There's a competition running at the moment asking us what our favourite action movie is. Whilst I'm struggling to decide, I've started going back through the list of some of my favourites - many of them from the 80's and 90's. As always, the big names of the action genre come to mind, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Sylvester Stallone, Milla Jovovich and Bruce Willis (just off the top of my head) followed by Sigourney Weaver, Jason Statham, and Harrison Ford, the list goes on...
Whilst there are so many of their films to choose from for that competition, I found myself completely side-tracked by a lesser known film that Sylvester Stallone was in at the beginning of the 1980's called Nighthawks - trailer link here:
Now at this time, Stallone had already made Rocky and Rocky II, and was filming First Blood, so his status as action star was well on the rise. This film was a thriller, a slow burner that got you thinking. Billy Dee Williams is his partner, and the bad guy they are chasing is a terrorist played by Rutger Hauer (most people recognise Hauer from Blade Runner, but he always credits this film as bringing him to the attention of Hollywood)
The premise of this film is that an ATAC Response Group (Anti Terrorism Alert Centre) has been set up in New York in an attempt to apprehend a dangerous terrorist known as Wulfgar. Two highly specialised cops - played by Stallone, and Billy Dee Williams - are seconded into this task force, and it doesn't sit at all well with Stallone's character, and he openly chafes at it, right from the beginning.
For me, Rutger Hauer steals the film. He thoroughly embodies the role of the bad guy, and is unapologetically fantastic at it (to be honest, the only other actor I've seen own a role so well as this is Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber in Die Hard) He creates and delivers a real sense of menace throughout the film, one that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when you are wondering what awful thing he is going to do next.
Apart from the fantastic performance by Hauer, what I like so much about it is the performance from Stallone. It's different to his bigger roles, he's conflicted by what is going on, but he has the skills to get the job done - and done well - if he would only get out of his own way. By that I mean this, it seems that if had joined the task force by choice, it would have been a far easier transition, as it is, it's a difficult journey.
Over time, his character starts to understand the level of profiling that they are doing, and he starts to get a feel for what these terrorists are looking to do. His character development is one we see a lot of nowadays in shows that look at FBI Profilers into serial killers and arsonists. He has to get inside the mind of this terrorist as it's the only way to get one step ahead of him and stop him for good. Can he do this before more people are killed?
I'm going to stop there, as I'm not one to put spoilers into a review, even if it's a film that's 40 years old!
My advice is to you is to watch it, and I hope you will see what I mean.
Thank you all, and enjoy!
Annabelle 馃槉
