reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (10/29/85)
William Friedkin's career as a director is both instructive
and typical. After making a few features films, by and large
pretty good, Friedkin got lucky. The kind of lucky he got is
only available to those who have a great deal of talent to begin
with, but, none the less, luck is luck. Friedkin happened upon a
film perfectly suited to his talents, "The French Connection".
It won the Academy Award for best picture, and best director.
This sort of thing happens two or three times a year. A director
matches up well with a script, the actors, the cinematographer,
etc., and out comes a critical and commercial hit. Friedkin then
performed the trick that gains one true clout in Hollywood: he
got lucky twice in a row. Another project came along that proved
perfect, "The Exorcist", this time, and the profits were tremen-
dous. As a result, Friedkin could do no wrong and was spoken of
with the same awe reserved for Peter Bogdanovich after "The Last
Picture Show" and "Paper Moon", George Lucas after "American
Grafitti" and "Star Wars", and Francis Coppola after "The Godfa-
ther I & II". Note that, of all these gentlemen, the only one
who kept his clout is Lucas, who immediately retired from direct-
ing to produce films.
Friedkin's luck ran out, as luck usually does. I liked
"Sorcerer" a lot, but few others seemed to, and his next three
films did him little credit. However, the marvelous thing about
talent is that, almost always, if it's lucky once, sooner or
later the luck returns. Luck has come back to William Friedkin,
giving him a chance to work with his kind of script again, a
script about gritty, realistic cops working over the line in a
sordid world. "To Live and Die in L.A." is a splendid film, ex-
tremely exciting, original in vision, and solidly based on impor-
tant thoughts and observations.
The story, set in LA, of course, concerns US Treasury agents
after a counterfeiter. Eric Masters is a particularly nasty
specimen who murders one of the agents early on. From this point
on, Agent Richard Chance becomes determined to catch the villain.
Chance knows perfectly well who did it, but Masters is so care-
ful, smart, and smooth that it has proven impossible to get the
goods on him. The bulk of the movie concerns Chance's increas-
ingly desperate attempts to find a way to nail his adversary, and
to clean up the mess he makes. Unlike a Dirty Harry fantasy,
Chance's excesses cannot be excused, even by success. When he
crosses the line, he will have to pay.
"To Live and Die in LA" is a fast and violent film. Fried-
kin claims that there are no more than three or four minutes of
on-screen violence, and I suppose that he is right. However, the
film serves as a demonstration that a small amount of violence
well-presented can be more shocking and exciting than a large
amount shown without imagination. When the violence occurs in
"To Live and Die in LA", it's very hard to overcome the illusion
that this is real violence happening to real people. Typical mad
slasher films or "Rumba" clones spend half their time showing people
maimed or killed, but one rarely believes that the violence is
authentic. These films show numbing violence, violence which makes
you forget that when you shoot someone, a person with a real life,
a real family, real hopes and ambitions, dies. The death of even
a minor character in "To Live and Die in LA" reminds you that a life
has been snuffed out. Maybe the victim wasn't a very nice or valuable
person, but he was human. That said, it is worth mentioning that
the violence is very strongly presented, and some of it is quite gruesome.
The big set piece of "To Live and Die in LA" is a chase
scene, Friedkin's first since "The French Connection". Well,
Friedkin is two for two on chase scenes, as far as I'm concerned.
Friedkin regards chases as vastly important and difficult scenes,
not something to be undertaken lightly or just thrown away. He
builds up to his chase, and then he delivers. Chance and his
partner find themselves in a bad situation which quickly worsens
in an almost Kafkaesque manner (Friedkin's phrase, not mine), un-
til finally the only thing left to do is race up a busy freeway
the wrong way. Editor Bud Smith deserves praise for his handling
of this sequence, as well as fine work on the rest of the film.
Friedkin's picture of LA is not precisely flattering. Shot
in an area of the city dominated by oil wells, refineries,
warehouses, factories, and squalid housing, Friedkin shows LA at
its worst. Paradoxically, some of it is almost beautiful, par-
ticularly the smoggy sunset which appears on the posters. Credit
for the photography goes to Robby Muller, a German cinematogra-
pher who frequently works for Wim Wenders. Muller provides a
view of LA and the US nearly as fresh as his incredible work in
"Paris, Texas".
The script, by Friedkin and Gerald Petievich, based on
Petievich's novel, is very good, featuring strong dialog, believ-
able procedures, unusual situations, and an authentic under-
current attributable to the fact that Petievich is a Treasury
agent of long experience. The script is the starting point for
Friedkin's thesis, that the line between cops and crooks is dis-
turbingly thin, that it is very easy for a policeman to go too
far, maybe for good reasons. Friedkin doesn't choose to make the
facile observation that this is Bad. Rather, he and Petievich
examine all the consequences, costs and payoffs.
Friedkin chose to cast "To Live and Die in LA" with largely
unknown actors. William L. Petersen, a stage actor from Chicago,
is excellent in his first screen role, as Chance. Petersen has a
strong screen presence combined with great talent, a rare combi-
nation. William Dafoe, the villain from "Streets of Fire", is
extremely creepy as Masters. Dafoe will have to work hard to
avoid being typecast as villains, given his odd features and in-
tense manner. John Pankow is initially a bit weak in the role of
Chance's partner, perpetually saying "Well, maybe we shouldn't do
this." Fortunately, his character develops well in the second
half of the film, giving Pankow the opportunity to show his
talent. Dean Stockwell, the only real name in the cast, is good
as a high-powered, totally unscrupulous lawyer. Stockwell has
been the beneficiary of several good parts in the last few years
(particularly "Paris, Texas" and "Alsino and the Condor"), and
has demonstrated that he is not just another bland TV actor.
"To Live and Die in LA" is a superior action picture with
enough meat to appeal to those who want more than chases and
shootouts. Friedkin is definitely back on target after too long
a dalliance with hopeless movies. Anyone who liked "The French
Connection" is unlikely to be disappointed by "To Live and Die in
LA".
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
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