crowd was enjoyably insane with love for both the host and the guests and the film, I bought into the premise, I followed along, I couldn't help but move my feet to the beat. Where before I thought it failed in being timeless due to the 80s bent on all the music, now I saw influences from other eras all mixed together. Sure, Diane Lane's songs were pretty 80s but the band playing at Torchy's was pure rockabilly that could've come straight from the 50s (OK so the fishnet-clad stripper dancing along was probably 80s, but who cares). The Sorels straight from the 60s, greaser biker gangs with crotch-rocket bikes, Lee Ving, Ry Cooder, Saxophone and synthesizers... it all melted together. It's not the most subtle of mixed cocktails, but it's certainly unique. The dialogue is tough if you want it to be, goofy if you don't, the costumes are iconic and bizarre, I still don't go for Amy Madigan's hair Shaggy Dog hair but I minded her pairing with Cody much less this time around. All said, the experience of seeing it at the Alamo made it possible to open up and enjoy the movie for all of its best features. So yeah, I am now a fan. Afterward, I was equal parts impressed and relieved that Michael Pare seemed like a fun guy. His answers and anecdotes were all funny and candid and authentic (at least they sounded authentic). I had a fear that he was now a crusty old drunk or something because he was big in a few movies 20 years ago because he had model good looks. Instead, it seems like he enjoys looking back on his work without any sort of chip on his shoulder. Of course I read into all of this; all he did was like smile and make a joke about how annoying Rick Moranis was. Still, it's a shame that he's now relegated to really crappy movies to get by... and maybe yeah that's because he's not a great actor or whatever, but still... he at least deserves more cameos like in Virgin Suicides. So the whole experience had me on a high. I was really pretty surprised that I enjoyed the movie as much as I did. Surprised enough to sit through Albert Pyun's "companion" "film", Road to Hell. |
| 04.20.06 | Friend's House | The plan was to see The New One-Armed Swordsman at the Alamo, bum around for a few hours while the Madonna sing-a-long went on, then catch the Terror Thursday showing of Warhol's Dracula. Instead, Aaron and Jarrette told me there was a Silent Hill screening at 9 so I ditched the Shaw brothers and watched Streets of Fire over at Aaron's house instead before we headed over to Silent Hill. I guess this is Kier-La's favorite movie and Jarrette really talked it up too... It calls itself a rock n' roll fable set in another time at another place, and stars Michael Pare, Willen Dafoe, and a supremely young and foxy Diane Lane. Never tell my mother this but I am a huge Michael Pare fan and Eddie and the Cruisers is one of my fondest childhood movies, so this film had really just slipped through the cracks for me; I'd never seen it before. Lee Ving, the girl who played Dottie in pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Rick Moranis, Bill Paxton... this movie has a really awesome cast, a great premise, and pretty badass dialogue. I think the only reason why I don't absolutely love it is that I feel the 80s infecting it all over. Thanks to childhood nostalgia, I am not completely anti-80s. It bothers me here though because I feel them trying to be timeless but they end up being timeless in a completely 80s way. It's about rock n roll and there's a clearly Motown-influenced group in the movie but all the drums are treated and synths are everywhere not to mention the random neon squiggles and music notes and costumes. All the music's buffed till it's shiny and rouged till it's Flashdance, man. They even manage to fagify Link Wray's Rumble... that's just wrong. I don't really have a problem with Ry Cooder, who did the music. I think it's just an unfortunate product of the times... Every decade seems to date itself in some way so I guess I'm just more annoyed by 80s artifacts than 70s, 60s, or any other decade. Still though, I think if the alternate rock n roll universe was just a little more steeped in 50s rawness it would have been a perfect match with me. You know, like Eddie and the Cruisers. |
