A Totally Rad Roundup of 80s Flicks in Honor of Vice City

Posted: January 09, 2013 12:11PM | Author: R* A

Looking back on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the occasion of its recent mobile release is a pretty powerful double-hit of nostalgia for us. Not only are we here at Rockstar taken back to that wild year of 2002 when we labored to take the groundbreaking 3D GTA experience pioneered in the previous fall's Grand Theft Auto III into a direction that no one at the time expected - but it's also a time to revisit the fascination with 1980s pop culture that inspired Vice City in the first place. From coked-out debutantes, suave and in-control hit men, hot-blooded drug kingpins, egomaniacal movie directors... the larger than life attitudes of that "me" decade as served up in the films of the era served as perfect inspiration for the stories, characters and scenery that drove the world and vibe of Vice City...

Scarface (1983)

But of course. Largely dismissed at the time as an overblown, needlessly and gratuitously violent and profane remake of Howard Hawks' 1932 gangster classic - it has now, of course, transcended all of that and become one of the biggest and most enduring cult hits of all time - defining what a modern crime epic should be. An absolute top favorite of ours, we started paying homage to the film's legacy in GTAIII with Flashback 95.6's Scarface soundtrack heavy playlist and the casting of Robert Loggia as the sciatica-plagued Ray Machowski - but it goes without saying that Vice City owes much of its inspiration to the vivid characters, style, scenery and music of De Palma and Pacino's 1980s Miami gangster masterpiece.

Less Than Zero (1987)

Hands down the darkest movie of the 'brat pack' genre, this Robert Downey Jr. and Andrew McCarthy-starring movie is a stylish adaptation of the disturbing Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) novel. A morality tale of excess following rich Beverly Hills yuppie kids caught up with living life in the coke-fueled fast lane of the 1980s social scene. Incredible style, music and oddly prophetic to the drug troubles that would plague Downey himself in the years to come.

The Long Good Friday (1980)

The Long Good Friday was released at the dawn of the decade - a great crime drama that is now listed as one of the top 100 British films of the 20th century by the British Film Institute. An intense Bob Hoskins portrays a local British kingpin trying to close a landmark deal, working the angles between American mafia investors, crooked politicians, and his own questionably loyal ranks - whilst thwarted by an unknown enemy. Also starring a young, blonde Helen Mirren as Hoskins' moll.

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

Directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist), this is an awesome crime film from the era with Los Angeles based agents after a notorious counterfeiter and thief - played by Willem Defoe as your archetypical 1980s villain sociopath. Side note - the film's soundtrack was composed entirely by 80s wunderkinds (and Flash FM favorites) Wang Chung.

A more taut and psychological thriller than the cavalcade of action films from the 1980s about lone good-guy American soldiers prevailing against seemingly endless parades of gun-toting baddies with poor aim, Stallone's 1982 turn as a distressed Vietnam War veteran turned one-man-army undoubtedly inspired the decade's later work of Arnold Schwarzenegger, modern folk hero Chuck Norris, Michael Dudikoff - and of course the legendary Jack Howitzer of Evacuator and Exploder fame.

The Road Warrior (1981) & Aliens (1986)

1980s Hollywood seemed to have one basic approach to sequels - take a somewhat understated, successful suspense film and blow the doors off it with a follow-up that ups the ante to all-out-balls-to-the-wall action. Both of these however turned out to be awesomely amplified blockbusters that did good justice to their progenitors. A hammy, young Bill Paxton playing his brash space marine character in Aliens almost exactly as his Chet from Weird Science - is a particular 80s treat.

Sudden Impact (1983)

Top Gun (1986)

Body Double (1984)

Somewhere in between Brian DePalma’s flashes of brilliance that were Scarface (1983) and The Untouchables (1987) came this very underrated Hitchcock homage/rip-off (depending on your opinion) that took the DNA of Vertigo and Rear Window into a totally 80s Los-Angeles-set suspense thriller complete with an awesome extended Frankie Goes to Hollywood music video / porn sequence, starring a young Melanie Griffith as Holly Body.

Rocky IV (1985) & Over the Top (1987)

Vice City probably wouldn’t have had Jack Howitzer’s Push Up: The Movie – the story of a washed up ex- push up champion who trains to defeat a Russian nemesis in an international push-up contest held in “Tokyo, China” – if it weren’t for this special pair of mid-80s Stallone ‘classics’. In Rocky IV, Sly's Balboa fights a machine but in Over the Top, his Lincoln Hawk becomes one (well, once he turns his ball cap backwards). "You can't win!"

Previously:
Rockstar Recommends: A Chronology of Favorite Movie Shootouts and Standoffs
Rockstar Recommends: A Film Noir Round Up Part Two – The Neo Noirs

• Recommendations
• GTA: Vice City
• Grand Theft Auto

193 Comments

10 of Our Favorite Music Videos from the Vice City Soundtrack

Posted: December 27, 2012 9:51AM | Author: R* L

In our continuing nostalgic ruminations in this 10th Anniversary year since the release of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, today we take a look back at the game’s soundtrack and think back to those halcyon early years of MTV when it actually was all about music + television. In between the channel’s signature moon man interstitials and ‘veejay’ visits to your living room from Martha Quinn and J.J. Jackson, came the original wave of music video programming that transfixed and inspired a generation of kids - including many of us here at Rockstar. Frequently surreal, heavily driven by contemporary fashion photography and design of the period, and now laden with pop music history – enjoy this rundown of just ten (in no particular order) of our favorite 1980s music videos of songs that appeared in the Vice City soundtrack….

"Video Killed the Radio Star" The Buggles (Flash FM)

A bizarre little clip in its own right, now etched in history for being the first video ever played on MTV when they launched in August 1981, is "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. Apparently actually the second filmed version of the video - the original being a slightly simpler yet still pretty strange performance clip heavy on post-disco-futurism - this one was tailor made to suit its destiny. Filled with campy sci-fi imagery, follow the wonderment of a young girl seeing her old-fashioned radio explode as Trevor Horn (later of Yes and Art of Noise fame) and The Buggles play otherworldly explorer-scientists heralding in the new music video era...

"Rock Box" Run DMC (Wildstyle Pirate Radio)

A landmark rap video (the first to be aired on MTV) that typified the early 80s Russell Simmons & Rick Rubin era vibe and pioneered a rock-rap style that would explode a few years later with “Walk this Way”. The bizarre factor is also ramped way up on this one thanks to a rambling, esoteric introduction by legendary then-70-year old (and still kicking) improvisational comic “Professor” Irwin Corey. Ensuing years in the 80s would see similar head-scratching cameo appearances in rap videos by random comics like Larry “Bud” Melman, Gilbert Gottfried and Richard Belzer...

"Owner of a Lonely Heart" Yes (Flash FM)

The nearly 7-minute long video for this 1983 avant-garde pop-rock-electronic masterpiece starts out simply enough with the band rehearsing on a soundstage. A minute-and-change-in... things get weird. With an offsetting close up of Jon Anderson's face, it cuts to the lead singer standing in a field where he then turns into a bird that flies away. The rest of the band members follow suit, transforming in different locations into a snake, lizard and cat, respectively. Jon-Anderson-as-bird then flies over rush hour London, where we see an average Joe trying to get through the day's challenges (like facing evil government agents and more antagonists from the animal kingdom). Was the band inspired by a psychotropically-fueled viewing of Manimal? We'll never know - but this quite disturbing and surreal video still puzzles and delights as well as it did nearly 30 years ago.

"I Wanna Rock" Twisted Sister (V-Rock)

"What do you wanna do with your life!?" With a reprisal of his authoritative jerk Niedermeyer character from 1978's Animal House, actor Mark Metcalf this time is a raging hard-ass bully of a high school teacher set up ripely for comeuppance at the hands of his charges - empowered of course by the liberating rock of Dee Snyder and Twisted Sister. After humiliating a meek and overweight metalhead teen student, the rest of the video sees Metcalf as a foil getting his just desserts in a variety of cartoonish scenarios. The Animal House comes full circle at the end when Metcalf's character finally makes it to the principal's office to report the student rebellion...

"Yankee Rose" David Lee Roth (V-Rock)

The first single off of his first full-length, post-Van Halen album, "Yankee Rose" was David Lee Roth's initial visual statement as a solo artist. And what was that statement? A comic parade of politically incorrect stereotypes and a ridiculous Roth shaking his wrapped-in-striped spandex rear-end at viewers. So it's perfect.

"Sunglasses at Night" Corey Hart (Wave 103)

Upon listening to this Corey Hart classic, you might think that it's simply about a dude who prefers to wear sunglasses in the evening, perhaps for practical reasons such as being able to leer at women on the bus, or perhaps due to hypersensitivity to moonlight. But thanks to this video that was a staple on airwaves in '83, audiences were challenged with some serious social commentary. What if we all lived in a fashion police state and the only shades that we could wear were government-issued? Thankfully, the scenario was addressed in this laughably dramatic yet awesome music video.

"Steppin' Out" Joe Jackson (Flash FM)

The video for Joe Jackson's elegant and progressive piano-electro pop hit "Steppin' Out" captures the glamour and excitement of a night out in high-society 1982 New York City with this visual story of a maid at a fancy NYC hotel dreaming above her station.

"Love My Way" The Psychedelic Furs (Wave 103)

Relatively understated for the era, but still very surreal and cool and now-iconic, the video for the Psychedelic Furs "Love My Way" features the band wading in water and with heads in the clouds.

"The Message" Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (Wildstyle Pirate Radio)

Acclaimed to this day having recently been named the #1 greatest hip-hop song of all-time by Rolling Stone, "The Message" still packs a serious punch with a gritty video that is quite a departure from many of the other blithe videos in this list. With documentary-style footage shot in the streets of early 80s New York, this glimpse of real life burned-out buildings, hustlers, winos, infuriating congestion, peep shows, and 'broken glass everywhere' exposed the realities of life in the inner-cities of America to a vast international audience.

"I Ran" A Flock of Seagulls (Wave 103)

There it is. "I Ran" was one of the most ubiquitous videos of the 1980s ranking among MTV's most played ever, and made its mark as an indelible video of the decade, known for its surreal kabuki theater in a mirrored funhouse performance - and of course, for the band's haircuts. Perhaps the definitive new wave hit and the song that came to be most associated with the glamour, thrills and action of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City thanks to its appearance in the game’s official TV commercial.
 

• YouTube Favorites
• Soundtrack
• Recommendations
• Music
• GTA: Vice City
• GTA

121 Comments

Rockstar Recommends: Jamaican Noir (The Cinema of Dread) at Cinefamily LA

Posted: April 20, 2012 3:44PM | Author: R* Q

For a taste of International Noir, particularly in subtropical climates with a pressure-cooker of desperate downtrodden masses and ruthless crime syndicates, we’re happy to recommend our LA-area fans (or those who will be there over the next week) pay a visit to the renowned and very fun revival house, Cinefamily, to check out their Jamaican Noir: The Cinema of Dread festival starting today. Featuring Jimmy Cliff’s landmark 1972 gangster film “The Harder They Come” and several others, as they describe:

“Jamaican cinema is Third World cinema: rife with strife, bursting with the insuppressible creativity of the oppressed — don’t get it twisted. Watching a documentary like Stepping Razor: Red X and witnessing Peter Tosh wield a sword on stage while he MCs, or seeing a rasta preach literally to the hills about the need for help in his people’s struggle in the Herzog-esque Land of Look Behind, or following “Horsemouth” in Rockers on a epic hunt through Kingston to retrieve his stolen motorbike (in a kind of reggae re-working of The Bicycle Thief) will rewire your brain, and open your ears to the dark side of dub.”

Also – while it’s a couple decades removed from this festival’s focus on the heady 70s, for some pretty raw Noir action set in Jamaica – and a detective character perhaps even more trigger-happy than Max Payne himself - we recommend you track down 1999’s “Third World Cop.” Check out that film’s theatrical trailer below.

• Max Payne 3
• Max Payne
• Recommendations

44 Comments

Rockstar Recommends: “Point Blank”

Posted: March 30, 2012 10:15AM | Author: R* A

Point Blank (1967; Dir. John Boorman)

An aging, greying gunman single-mindedly out to reclaim what was taken from him must infiltrate a building teeming with armed enemy goons – get in, reach the man in charge at the top, and get out unscathed by cannily outwitting and outmanning them all. The type of job that calls for more of a myth than a man.

Starring Lee Marvin as the mysterious, unstoppable force known only as Walker and supported by an amazing cast that includes the stunning Angie Dickinson and a pre-Archie-Bunker Caroll O’Connor -  this surreal neo-noir crime film isn’t necessarily a direct inspiration of the Max Payne series or Max Payne 3 specifically, but there are many great stylistic parallels worth noting. The over-the-hill mythical hard man constantly facing impossible odds against a giant criminal organization. The haunting memories and tortured flashbacks to where it all went wrong. Even the sharp grey suit and the coincidence of a precarious helicopter-assisted cash drop orchestrated at an empty arena.

Remade in only the shallowest of plot-point respects in 1999 as the Mel Gibson vehicle “Payback”, we’d consider “Point Blank” to be the “High Plains Drifter” of Max Payne 3 Recommended films – a treat for Max fans who can appreciate a surreal take on the crime-action genre.


Previously:
Rockstar Recommends: A Chronology of Favorite Movie Shootouts and Standoffs
Rockstar Recommends: "The Killer"
Rockstar Recommends: "Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite)"
 

• Max Payne
• Max Payne 3
• Recommendations

48 Comments

Rockstar Recommends: A Chronology of Favorite Movie Shootouts and Standoffs

Posted: February 20, 2012 12:00PM | Author: R* A

As we highlight the varied cinematic influences of Max Payne 3, from the franchise's nod to Hong Kong action cinema and film noir and neo-noir, to the specific reference points of Brazilian elite police forces and dangerous underworld criminals you'll encounter in the game - today, we highlight a history of some of our favorite sequences of rugged shootouts and intense standoffs as well as movies in general with scenes of exceptional gunplay.

Certainly, Max as a character owes a debt to the great tradition of moviedom's brooding action-heroes who walk softly and wield a big stick with uncanny precision. At its best, the experience of playing any Max Payne game, but especially this new and evolved entry in the franchise, is meant to take that passively vicarious thrill of seeing a cool and unflappable hero dispense justice and revenge – and turn it into an adrenaline-pumping first-hand sensation of action. Imagine the ante being upped with the prospective of going online to face off against a lopsided army of assailants in a multiplayer mode like Payne Killer, and you'll have a pretty good sense of how we're aiming to take inspiration from these sorts of classic shootouts and faceoffs into an epic videogame experience.

Without further ado, enjoy this chronology of some of our favorite scenes and trailers from classics and guilty pleasures alike...

Paul Muni in “Scarface” (1932)



Over 50 years before De Palma’s landmark remake, Howard Hawks pushed the envelope in this original Pre-Code era crime classic of the early 1930s. If you've only ever seen the remake, we highly recommend you look up the original which tracks very closely story-wise - including the finale where immigrant gangster Tony Camonte and his beloved sister are sieged upon in a bloody and bullet-laden life-or-death standoff. 

James Cagney in “White Heat” (1949)



"Top of the world, ma!" One-man-army standoffs in the movies don't get much more iconic than Jimmy Cagney's Cody Jarrett defiantly shooting it out til the bitter, raging, and literally explosive end against an entire police force.

Victor Mature & Lee Marvin in "Violent Saturday" (1955)



A great, tense technicolor Noir starring Victor Mature and Richard Egan as small-town folks that get caught in the middle of a vicious bank robbery perpetrated by a scheming crew of hoods. It all leads to a climactic showdown at a local farm just outside of town, with Mature holed up in a barn fending off the crooks with help from Amish farmer Ernest Borgnine.

Franco Nero in "Django" (1966)



Long before it became fashionable in the 1980s for lone movie heroes to indiscriminately rain down a bulletstorm on legions of baddies, and several years before Sam Peckinpah would disturb the traditional order of the Western genre with his ultraviolent "The Wild Bunch", this spaghetti Western starring Franco Nero as an Eastwood-esque gunslinger set the stage. Not to be confused with the recent Japanese rendition or the upcoming Tarantino homage. 

Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry in "The Enforcer" (1976)



The morally complicated, snarling archetype of no-nonsense trigger-happy detective as iconically portrayed by Clint Eastwood (a role originally offered to both Frank Sinatra and John Wayne). Hardly a practioner of prudence and mercy, Dirty Harry employs a machiavellian approach to policework and the satisfaction he seems to get out of blasting a crook with Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson is palpable.

Sam Peckinpah's "Cross of Iron" (1977)



The legendary Sam Peckinpah takes on the art of the war film with the same brutally visceral approach he pioneered with "The Wild Bunch". While stark depictions of the violent savagery of war have been an appropriate tradition of war films from "All Quiet on the Western Front" through "Saving Private Ryan" and beyond - this one was surely a turning point for the genre.

Charles Bronson in “Death Wish I, II & III” (1974; 1982; 1985)



Originating as a slightly more subdued thriller and bit of social commentary adapted from Brian Garfield’s 1972 novel about a liberal NYC accountant who turns into a merciless vigilante after a violent attack on his family – the series went full-on Rambo by the mid-80s with Bronson taking on an entire neighborhood of caricaturish thugs straight out of a Police Academy movie. Check out the multiplayer videogame-esque scene from Part III above.

Bruce Willis in “Die Hard” (1988) and “Die Hard 2” (1990)



The 1980s brought us a barrage of brawny, heavily-armed action heroes gunning down foreign villains with steel-jawed seriousness - from Stallone's Rambo, to Schwarzenegger's "Commando", to Chuck Norris' busy 80s filmography (special acknowledgment as well of course to Jack Howitzer). And while Arnold had been known to crack wise on occassion, it was Bruce Willis' John McClaine that turned the action hero from a humorless self-righteous killing machine into a much more relatable, and likeable witty character - leading to a new trend and trope of jokesters in the throes of gun battle. The sequel featured the franchise's most epic gun battle seen above.

John Woo's “Hard Boiled” (1992)



We previously had featured "The Killer", as an exemplary reference point of the Hong Kong action film vibe that's inspired the Max Payne franchise since the beginning. We'd be remiss not to include this one as well in our lineup - neck-and-neck with "The Killer" as the best of the John Woo / Chow Yun Fat collaborations. Tense and very stylized - the scene above is a standout as a long take of Yun Fat and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai shooting their way through a hospital.

Tom Berenger in "Sniper" (1993)



Taking cues from the lone warrior soldier craze of the 1980s and a tagline lifted from Christopher Walken's "one shot" motto in "The Deer Hunter", this one refines the Rambo mold to be a sniper expert - dispatched on a mission duelling against enemy forces and rival sharpshooters in the jungles of South America. Some classic Don LaFontaine voiceover work in this 1990s trailer.

Pacino, DeNiro, Kilmer etc in “Heat” (1995)



Perennially atop many lists of all-time great shootout scenes, this 10-minute, unrelenting sequence of Kilmer, DeNiro and their gang facing off against Pacino and his police force at the scene of a bank heist is indisputably one of the best. Above is a pretty neat behind-the-scenes feature looking into how the scene was made - watch the original sequence here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL9fnVtz_lc].

Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1998)



The last great American war film. A standard-bearer in the footsteps of "Platoon" and "Full Metal Jacket" a decade earlier - this one shocked audiences' and critics' sensibilities with its unrelenting, and honest, depictions of the horrors of war. With scenes like the jarring sniper sequence above, it featured a level of violence very against type for Best-Director-winning Spielberg, and helped to spark a resurgent trend of war epics through the early 2000s ("Black Hawk Down", "Pearl Harbor", etc).

The Wachowski Brothers’ “The Matrix” (1999)



Finally, at the dawn of the millennium came this blockbuster action shooter with a surreal, sci-fi slant. The stylized shootout in the lobby with its balletic slow-motion, impossible physicality, and innovative technical camerawork took the cues of Hong Kong action cinema to a entirely new level.

• Recommendations
• Max Payne 3
• Max Payne

85 Comments

Rockstar Recommends: "The Killer"

Posted: January 06, 2012 10:15AM | Author: R* A

The Killer (1989; Dir. John Woo)



"He looks determined without being ruthless. Something heroic in his manner. There's a courage about him, doesn't look like a killer. Comes across so calm..."

So describes Hong Kong detective Li to a police sketch artist the mysterious lone assassin he finds himself fascinated with...

While Film Noir and particularly NYC-set detective films are often pointed to as being a key influence on the heritage of the Max Payne franchise, many forget that the touchstones that inspired the series are a bit more international than that – especially the canon of over-the-top Hong Kong shoot-em-ups as pioneered in the 1980s by directors like John Woo and Ringo Lam. Of those, “The Killer” is perhaps the best – with its stylized, over-the-top, slow-motion sequences of balletic gunplay; its melodramatic touches that underscore the action (white doves, mystic sounding vibraphones, candle-lit churches); and the role of the talented yet conscienced killer, played by Chow Yun-fat in one of his many collaborations with Mr. Woo before they both became Hollywood names.

“The Killer” tells the tale of professional assassin, Ah Jong – with no super powers, no sixth senses – but just an almost preternatural ability to sense, react and respond to impending danger in a split-second with razor sharp reflexes and deadly accuracy with a gun of any kind. Just as quick to dispatch a hit with cold-blooded precision as he is to risk his own life and limb to protect an innocent caught in a crossfire - the brooding and conflicted Ah Jong struggles with his own conscience and with issues of guilt and loyalty in his relationships with the detective who hunts him, the longtime friend and business associate who contracts him, and the sweet lounge singer he cares for. All that said, action film aficionados will probably delight most in those insane slo-mo bullet-riddled shootouts from start to finish.

NB – Rap fans will get an extra kick of out of this one, recognizing many scenes (from the English-dubbed version) as being sampled liberally on the 1995 classic album, Only Built for Cuban Linx... by Raekwon the Chef of the Wu-Tang Clan.
 

• Recommendations
• Max Payne 3
• Max Payne

86 Comments

Rockstar Recommends: "Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite)"

Posted: November 10, 2011 12:08PM | Author: R* A

Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite) (2007)

As we prepare for our first game set in the fascinating, beautiful and often very volatile land of Brazil, we present the first film in a new series of Rockstar Recommended movies to help prime you for the atmosphere and setting in which Max Payne will find himself plunged this spring.

“Elite Squad” (original Brazilian title “Tropa de Elite”) is a picture very well known as a breakthrough hit in its native Brazil several years ago, but slightly less known on other shores – something which may change with the release of its blockbuster sequel (the highest grossing film in Brazil’s history) getting a proper U.S. release this coming weekend. Based on a book released the year prior, and adapted for the screen by writer/director/producer Jose Padilha, the film is his second in a trilogy of movies concerning the special police forces of Padilha’s native Rio de Janeiro (released between the disturbing 2002 documentary “Bus 174” and the 2010 smash-hit “Elite Squad 2”).

The titular ‘Tropa de Elite’ refers to Rio’s BOPE special forces police squad (nicknamed ‘skulls’ after their intimidating crest) – a highly trained guerilla-style paramilitary unit that steps in when the city’s police force can’t hack it – which, in Rio’s most dangerous favelas, appears to be much of the time.

Inspired by true stories recounted by ex-BOPE officers and set against the backdrop of the Pope coming to visit Brazil in 1997 and wishing to stay with Rio’s bishop who resides adjacent to one of the worst slums in the city – the squad is called up on to clean up immediate crime by any means necessary. Filmed on location in the same real-life favela as 2002’s “City of God”, the production was mired with shootings, police raidings and hijackings as revealed by the director himself.

The film touched a raw nerve with local law enforcement and politicians with its depiction of police corruption (especially rife at municipal levels), the precarious relationship between the law and the powerful drug lords that rule the favelas – and the brutal extremes that both sides will go to enforce and assert their authority.

While of course Max Payne 3 is set in São Paulo, a couple hundred miles from Rio, the social issues stemming from the disparity of wealth persist in both of Brazil’s major cities, perhaps even more so in São Paulo’s currently booming economy where luxury skyrises belie a persisting crime rate of robberies and home invasions – and where the BOPE-equivalent special forces of GOE (specializing in riots, prison uprisings and high-risk hostage situations), GATE (specializing in hostage situations and disarming bombs), and GARRA (specializing in cases of theft, robbery and assault) are regularly called into action.

Look for some of “Elite Squad”’s intense sequences of BOPE soldiers carefully raiding favela warzones and caught in deadly shootouts versus heavily-armed drug dealers and lookouts who wield assault rifles and Uzis as part of daily life – whether recreationally at baile funk parties and while playing foosball, or during police payoffs and drug transactions with middle class drug peddlers.
 

• Max Payne
• Max Payne 3
• Recommendations

111 Comments

Rockstar Recommends: "Scene of the Crime"

Posted: October 12, 2011 4:15PM | Author: R* A

Scene of the Crime (1949; Dir. Roy Rowland)

For those wrapped up in the allure of 1940s Los Angeles and the hardboiled detectives, conniving criminals and glamorous femme fatales that inhabit it - and for those PC gamers out there getting ready for L.A. Noire's release in just a few weeks -  we've got another in our continuing list of favorite and apropos Film Noir entries for you to check out.

Set all around L.A., a team of homicide detectives led by Lieutenant Mike Conovan (screen great Van Johnson, known mainly for a career of classic war films but who here plays a complex, nuanced detective) set out to solve the murder of a fellow officer who was gunned down in cold blood by a mysterious and elusive suspect described as having a twisted hand and mottled face. Some great sequences derive from the three generations of LAPD detectives on the team, the lieutenant balancing the tutelage of young rookie Detective Gordon (nicknamed "C.C." for the way he emulates Conovan like a carbon copy - check out the trailer for a prime example of him being schooled in the trade) and the sensitivity of dealing with his elder and mentor Detective Piper who's struggling with accepting his own aging acumen and ability.

With quintessential black and white Noir cinematography (the underground bookie outfit's police-style criminal lineup scene in particular) and a screenplay full of riotous pulp-fiction dialogue ("I'm no Humphrey Bogart. He gets slugged and he's ready for action; I get slugged and I'm ready for pickling"), this one has much that L.A. Noire fans should appreciate - from double-crossing dames, to eccentric interrogations, all the way to an explosive climactic shootout and some third-act twists and turns that you really won't see coming.

We hope this rare MGM Noir makes it to DVD soon, in the meantime keep on a lookout for re-broadcasts on TCM and other classic cinema programming venues.

Previously:
"Crime Wave" aka "The City Is Dark"
"The Naked City"
"He Walked by Night"
 

• L.A. Noire
• Recommendations

12 Comments