Available on dual format Blu-Ray/DVD now.
There is an explosively graphic quality to the Friedkin’s film – bridges loom, darkrooms glow red and a printing press takes on a life of its own. Eric Masters (a lizard-like performance from Willem Dafoe) is the maestro counterfeiter bashing out $20 bills in an atmosphere full of noise and movement – it’s like Walter White’s alchemy in Breaking Bad, something with which the film has many similarities.
FBI agent Richard Chance (William Peterson), in tight jeans and Cuban heels, and with a propensity to cut corners convinces his reluctant partner (John Pankow) to conduct a risky heist in order to capture the counterfeiter. It’s a superbly stylish film that often wordlessly captures the mood and psychology of the main protagonists. Friedkin takes well-worn noir tropes like night drives, a shooting in a vacant lot, rain-lashed windows and grainy chiaroscuro and gives them fresh impetus. And, if you like car chases there’s a bobby dazzler up the wrong side of the freeway.
LA looks shabby and careworn (photographed by Robby Muller). The film has more than a touch of the Pulp Fiction about it; it’s as if Tarantino, Miami Vice and American Gigolo were put in a blender to create a luscious, moreish smoothie. The soundtrack features Brit new-wavers Wang Chung. There’s sex, violence, a whisper of homo-eroticism between Dafoe and Peterson, and a truly hellish finale that’s worth the price of this brand-new 4K restoration alone. The restoration has been made from the original 35mm negative and supervised and approved by Friedkin himself.