"It's probably impossible not to enjoy .. " -- David Chute, Film Comment
"People ask me what the story is. I say the Queen of the Hop has been kidnapped by the Leader of the Pack and Soldier Boy comes home to do something about it." -- director Walter Hill
" .. the language is strange .. It's tough, but not with 1984 toughness. It sounds like the way really mean guys would have talked in the late 1950s, only with a few words different – as if this world evolved a slightly different language." -- Roger Ebert
Here's my promise: I've never been to a Karaoke Night in my life, but for anyone reading this, if you agree to get up and do "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
the way it should be done (broad, full-out emotion, put your all into hitting every note and don't stop if your voice starts to crack; interpretive hand gestures and arm movement optional), I'll do my best to attend (but if I can't and you put it up on YouTube I'll watch it at least 7-8 times). Because that'll never fail to be riveting.
If you'd like to bring a backup singer instead of relying on the machine, bonus. If you'll allow an artistic note I would suggest that he close his eyes every time he does his part but I'm not here to interfere. I'm here for your rendition. Short of watching you laugh uncontrollably, shake with rage, sob or orgasm I can't think of a better way of briefly being privy to your secrets.
Jim Steinman wrote the song. He also wrote the opening and closing numbers in Streets of Fire, "Nowhere Fast" and "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young." The language that Ebert talks about is the language of the musical. It's outsized and overblown, pure and without irony. It can only truly be expressed on a backlot. By itself it can be unwatchable, something for kids, but with the right sensibility and when you cross it with another genre like black comedy (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), drama (Dancer in the Dark) or action (Streets of Fire) it makes you want to use outsized and overblown words like "transportive" and "transcendent."
is a throwaway scene featuring a minor character but when I watch it I want to know whether she's singing about Jimmy or Joey (the trumpet player). I have to believe she's singing about someone. They aren't her lyrics but the song is hers, at least for a couple of minutes. It could be a performer's trick. The act is pretty well-polished (maybe to its detriment) by that point in the movie. But if it's a performer's trick so is acting.
"According to Hill, the film's origins came out of a desire to make what he thought was a perfect film when he was a teenager and put in all of the things that he thought were 'great then and which I still have great affection for: custom cars,
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kissing in the rain, |
neon, trains in the night, high-speed pursuit, rumbles,
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rock stars, |
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motorcycles, |
jokes in tough situations, leather jackets and questions of honor.'"
Sorry, I thought we were to the IMDb Keywords.
This title card
is an accurate representation of what follows. The city of the Richmond, the Battery and the Strip doesn't belong to any one time or place. The clothes, telegrams, motorcycle gangs and "really mean guy" talk are '50s-inspired but there are color TVs, hardly anyone's bothered with race (one policeman says something about "spade musicians"; "spade" is my second favorite racial epithet. I wouldn't mind being referred to as a "spade" -- it's my favorite suit in cards -- but there's more of a musicality to "jigaboo") and Ellen Aim's (Diane Lane) boyfriend is played by Rick Moranis.
That last part doesn't preclude it from being set in the '50s. It only marks it as timeless, or being "of the backlot." (Don Rickles aside: it's a cheap joke. Ellen being with Billy is actually one of the more reasonable parts of the film. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying "chicks dig jerks." That's a correlation fallacy. Being an "asshole" is not by itself attractive. Self-confidence is, and Billy Fish doesn't lack for it. It's just that men with self-confidence are frequently assholes. Try getting Diane Lane to go out with you by acting like an asshole with no self-confidence. See if it works. There's also a Svengali element to Billy and Ellen that can't be ignored.)
They love Ellen Aim and The Attackers in the Richmond. In the Battery they prefer The Blasters
and dancers wearing full-body fishnet and as well-toned as in a Dennis Hopper short. You're thinking "She doesn't look like a 'biker chick.' She's got to be a pro" and you're right. That's Marine Jahan, a year after doubling for Jennifer Beals in Flashdance, causing a lot of sexual confusion via some close-cropped hair and being able to pass for Willem Dafoe's little sister. Speaking of Dafoe, now's as good a time as any to share my collection of Willem Dafoe as Raven screenshots.
Was the clip above what Janet Maslin was talking about when she said the script was misogynistic and "problematically crude?" Maybe it was the part later where Tom Cody (Michael Pare) decides to knock Ellen, his ex-girlfriend, out rather than have her restrained and does it by punching her? That's crude and problematic, but not as much of either as the Strip, the only poorly realized area of the fictional city.
What do you think Elizabeth Daily's character is called?
A. "Esperanza"
B. "E.G."
C. "Reva"
D. "Baby Doll"
D. Good guess, but you've seen it before, haven't you? Everyone on the Strip is dressed, appropriately enough, like they're extras in a "Sorcerer" video that's in between takes (with the odd Big Pimp-Lookin' Motherfucker With A Hat). That doesn't take me out of the movie. Nothing does or can. That's the freedom in doing a musical or any kind of "movie movie." The good guy wears sleeveless denim.
The bad guy wears leather overalls.
Bill Paxton can show up with a pompadour.
If you run into a street person he'll be played by Ed Begley, Jr.
It's all acceptable. When I come off as pompous throwing words around like "transportive" and "transcendent" and "transgender Willem Dafoe"
that's what I mean. Walter Hill's idea of a perfect film when he was a teenager wasn't realistic. It could only take place in its own universe and that's the main reason it's "probably impossible not to enjoy."
I've lost a lot of you by making it sound like a movie where people sing about their feelings for an hour and a half. It's not. Turn around, Bright Eyes. It's only 11% Steinman. How do I get you back? Right. Those "questions of honor?" They're settled with a climactic sledgehammer fight.
I knew that'd do it. Succumb to the Beat Surrender.
Notes and Unanswered Questions
1. Ellen Aim's singing voice in the film is a combination of Laurie Sargent and Holly Sherwood. One flaw in the concert scenes is they use the original multitrack and it's temporarily distracting that Ellen doesn't have any female backup singers for "We're goin' Nowhere Fast" at the end of "Nowhere Fast" and that Diane Lane dances away while Ellen keeps singing.
2. His birth name is listed on IMDb as "Michael T. Williamson." He's credited in
Streets of Fire as
He's famous as "Mykelti Williamson." Could someone ask him to clear this up next time he does an interview instead of asking how much free shrimp he gets because of
Forrest Gump?
3. How could Streets have been a lot worse? "An early incarnation of this screenplay was offered to Paul McCartney, whom the producers had learned was interested in playing a role in a dramatic motion picture. When McCartney passed on the film (he decided instead to star in his own screenplay, Give My Regards to Broad Street) the role of the kidnapped rock star was rewritten and Diane Lane was cast in the part .. " Not that I question the romantic chemistry McCartney and Michael Pare would've had but was that Joel Silver's idea?
4. More Streets trivia courtesy of the copy-and-paste feature: "Streets of Fire was intended to be the first in a projected trilogy of action films called 'The Adventures of Tom Cody' with Hill tentatively titling the two sequels, The Far City and Cody's Return.
However, the film's eventual failure at the box office put an end to the project. In an interview, shortly after the film's release, Paré said, 'Everyone liked it, and then all of a sudden they didn't like it. I was already worried about whether I should do the sequel or not.'"
What, The Philadelphia Experiment was going to put him over the top and he didn't want to waste his time? The Far City he had doubts about but not Eddie and the Cruisers 2: Eddie Lives!? This reminds me of how unexpectedly .. poignant (?) it was when he showed up as the adult Trip (Josh Hartnett) in rehab in The Virgin Suicides. (We're sure to get a Google hit off that. Nowhere else will you find the words "Michael Pare" appear so close to "unexpectedly poignant." Now we only need someone to perform that search. I can be patient.)
He's up for a
Streets of Fire sequel now. Even if it's unofficial. Even if it's directed by Albert Pyun.
That's not Diane Lane! Road to Hell. No release date announced, either because they don't have the rights or distributors are unsure about the commercial viability of movies done entirely against rear projection.
5. Joel Silver's Fingerprints, Part 2: What's "Deeper and Deeper" by The Fixx doing over the end credits? Something to help move the soundtrack album? "Kids like New Wave, not Ry Cooder." Or was it Jimmy Iovine's doing?
Better use of The Fixx in
The House of the Devil.
6. Let me clarify. You've got to take it as seriously as Bonnie Tyler does. Don't do it like
The Dan Band or
these guys. And what is
this? I'll still watch it if that's your approach but it's not what I'm after.
Do I have to prove I'm not a liar? Should I appeal to national pride? Americans are underrepresented in the category of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" covers on YouTube. There are videos from
Germany,
Singapore,
Germany again (I like this guy),
Peru (extra credit for the accent),
Brazil (extra credit for sitting on the bathroom floor; that's a good setting for this song),
the U.K. and
the Ukraine. The acoustic guitar's a nice touch in the last one. You might also consider a
banjo and recorder accompaniment.
What few Americans do show up tend to do things like call her
"Bonnie Taylor" or
mess up the lyrics.
This is the closest anyone gets. Most make the mistake of trying to sing it well, not expose all open wounds (figuratively or literally). Is it selfish to ask for someone to have a complete breakdown while singing? Probably, but I won't stop watching these until I see it. Remember, once upon a time you were falling in love but now you're only falling apart.
IMDb Keywords
Balisong / Kicked in the Face
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| Tied to A Bed |
A Cappella / Wad of Cash
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| Premarital Sex |
Beautiful Woman (Streets of Fire is one of 25,551 titles on IMDb with that keyword)
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| Thrown Through a Window |
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