Crime Does Pay
One of the most popular staples in film is ‘crime’– films about cops, robbers,
gangsters, obsessed detectives and lowlifes. The genre has fans for a reason:
it has the potential to be exciting and entertaining, usually includes great
characters, cool scripts and in the best cases these films have unpredictable
endings and give us a cathartic glimpse into the seedier side of life...
One lost crime comedy gem is
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), a rip-snorter of a film made by
infamous director
Michael Cimino, pre-The
Deerhunter (1978)
Heaven’s Gate (1980). It stars two of the biggest actors of the time –
Clint Eastwood as veteran bank robber John “Thunderbolt” Doherty, and
Geoff Bridges as itinerant car thief “Lightfoot”, a kid out for kicks
in the permissive 70s. On the run from a gang and careering around in a very
cool muscle car, it’s a terrific screwball comedy that’s often overlooked.
Heat (1995) is at the opposite end of the spectrum – a big fat crime
drama by one of contemporary drama’s best directors,
Michael Mann (Ali). The acting is great, so is the casting and story:
plus two of America’s acting giants share a scene together for the first time –
last names only here:
De Niro and
Pacino. De Niro plays a crim at the top end of town, with a career in
big moneyed high-tech heists. He’s had enough and wants to leave his hometown
LA... Pacino is an old dog in the police force – and the detective assigned to
bringing down De Niro and his elusive crew. With a great chase scene at LAX
this ‘less is more’ drama has the personal lives of the characters intertwine
with the thrilling crime at hand. A great character study and an ‘honour
amongst thieves’ movie that stands the test of time...
Any credible crime movie list has to include
Goodfellas (1990),
Martin Scorsese’s thrilling interpretation of the real-life rise and
fall of career crim Henry Hill. De Niro doesn’t say a helluva lot in this but
he’s menacing all the same;
Joe Pesci says way too much and scares also, but the movie really
belongs to Ray Liotta playing Hill, the Irish lad who gets ‘made’, becomes
addicted to the good life (and narcotics), then turns informant. Lavish,
ambitious, stylish and the real deal – you can’t go past Goodfellas for sheer
muscular flair.
Across the Atlantic to Old Blighty – three crime movies stand out immediately:
The Long Good Friday (1980), the original
Get Carter (1971) and more recent entry,
Sexy Beast (2000). All three feature great performances by key lead
actors.
The Long Good Friday has Bob Hoskins in a career-defining performance
as a veteran gangster who plans a big score only to discover someone’s trying
to knock him off. Michael Caine plays one of the hardest men ever to menace the
screen in Get Carter, a gangster on a mission to avenge his brother’s murder,
and Ray Winstone and Ben Kinglsey take great joy playing against type in Sexy
Beast, facing off explosively. Winstone is a crim trying to get out of the game
by retiring in sunny Spain while Kingsley is a gangster sent to retrieve him.
Ghandi gets nasty...
And as for Australia – one film genre we have always done consistently well in
is crime - movies about crims, outlaws and menacing types. Starting in the
silent era with
The Story Of The Kelly Gang (1915 – incidentally the world’s first ever
feature-length movie), right up to The Boys (1998),
Chopper (2000),
Mad Dog Morgan (1976),
Last Train To Freo (2006) and one of the best pieces of ‘motion picture
television’ ever made in Australia,
Blue Murder (1995). What a great benchmark in Australian crime film and
TV.
- Megan
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
