Made back-to-back with The Outsiders, from the same novelist S.E. Hinton (who in this one cameos as a prostitute) - she co-wrote. Both films were made in Oklahoma. Matt Dillon takes the lead, with Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane, Dennis Hopper, Diana Scarwid (stoned teacher, Inside Moves), Vincent Spano, Nicolas Cage, Chris Penn, Larry Fishburne, Tom Waits, Sofia Coppola (Lane's sister, billed as 'Domino').
It comes across like an Orson Welles film for the eighties, Touch of Evil in tone (though in later, night city sequences, Fellini). It's a staggering film in which you can frequently preserve the image as art. But the sound design by Richard Beggs is also amazing, e.g. the scene where they frequent the lively black area of town and there's a moment where the sound is replaced by different sound - I think the sound of the family home.
The style threatens to submerge the story, which is quite slim. But sequences like the fight to flickering lights and birds are outstanding.
The (outstanding) photographer is Stephen Burum (not a single award or nomination). Editor Barry Malkin. Percussive score courtesy Stewart Copeland.
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| Symbolic clocks run throughout the picture - time is running out? |
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| In this amazing interview, Diane reveals she debuted on stage aged six in Medea - in Greek! |
There's even a touch of Soy Cuba to it, though it can't have been on Coppola's radar as it was not shown in the US until 1992 (Telluride). He and Scorsese helped to revive it.
So, it's exhaustingly beautiful, and slightly annoying, but unquestionably a remarkable film.
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