Perennial urban crime opera director Walter Hill made Streets of Fire the same way George Lucas made Star Wars, combining all sorts of things he loved as a young man together into one package: grimy urban settings, rock and soul music, classic cars and motorcycles, modern day evil and noble knights battling it out over a maiden fair in an ambitiously-titled "Rock and Roll Fable."
And man, when it works it really works. Special mention to the soundtrack before we go any further; it carries big chunks of the film even when nothing else does, all the more impressive given parts of it were written at the last moment. And the visuals are generally pretty rad, always selling different parts of the nebulous city where the story takes place, from the trash-strewn streets of the Bomber Gang's territory to the cablecar-pillared neighborhood where the main characters originate.
The story gets off to a strong start, with the Bomber Gang abducting a famous and successful singer doing a charity tour in her old hometown and her old flame being called in to help bail her out, assembling a team of quirky misfits in the process. Unfortunately, the story's actually pretty thin from there, lacking both the tension and escalation of a good chase following the rescue early in the film. And the actors' chemistry is unfortunately pretty hit and miss, with a lot of the "good natured" bickering actually coming off as very venomous.
That said, the characters do manage to elevate it somewhat, from McCoy, originally written as male and working just as well with a woman in the role, to Billy Fish, a character who could have just been a one note sleazy rich asshole, but whom I commend the filmmakers for instead giving a lot of courage and a spine, a measure of masculine virtue I did not expect.
Unfortunately, the main antagonist Raven is a notable exception. Underdeveloped in both characterization and motivation, I don't know if they didn't expect to get Willem Dafoe in the part or didn't know what they had, but while he performs the role ably there's just not enough there for him to save. Even a final sledgehammer duel I was otherwise bang-up for is undermined by some weird decisions made in the setup.
Finally, the ending. I can't help but feel that as a younger man, I wouldn't've liked it, but as a jaded old fart, I actually found it very mature and beautiful. And I felt that it succeeded where other parts failed, by demonstrating true love through proving that Ellen's happiness was more important to both Tom and Billy than their own.
Doomed by a chaotic and overambitious production, this film was never going to enjoy Star Wars' cultural and financial success. But it's still a good watch, and even the parts that don't work well bring across Hill's passion for the subject matter. Even if you don't watch, maybe pull up the soundtrack on Youtube or something and give it a listen.
Film What Star Wars Could Have Been
...And that's neither a compliment nor an insult.
Perennial urban crime opera director Walter Hill made Streets of Fire the same way George Lucas made Star Wars, combining all sorts of things he loved as a young man together into one package: grimy urban settings, rock and soul music, classic cars and motorcycles, modern day evil and noble knights battling it out over a maiden fair in an ambitiously-titled "Rock and Roll Fable."
And man, when it works it really works. Special mention to the soundtrack before we go any further; it carries big chunks of the film even when nothing else does, all the more impressive given parts of it were written at the last moment. And the visuals are generally pretty rad, always selling different parts of the nebulous city where the story takes place, from the trash-strewn streets of the Bomber Gang's territory to the cablecar-pillared neighborhood where the main characters originate.
The story gets off to a strong start, with the Bomber Gang abducting a famous and successful singer doing a charity tour in her old hometown and her old flame being called in to help bail her out, assembling a team of quirky misfits in the process. Unfortunately, the story's actually pretty thin from there, lacking both the tension and escalation of a good chase following the rescue early in the film. And the actors' chemistry is unfortunately pretty hit and miss, with a lot of the "good natured" bickering actually coming off as very venomous.
That said, the characters do manage to elevate it somewhat, from McCoy, originally written as male and working just as well with a woman in the role, to Billy Fish, a character who could have just been a one note sleazy rich asshole, but whom I commend the filmmakers for instead giving a lot of courage and a spine, a measure of masculine virtue I did not expect.
Unfortunately, the main antagonist Raven is a notable exception. Underdeveloped in both characterization and motivation, I don't know if they didn't expect to get Willem Dafoe in the part or didn't know what they had, but while he performs the role ably there's just not enough there for him to save. Even a final sledgehammer duel I was otherwise bang-up for is undermined by some weird decisions made in the setup.
Finally, the ending. I can't help but feel that as a younger man, I wouldn't've liked it, but as a jaded old fart, I actually found it very mature and beautiful. And I felt that it succeeded where other parts failed, by demonstrating true love through proving that Ellen's happiness was more important to both Tom and Billy than their own.
Doomed by a chaotic and overambitious production, this film was never going to enjoy Star Wars' cultural and financial success. But it's still a good watch, and even the parts that don't work well bring across Hill's passion for the subject matter. Even if you don't watch, maybe pull up the soundtrack on Youtube or something and give it a listen.