To Live & Die in L.A.
TO LIVE & DIE IN L.A. (18)
D: William Friedkin
MGM-United Artists/New Century/SLM (Irving H.
Levin)
US 1985
116 mins
Crime/Thriller
W: William Friedkin & Gerald
Petievich [based on the novel by Gerald Petievich]
DP: Robby Muller
Ed: Scott Smith
Mus: Wang Chung
William L. Petersen (Richard Chance), Willem Dafoe (Eric
Masters), John Pankow (John Vukovich), Debra Feuer (Bianca Torres), Dean Stockwell (Bob Grimes), John Turturro (Carl Cody), Darlanne Fluegel (Ruth Lanier)
A gritty and cynical thriller about an embittered, arrogant Secret Service agent who wants to put the cuffs on money counterfeiter Willem Dafoe.
William Friedkin's movie doesn't suffer the formulaic clichés most from this genre fall into and is easily his best crime movie since The French Connection.
A hugely underrated, little seen film from the 1980's which wasn't afraid to take a few chances with its story, instead of playing it safe like many of the mainstream fluff released around the same time.
7/10
