Night Moves
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Movie Reviews of Night Moves
Movie Review: excellent
Summary: 4 Stars
Poor Harry Mosby, retired Oakland Raider turned detective. His father left him when he was a little kid. All these years later, he finds out his wife is cheating.
To get away from family problems, he flies from Los Angeles to Florida to look for the missing teen daughter of a haggard Hollywood starlet. He finds the permiscuous girl, has an affair with the women taking care of her, and meanwhile, uncovers a smuggling ring.
All of this is done in Night Moves 70s style. Fimled in 1973, the dialouge in the film has the sharp, hip momentum. Sex is now out in the open, and the middle class is absorbing a new cultural attitude. Even the straight charactors do and they say things that they never would have in 1969. Watergate was in full swing. People knew the rules had changed, and were not changing back.
If your into period style, yes, everybody is walking around with thick moustaches, sideburns, turtlenecks and blazers. Going one better, the entire score of the film is done on a Fender Rhodes electric panio.
But it is Gene Hackman's Mosby who makes Night Moves. He is a gentle giant. He only strikes when attacked, shown by his refusal to hit his wife's lover, or her when she is unrepentant about her daliance. The teenage girl he is looking for, and locates, comes on to him, but he does not accept her advances. He, however, does give her fatherly comfort when she has a nightmare. The hurt kid in Mosby connects with the hurt kid he finds.
Mosby is smart, and knows deep down that he is capable of more than the work he does. But he is trapped by a relentless impulse to track people down--people who he displaces for his father.He is always intent on the truth, except when it comes to facing his emotions. When he gets to the bottom of things, he never likes what he discovers. His behvaior reveals his sweet,wounded character.
Hackman is perfect at this and the rest of the cast are also perfect. But the film isn't. The most dynamic drama in Night Moves occurs in LA, particually between Harry and his wife. His sojurn to Florida changes the visual and dramatic texture of the film. The sequence there is long, and the screws of the film loosen just when they should tighten. Keeping the action close to home would have been a plausealbe option--who said the missing girl had to be across the country? It would have been more dramatic to keep all the events of the film in a small space, and keep the tention between the Mosbys cooking.
Still, this has some great acting and works as a period piece. Well worth seeing.
Movie Review: '70s Noir
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a relatively unknown film noir from the mid '70s, starring Gene Hackman as a former football player turned private eye who is obsessed by a chess game from the '20s, where one of the players missed a forced mate, and lost instead. He's hired by a wealthy former hollywood starlet to track down her daughter, which takes him to some of the seedier parts of the Florida Keys you'll ever see on film.
As is common in other noirs, just about everyone in this film is corrupt, even including Hackman's character himself, to a certain point. As noted by another reviewer, this movie will remind many of 'Chinatown'. In the end, just about everyone loses.
I have a copy of this on VHS, and I bought the DVD for the widescreen. I was impressed by the image quality of the DVD -- it's a little grainy, but overall, quite high quality. I don't think anyone's going to be very disappointed by the transfer, considering it's a mid '70s film. The only extras are some trailers, and a sort of short documentary on the director.
Hackman is terrific in this, as he is in most of his other films. He can play genial one moment, and a moment later play cynical and tough. It's too bad he didn't get another opportunity at another role like this. Unfortunately, they don't really make films like this anymore.
Movie Review: Sam Spade in the 70's.
Summary: 4 Stars
Harry is a private detective, that dying breed of men romantically personified in the great film Noir's of the 1940's. But the days of film Noir are long past. "Real Men" have been replaced by "sensitive" guys in touch with their feelings who watch Eric Rohmer films. "I saw a Rohmer film once; it was kind of like watching paint dry." But the romantic illusion of the private eye is becoming difficult to maintain as his assignments are becoming more and more benign, like his latest gig: tracking down the 16 year old daughter of an aging movie actress. On the home front, Harry's life is unraveling when he finds out that his wife if having an affair with one of those "sensitive" types. When he confronts the man in the old school manner he is mocked "Take a swing at me Harry the way Sam spade would." Harry is haunted by the defeat of the reigning chess champion from the 1920's who lost when the challenger surprised him with three Knight moves. He was never able to overcome the loss. Not wanting to fall into the same trap, Harry replays the game again and again but just when he thinks he's got it all figured out, he realizes he's only been going in circles. He's been trying to solve the same mystery his entire carreer but never understood the assignment: Who's Harry Moseby?Movie Review: Definitely an overlooked movie...
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie turned out to be a pleasant surprise, but it took a few watches for me to get to feel that way. Gene Hackman plays a private eye who is under utilized in his career (he plays an ex-Oakland Raider in the movie) and is also in the middle of discovering that his marriage is falling apart. (I thought it was interesting how Hackman used his private eye skills to spy on his wife while she was cheating on him.) Hackman's character accepts a seemingly open and shut runaway case (to bring home Melanie Griffith's character) that is nowhere near as simple as it seems. The plot line takes so many twists and turns it does get confusing, but it never gets boring. Overall, I thought Gene Hackman did a great job in this movie, and there were also good performances from the supporting cast. It was fun to see Melanie Griffith and James Woods so early in their careers too. The DVD was worth buying and also has footage on the making of the film.Movie Review: 'New Hollywood Noir'
Summary: 4 Stars
Edgy, intricate, involving.. but ending like a noir film does. If you can forgive it that it's a pretty decent film. And come to think of it, it has kind of a 'New Hollywood' vibe as well, i.e. early 70s film which often seem more decadently concerned with the artistic value of a film over its box office potential.
Actually Night Moves is from '75, but this era of film-making and noir in general seem to have been made for each other.
Good performances, and good screenplay writing. The story location's are all over the map but it works. I found the plot interesting as well.. but uh, do pay attention. Gene's in his prime, looking a little like David Crosby. Finally, the ending, while perhaps not initially satisfying on a visceral level, is on reflection very aptly symbolic for its character and the times in general. A stroke of genius unrecognized but hindsight is 20/20. Not a bad film at all.