Review: Streets of Fire

Labelled a ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Fable’, this flick stars Diane Lane as Ellen Aim, a rock star kidnapped by Raven (Willem Dafoe) and his gang of motorcycle goons, which feature Lee Ving among them. Michael Paré plays Ellen’s brooding ex-boyfriend Tom Cody, a mercenary-for-hire paid by Ellen’s obnoxious dweeb manager/boyfriend Billy Fish (Rick Moranis) to swing into town and get her back. Madigan plays McCoy, a tomboy former soldier and mechanic who latches onto Cody to become his driver and sidekick of-sorts. Deborah Van Valkenburgh plays Cody’s sister Reva, Bill Paxton plays a goofy-looking bartender named Clyde, whilst Richard Lawson, Rick Rossovich, and Peter Jason play corrupt cops. Mykelti Williamson, Grand L. Bush, Stoney Jackson, and Robert Townsend play The Sorels, a Four Tops-esque vocal group who hitch a ride with Cody and the gang. Marine Jahan, who provided much of the ‘dance’ in “Flashdance” plays a dancer in a bar here.

It really boggles my mind that this 1984 Walter Hill (“The Warriors”, “48HRS”, “Undisputed”, “The Long Riders”) ‘alternate universe’ action flick (with rock music interludes) isn’t more well-known, let alone well-respected. An undeserved flop on original release, it does indeed have a decent cult following. It’s an underrated pastiche of 80s pop rock songs (not to mention Dafoe’s Flock of Seagulls hairdo!) and 50s fashion and iconography, in a comic book setting (the title card ‘Another Time, another place’ allows it to blend styles and genres from different eras), and capped off with a bluesy guitar-heavy Ry Cooder (Just about every Walter Hill film) score which occasionally even dips into 50s rock. The film’s production design is like postmodern meets post-apocalyptic, by way of “American Graffiti”, whilst the use of wipes is very comic book-like but also very MTV. The cinematography by Andrew Laszlo (“The Night They Raided Minsky’s”, “The Warriors”, “First Blood”) is stellar stuff, focusing very much on the reflective puddles on the rain-soaked streets, and an overall visual palette somewhere in between gritty and gaudy 80s New Wave. Thus it is the perfect visual approach for the subject matter, and creates a one-of-a-kind film. It paints a comic book-like world but without it seeming cartoony or comical (Nor can one tell that a lot of it was filmed on a backlot- astonishing). It’s not exactly funny, but lots of fun.

The music in this film, despite Diane Lane’s lip-synching (which is second only to Lou Diamond Phillips in “La Bamba” in being convincing) is actually a lot more believable than in most of these films that feature rock star characters. You also likely don’t need to read the credits to know that Jim Steinman was involved in several of them, as most of them have a little Meat Loaf/Bonnie Tyler/Pat Benatar sound to them (‘Nowhere Fast’ and ‘Tonight is What it Means to Be Young’ in particular). The best of the lot is ‘Nowhere Fast’, which could in my view have been a great duet with Meat Loaf and Pat Benatar. If Paré is playing a character somewhere between Springsteen (Bruce), Springfield (Rick), and James Dean (indeed the film’s title comes from a Springsteen song), then Lane’s character is somewhere between Stevie Nicks (who also wrote one of the songs) and Pat Benatar, and whilst the songs can’t compare to the originals that they are probably emulating, it’s still a pretty cool soundtrack (even Tom Petty and Bob Seger wrote songs for it) and the music works well enough in the film. The best-known song in the film, and it’s terrific, is the one that seems to least fit. A Four Tops-inspired group called The Sorels mime to the late Dan Hartman’s awesome one-hit wonder ‘I Can Dream About You’ (although the vocal here was by Winston Ford for some reason. Hartman’s is the better version). It’s a great song, but not only does it fail to fit in with the other Steinman 80s pop rock/Bonnie Tyler power ballad stuff, but the song doesn’t seem very Four Tops-like to me, either. Also, would such a band be operating as a support act for a rock group like Ellen Aim and The Attackers? I highly doubt it, even on an alternate version of Earth. Still, it’s the one you’ll be singing for hours afterwards. Also, the film is a stylistic pastiche so I guess it all somehow makes sense in that way.

The cast is full of well-known actors on the rise (Diane Lane, Willem Dafoe, Bill Paxton, Mykelti Williamson), durable character actors (Peter Jason, Amy Madigan, Ed Begley Jr), and memorable faces popular in the 80s in particular who now seem to have vanished (Rick Moranis, Robert Townsend, Rick Rossovich, Richard Lawson, Grand L. Bush, punk rocker Lee Ving, etc.) In fact, the faces alone are an interesting lot; Dafoe looking positively Satanic, Moranis typically ‘square’, and Bill Paxton sporting the worst haircut in cinematic history (perhaps best described as a hick pompadour). Often wooden and lazy, Michael Paré (who was less convincing as a rock star in the awful “Eddie and the Cruisers”) was never much of an actor, but this is easily his best film performance. Extremely limited in ability, the role of the brooding, chiselled rock-star hero played to the actors few strengths. His final words to Lane might just be his best-ever moment on film. Amy Madigan got the best notices of the film, and is colourful in a spunky, tomboy kinda way. Certainly her clichéd character isn’t as forced or irritating as it could’ve been in lesser hands. Diane Lane has gone on to bigger things in her more mature years, but she was in a lot more interesting films when she was younger, if you ask me. She’s terrific as Ellen Aim, and to be honest, she’s never looked hotter on screen. Her and Paré are actually well-matched. Personally, I’m not a fan of Deborah Van Valkenburgh in this, I would’ve cast Adrienne Barbeau (“The Fog”) or a real-life rocker in her role, someone like Suzi Quatro, Grace Slick, or Joan Jett. As an excitable bartender, Paxton isn’t quite as impressive here as he was in “Near Dark” or “Aliens”, but he nonetheless added another memorable oddball to his collection of memorable oddball characters in his early career. He’s always a welcome presence in an 80s film, unless that film’s name is “Pass the Ammo”. As for Ed Begley Jr., his appearance and character in this are completely inexplicable. I mean...yeah...I’ve got nothing. The big standout is probably Willem Dafoe, who just looks like a freak in this. With a vampire smile, pale complexion, Flock of Seagulls hairdo, and black plastic clothes, he looks like he’s just stepped off the set of a Frankie Goes to Hollywood clip by way of “Fright Night”. I wish he was in more of the film, because his Iggy Pop meets Nosferatu act is pretty chilling and oddball.

An excellent exercise in style, this is the film “Escape From New York” should’ve been. How can you not love a film where the protagonist and antagonist go at each other with pickaxes? The action, by the way, is not terribly violent, just lots and lots of explosions and bike stunts. The opening 40 minutes are breakneck speed and high energy stuff, Hill is in full command as director here. The screenplay is by Hill and Larry Gross (“48HRS”, “True Crime”, “Prozac Nation”), favouring Hill’s usual minimalist, symbolic approach to character design. If you’re looking for a film that’s a little bit comic book and a little bit rock ‘n’ roll give this one a go. It’s unlike anything you’ve likely seen, and it’s a blast.

Rating: B+