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Summary: Hallelujah! TLADILA is finally on DVD!
Review: To Live and Die in L.A. is one of the most memorable of all movies from the 80's and one of the best cop films ever made! Friedkin directed this and THE cop film of the 1970's: The French Connection. As is required in any great cop film there is the ubiquitous car chase scene. This one does not disappoint. Imagine going the wrong way on Santa Monica Blvd. AT RUSH HOUR! William Peterson (of now CSI fame) makes possibly his most marked role of the 1980's in this film. As his partner, John Pankow (of Mad About You) creates a antithesis to Peterson's character. Both play Secret Service agents on the case of a counterfeiter - Willam Dafoe. I don't want to give away more than should be, so RENT, BUY, or BORROW this film - but see it!
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Summary: If you want bread...
Review: When I purchased my copy of this DVD, the clerk remarked "We're sure selling a lot of these!" with a perplexed look. I almost said something, but after guessing his age (he was probably 8 years old in 1985), I kept mum. Those "in the know" can tell you exactly why "To Live And Die In L.A." is flying off the shelves-it is simply the best "neo noir" to ever be criminally ignored by the home entertainment industry (until now!) Essentially a remake of "The French Connection", infused with the "Greed Is Good" 80's zeitgeist, this Noir fan's wet dream is every bit as good as we remember it, addressing the cinemaste's senses on all levels: visual, aural and visceral. Perhaps most amazingly, director William Friedkin's unique use of L.A. locales remains unmatched, despite the fact that it is the most oft-filmed city on the planet. Friedkin's L.A. is painted in contrasts of dusky orange and strikingly vivid reds and blacks; an atmospheric Noir Hell. The starmaking performances by William Peterson and Willem Dafoe top off a uniformly excellent cast. Interestingly, most "professional" movie critics gave this one the 'thumbs down' back in 1985-I would challenge them to view it again, in context of the Hollywood offal in current release, and make a re-assessment. DVD notes: The stunning widescreen transfer should allay any fears fans may have had that the studio would "blow it". One disappointment: No 2-channel stereo audio option. I'm sure 5.1 is wonderful for those who can afford expensive home theater set ups, but there are still many of us who run DVD audio through conventional stereos.
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Summary: THE 80's cop film!!!
Review: This film is GREAT!!! It might feel they have ripped off all the "classic" cop films the 80's and 90's, BUT this film came out BEFORE all those films. They were the ones that got ripped off. Why they did not sue the makers of Lethal Weapon is beyond me. (They would probably win any lawsuit with a side by side comparison) William Defoe and W. Peterson are both at a high point with there preformances here.
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Summary: Excellent movie. Excellent DVD!
Review: I won't go into the movie itself. Those who have seen it know what a gem this piece is from the 80's. Gritty, real, unexpected twists. Instead, I'll go into what the "Making Of" featurette spells out, which makes this movie even better than before. What is amazing is the story behind the camera. The 30-minute featurette that accompanies this DVD really defines why this movie, it's actors and it's sets seemed so real. Because they were. No fake studios, no rehearsals, just actors playing out their real emotions and not even knowing it. William Friedkin is a master of getting what he wants on film. The feature shows how he made the actors think they were in a rehearsal take, but Friedkin would have the cameras rolling and more often than not, that would be a take with no one knowing about it until Friekdin would say, "We're done!" The whole scene where Chance and Vukovich steal the money and they finally get the guy down below the streets was supposed to be shot up until the point when Chance is about to slam the briefcase into the concrete piller. Friedkin never stopped shooting when Will Petersen started hammering the case into the wall. Having been told before by Friedkin, Petersen just went with the moment. The case bashing was not in the script and all the realism of when the case flies open finally and only a phonebook comes out was real. Petersen and Pankow didn't know what was in there. The emotions afterward of anger are real. Friedkin kept shooting because he didn't want to lose that edge that was present at that time. And you know what? It works to perfection. The scenes of Pankow white as a ghost during, what is in my honest opinion one of the best car chase scenes ever filmed, are real. The whole scene took 6 weeks to shoot and Will Petersen did a LOT of the driving, which made Pankow cringe and wonder what was going to happen next, which is why his looks of fear are real. This car chase even beats the car chase in Matrix Reloaded because there are NO digitally enhanced cars added in, especially during the wrong-way drive down the highway. It's all real and scripted by one of the best former stuntmen and now stunt coordinator, Buddy Joe Hooker. What's even more amazing is something I never noticed until it's brought to your attention in this feature: Peterson and Pankow, even though they are driving head-on towards on-coming traffic, are actually driving on the right side of the road! The cars on the other side of the median going the same direction as Peterson and Pankow are actually driving on the wrong side (left) of the freeway. It was a trick Friedkin did to generate confusion, just as you probably would have if you actually DID drive down the wrong side of the freeway! Absolutely amazing and ingenious. Even though this feature is only 30 minutes, it reveals so much of how this movie was made and covers everything. It doesn't seem too short and covers a lot of what went into making this movie. The infamous counterfeiting scene with William DaFoe? That was real conterfeit money they were making and the Secret Service DID get involved due to a crewmember's kids getting ahold of one-faced twenty dollar bills (unknowingly) and trying to buy something from the local mart. In fact, they obtained a "creative consultant" who apparently actually did some time because of his help with this movie. I'm not sure if that's a joke that the crew members were telling during the feature, but it's still amazing what lengths Friedkin went to try and make this film as real as possible. William Friedkin wants realism in his movies, and in this one, it's gritty realism right down to the bone and that's because, he shot it in real locations, with real emotions from then unknown actors (Petersen and Pankow) who were told to play by their emotions. There is even a part where Pankow explains how he was approached by an undercover cop who saw the movie a year earlier. In the scene were Vukovich is going nuts after the robbery gone bad, we see he is in a blind panic. The undercover cop stated to Pankow that he had been there and that Pankow nailed it; the emotions, the rage, the fear, everything. What better complement as an actor can you get than that? Other features include a deleted scene between Vukovich and his wife and an alternate ending (which thankfully Friedkin refused to put into the final release) where Chance and Vukovich end up in the North Pole somewhere. You can either watch the scenes without commentary or else, you can get a quick explanation before the scene to understand what was going on and why. Excellent stuff. You even get audio commentary from Friedkin himself. I haven't watched the movie with the commentary yet to see how it is, but to know it's there is great. (...) No fluff, just pure gritty realism that leaves you breathless when it's all over. Oh, and the soundtrack by Wang Chung fits perfectly here. Get the soundtrack as well. It, like the movie, puts you in a different world, but it's a world that exists and not the one Hollywood would normally want you to see LA depicted as, but it's there and it's real.
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Summary: IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A CLASSIC!!
Review: *WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD* Finally, "To Live and Die in L.A." is brought to DVD, where it belongs. A seminal action piece, this film defines the 80's decade of greed and paranoia. Sleazy Secret Service agent Richard Chance (a young William Petersen of TV's "CSI") decides early on he will stop at nothing to nab counterfeit criminal mastermind Willem Dafoe after believing Dafoe has killed his partner. This includes breaking laws, beating people up and even committing robberies!!!!!!!! Film is beautifully shot by German cinematographer Robby Meuller and given a fine techno score by Wang Chung. The acting is all first rate: from Petersen's adrenaline junkie Secret service agent, to Dafoe's evil counterfeiter, Dean Stockwell as a high-priced lawyer, and John Pankow as Petersen's anxiety-ridden partner, everyone does an excellent job. The real kudos go to director William Friedkin, who really delves into the world of Los Angeles. The gutters, the back alleys, the freeways, the cheap suburban homes. The movie just reeks of authenticity. Friedkin got everything absolutely right about the atmosphere. He absolutely nails Los Angeles in a way few other directors have. I am very glad "To Live and Die in L.A." is finally coming out on DVD. It is probably the best action film of the eighties. A brilliant, at times almost expressionistic film about greed, rage, and MONEY. SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Summary: The wrong place at the wrong time.... Until now.
Review: Undoubtedly _the_ defining film of the 1980s. It's all here - the greed, the corruption, the double-crossing... If you've forgotten what it was like to live through those times, or you weren't there and you've been brought up on vicarious retro-memories and have a romanticised view of it, here is the nature of that decade stripped bare: A criminal who "makes a mockery out of the whole god-damn system", a law-enforcer who disregards the rules, breaks the law and siphons off the funny-money that he's supposed to be destroying in order to support his own lifestyle, and a legal system that's ham-strung by dogmatic procedure on one side and sleazy lawyers on the other.
It's just a shame that the public wasn't prepared to stomach such a realistic depiction of the world at the time. Even though I live in England, my copy of the Region 1-only DVD has arrived (before the official US release date too) and all I can say is 'Hallelujah'! It's every bit as good as we all remember. It hasn't been panned and scanned, it's got interviews with Friedkin, Petersen, Pankow and the technicians and a hilarious alternate ending which is guaranteed to make you cringe. There's only one deleted scene included, and that's unfortunately pretty poor quality (from a well-worn videotape, by the looks of it) but there's enough background to the shooting of the film in the documentary to make up for it. Well, almost... Trouble is, when you see some of the footage during the doc that didn't make it into the final cut you wonder whether there could have been a longer version - the original always seemed as if it had been trimmed quite a bit and the tantalising behind-the-scenes stuff that we see just whets the appetite for more that isn't available. Ah well, it's here now and we should be grateful. Also, we can at last Exorcise our memories of how To Live and Die in L.A. didn't become a hit on its release, yet about a year later Lethal Weapon became a massive one. But then, nobody ever lost money by underestimating the taste of the public, did they?
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Summary: Awesome!!
Review: Best underrated flick of all times!! Buy this one, you won't regret it!
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Summary: It's About Time This Flick Made it to DVD!!
Review: I've been waiting for this one for a long time! Near the top of MY all-time-movies list and the features promised in the ad for the release of this DVD sound great. Just have to wait another week or so (since I'm writing this on 20 Nov 03).
The "5 Star" rating is based on the movie and I'm sure that the DVD will still rate a full FIVE!
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Summary: must-see-dvd!
Review: one of the best movies from the 80's with now hugely famous people! great soundtrack as well. still my favorite movie today as it was 15 years ago when i saw it on big screen like 10 times.
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Summary: It is about time!!! GREAT MOVIE
Review: Richard Chance ( William Petersen), is a member of the Secret Service who loves to live on the edge, and play by his own rules. Eric Masters ( Willem Dafoe) is a master at creating counterfiet cash, and is at the top of the agency's most wanted list for killing Chance's long time partner. Now Chance is willing to do whatever it takes to take Masters down, and the line between cop and criminal is starting to run thin. Both Chance and Masters waver on both sides of the law, as they take us on a cat and mouse chase through the streets of L.A. that is extremely suspenseful and never lets up! "To Live and Die in L.A.", has to be one of the most suspenseful and action packed crime films that I have ever seen. Director William Friedkin is best known for the films "French Connection" and "The Exorcist". However, this has to be his best film. This is the first crime film that I have ever seen, that deals solely with the Secret Service, and NOT the FBI, CIA, or the police. That alone, makes it original. Not to mention the fact, that this is the only crime film, where the hero of the story has traits of a villan and is vulnerable. Some of Petersen's actions are actually questionable. William Petersen is an outstanding actor , and I have enjoyed all of his films. Secret Serive Agent Richard Chance, is one of his best characters by far because he loves to live on the edge, and plays by his own rules. Willem Dafoe is amazing in everything he does, and Eric Masters is one of his best roles. Masters is the story's villan, who is cold, calculating, highly intelligent, charming, and extremely ruthless! You don't know whether to like the guy, or hate the guy. John Turturo and Dean Stockwell are also both outstanding in their roles. This film also has one of the most surprising and disturbing endings that I have ever seen. The soundtrack is also amazing. It is basically a Wang Chung's Greatest Hits CD. Wang Chung is one of the best 80's groups of all time. Every song used is perfect, and really drives each scene. In my opinion, it will be extremely difficult to find a crime film better than this one. Everything about it is perfect. The story is EXTREMELY original, the acting is phenomenal, the overall suspense will keep you on the edge of your seat, and the soundtrack is amazing. All I can say, is that it about time that this film was released on DVD. An absolute must buy!!
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