1982 - 48 HOURS, a buddy cop film

 A big financially successful film for Paramount and director/co-writer Walter Hill.  Also, probably one of the more impersonal films that this director has made. Since there are no original plots anymore, 48 Hours is the old opposite personalities forced to be partners.  Eventually they  begin to show a grudging respect for each other as the story progresses etc.  In this case Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy are a respectively a cop and a con man who team up to find a bad guy running around shooting people.

This was the breakout film for Eddie Murphy and propelled him to the top of the heap until has career crashed with Beverly Hills Cop III.  Still for much of the 198o's he was big stuff as a movie star.  Nick Nolte had been working in film for a while until he kind of crashed and burned with a variety of personal issues.  Third billed Annette O'Toole a very good actor got stuck with the part of the sexy girlfriend who's kind of a bitch, she's probably in about 3 or 4 scenes.

 

This is a very macho piece of film.  Women are relegated to running around topless and playing prostitutes. The guys all run around talking really tough.  It's very much a boy's club in this film which really dates it.  In some ways the attitudes in the film are even more out of it than a 1940's crime drama.

 

48 Hours did give Walter Hill commercial respect for a while but this is really not one of his more interesting films.  However no one could stage a gun fight or a fist fight like Hill probably the chief reason to even watch this film.

The film had a lot of writers,  Roger Spottiswoode, Walter Hill, Larry Gross and  Steven E. de Souza all professionals at writing this kind of Hollywood action stuff.  The running time is 96 minues.

2006 - BROKEN TRAIL, good TV mini series

The 3rd in Robert Duvall's old codger western film series, preceded by Lonesome Dove and Open Range.  If Duvall is still playing Gus McCrae from Lonesome Dove,  he plays the character very well.

The story is about two cowboys driving a herd of horses up to Canada for sale to the British Army.  Along the way the rescue 5 Chinese girls who have been sold into prostitution The remainder of the mini series is about their encounters with a tough gang of outlaws determined to get the girls back.

 

The film was directed by Walter Hill who is probably one of the few remaining filmmakers to have a real feeling for the old west.  The film was shot on beautiful Alberta Canada locations.  This is an example of a high quality television product made by very talented people.

 The writer was  Alan Geoffrion, the film runs 184 minutes. Duvall was one of the producers.

1993 - GERONIMO AN AMERICAN LEGEND, another farewell to the western film

Walter Hill kept trying to keep the western genre film alive after it had probably died off in the 1970's for the most part.  The film is based on the events that led to the surrender of Native American Chief Geronimo to the United States Army.

The film's emphasis is on one of the Army's  Lieutenants, Charles Gatewood  a real life character who actually persuaded Geronimo to surrender to the United States government.

 

As with all Walter Hill films, this is meticulously made and has a very good cast which includes Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Jason Patric and Matt Damon in a very early role in his career.  

 

The film has a real feel for the American Southwest.  It was written by John Milius and Larry Gross, the running time is 115 minutes.

1978 - THE DRIVER, excellent car chase film

Crapped on by about every major critic at the time of release and ignored by the audience.  This is one of writer/director Walter Hill's best films.

 

The action scenes are excellent, the car chases are real.  None of the characters have names.  Ryan O'Neal (who's pretty damn good) is "The Driver."  Bruce Dern is "The Detective."  Isabelle Adjani is "The Player."

 

The film is styled in it's presentation to put it mildly. Clearly a big influence on Nicholas Winding Refin's The Drive and Edgar Wright's Baby Driver.

 

The film runs a fast paced 91 minutes.

1988 - RED HEAT, strictly by the books action flick

 I don't know what went wrong with this film but it sure isn't anything special.  Writer/director Walter Hill teamed up with Arnold Schwarzenegger with another one of those "fish out of water" action movies that they should have been able to shoot in their sleep.  

Maybe that was the problem, the characters, the Chicago settings and even the action stuff are all kind of boring.  Maybe they did shoot it in their sleep.

Since Hill was the driving force behind the film I guess he ultimately should have the responsibility for the lack of imagination that runs throughout the film.

Running time 103 minutes.

1980 - THE LONG RIDERS, late period Western film.

 The director Walter Hill single highhandedly tried to keep the Western film alive long after the genre died out.  This is his version of the Jesse James/Cole Younger saga.  As with just about every film Hill was involved in the story has his usual meticulous care with the story and the staging of the action elements.

The big news in this film was the casting of the James/Younger gang with actors who were all brothers in real life.  Consequently you get the Carradine brothers, the Keach brothers, the Quaid brothers and the Guest brothers as the famous (notorious) outlaw gang.  

The Keach brothers were the primary instigators of the film.  They produced and developed the story.

The Keach brothers also take a writing credit along with Bill Bryden and  Steven Phillip Smith.  The film runs 99 minutes.

1992 - TRESPASS, a tough acion movie.

A hard nosed action thriller about the search for gold in East St. Louis.  Two firemen from Arkansas have a map of gold icons from a church that were stolen and hidden in a warehouse.  The firemen decide to find it but run into a very tough street gang led by a guy names King James.  The film becomes an extended siege as the gang takes on the firemen now locked inside a warehouse with the gold.

 The film has very good direction from Walter Hill who knows how to stage an action scenes for maximum  impact.  The script was written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale before their Back To The Future series.

 

Trespass is probably not a date night film, but if you're looking for a hard nosed tough guy film this is the one for you.

The film has lots of clever plot twists and runs a tight 101 minutes without any padding in the story.

1979 - THE WARRIORS, on Blu Ray

The Warriors was always sort of a cartoon of a film to begin with. However Walter Hill,  the director decided for the Blu Ray release to make a director's cut of the film.

He didn't add new scenes.  Instead he got the brilliant idea to add comic book panes to many of the scenes.  I suppose this was an attempt to emphasize the graphic/comic art nature of the film.  In any case his need to fool around with his film actually kind of cheapens it.  The comic book pictures just make the film look kind of silly on the Blu Ray.

If possible it's probably best to stick with a DVD of the original cut of the film.  A great film messed up by a filmmaker who should have known better.

93 minutes, written by David Shaber and Walter Hill.

1984 - STREETS OF FIRE, a rock and roll fable.

The writer/director Walter Hill shoved everything he thought was cool about 50's films into this film.  Streets of Fire has evil bike gangs, greasers and a cool score by Ry Cooder. 

Diane Lane is supposed to be some tough singer chick maybe a Joan Jett type but she's just a Southern California girl playing dress up.  Michael Pare's a tough solider of fortune but he couldn't pass muster in the West Side Story Jets.  Rick Moranis is the fast talking producer but he's not even up to the standard of one of his SCTV characters.

This cast of relatively unknown actors was a big fail.  Lane's an actor who has never been able to get her career to take off.   She's had a lot of opportunity in films like A Little Romance, The Cotton Club and The Outsiders but she's never made a strong enough impression in any of them.  Pare's the same deal, a pretty boy who never took off in films.  Moranis just goes to show that sketch comedians should probably stick with small comedy parts. 

The other problem with this film is the story.  Streets of Fire is a rehash of Hill's earlier film The Warriors and that film was a little weak on plot,  this one has the same problem.   Hill was good at creating the mood and the atmosphere of the film but couldn't get an interesting plot hook for the film. 

What this film has going for it is very impressive photography, it looks very good and has great atmosphere.  Hill was always a very strong director, he knows how to direct action scenes and knock them out of the park.

The failure of Streets of Fire is the story and the cast.  Audiences looking for a commercial entertainment weren't interested in a stylized tribute to the 1950's even with atmospheric photography and great action scenes.  There wasn't a single character in the film to get interested in.

93 minutes.

1981 - SOUTHERN COMFORT, Deliverence meets a Vietnam War metaphor

Manly filmmaker Walter Hill the director of such manly films such as 48 Hours, Hard Times, The Driver, The Warriors, Extreme Prejudice and Red Heat, released this little gem about some National Guard soldiers the "Weekend Warriors" training in the Louisiana Bayou.

These good old  boys get themselves into a whole heap of trouble with the local Vietcong Cajuns.  Since the film is set in 1973 the comparisons to the Vietnam experience which was still pretty fresh in every one's mind were obvious.

Hill's a get right to the point kind of filmmaker, the action scenes are tough and his male characters either measure up or they don't.  Hill doesn't have a lot of time for all that sissy female stuff when there's people to shoot or shove a knife into or slug in the face.  In the extreme world of Walter Hill you either measure up or you'll be pushing daisies.  Hill is like Howard Hawks with an overdose of testosterone, a big overdose of testosterone.

Southern Comfort's a good action film but I'm not certain what point it actually has to make about the Vietnam War.  By the time the United States pulled out of Vietnam it was pretty much assumed that we really had no business being over there and didn't exactly know what the hell we were doing there in the first place.  Then again many people in this country has been trying to rewrite the history of that war to show it in a more favorable light for years.  Southern Comfort is not really concerned with these kind of sensibilities.  

Still, this film is extremely well made and well acted.  It certainly held my interest till the end.

The on location filming in the Louisiana Bayou country in what looks to be winter or fall is pretty impressive and must have really sucked for the actors and the technicians behind the camera.

105 minutes, written by Michael Kane, Walter Hill and David Giler.