Lethal Weapon (1987 Richard Donner)

Donner is not related to British director Clive Donner.

Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitch Ryan, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love (Mrs Murtaugh) Traci Wolfe (Rianne).

After Glorious 39 I argued the only way I could top it was with Colonel Blimp on Blu-Ray, but it was not to be. This came up instead as a real tangent, but I'd happily argue for it in my top 100 (this, not the lamentable sequels). From the brief period when Mel was cool. It's his best film as a man on the edge who is humanised by his friendship with a fellow cop. (Which other thrillers deal with attempted suicide quite so forcefully?) It's very well written by Shane Black, but he didn't write anything better, making me wonder if Donner didn't contribute uncredited (and some of the wisecracks sound ad-libbed).

The whole story's in this one shot.

The Director's Cut has seven good additional minutes, including a sniper shooting kids at school (the first time we saw this version on 16 December 2012 was just after the Connecticutt school shooting), though I can see why this originally may have been left out as it perhaps makes Riggs too much like Dirty Harry too quickly. There's also a sweet moment where he picks up a hooker just to have some company watching The Three Stooges (who are also referenced in the drug deal Christmas tree sequence).

I think Donner was good at directing kids. There are great scenes with the Murtaugh family at dinner (requiring I wonder how many takes), and with these witnesses to an exploding house ("Do it again!"):

"Is it true cops shoot black men?" Murtaugh has no answer for that one.

 

Stephen Goldblatt is responsible for the Christmas lights gloss of the film. And Stuart Baird is behind the brilliant editing, notable right from that spectacular death dive at the outset, which was filmed for real. Jackie Swanson did the dive into an airbag painted to look like a car. It was arranged by Dar Robinson who was killed after filming ended, and to who the film is dedicated (his debut was doubling for Steve McQueen in Papillon). The final fight between Riggs and Joshua is almost impressionistic in its lights and cutting:

Memorable music by Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen.