Year of the Dragon
by Michael Cimino
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ariane, John Lone, Leonard Termo, Mickey Rourke, Raymond J. BarryDirector: Michael Cimino
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Polish (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 134 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-05-31
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Year of the Dragon
Movie Review: "This is Chinatown, White..."
Summary: 4 Stars
Michael Cimino said part of the reason he made it Year of the Dragon was to prove that he could come in on time and on budget (which he did) after being fired from Footloose for asking for a very minor increase in the budget (can you blame them after Heaven's Gate?) and seeing The Yellow Jersey and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (a four hour western with most of the dialog in Sioux? Sure, Mr Cimino, and shall we declare bankruptcy now to save time?) fall through. Tempting fate, Cimino even cast two of the bit players from Heaven's Gate in the leads, Mickey Rourke sporting stylishly grayed hair and Caroline Kava as his ovulating wife.
Yes, the dialogue is highly variable and the epilogue ("He's a good cop but he just won't give up!") is worthy of public ridicule. Yes, the Vietnam parallels are overplayed at every opportunity ("It's just like Vietnam! Nobody wants to win this thing!"). Yes, the plot is pretty much standard-issue. Yes, co-writer Oliver Stone and Cimino show off their research by giving characters big historical speeches about Chinese civilization and the hundred years of discrimination the Chinese suffered in America at every turn. Yes, the motivation is sometimes laughable - they kill Rourke's partners and a family member but it's only when they lay hands on his mistress that he decides that "This time he's gone TOO FAR!" But there's an epic grandeur to the film that's unusual in the cop movie genre. It's not just scenes like the spectacular entry into a drug-dealing Thai general's village either: even the nightclub where Mickey Rourke beats up John Lone (quite excellent here) is large enough to hold an aircraft carrier. Cimino doesn't really do small, and his sense of grandeur gives the film a gravity it doesn't really deserve. And his eye for a good set piece that deserted his subsequent films is still very visible in the restaurant shootout. Overblown it may be, but it's far from being just a guilty pleasure.
The NTSC edition has a trailer and an audio commentary by Cimino.
Summary of Year of the Dragon
A Vietnam vet turned New York City cop vows to bring down a Chinatown crime lord.Redemption for director Michael Cimino and burgeoning stardom for actor Mickey Rourke were on the agenda when Year of the Dragon was released in 1985, and even if those things didn't quite come to pass, the result was nevertheless an entertaining, at times even compelling film. Cimino, seven years removed from his Oscar triumph The Deer Hunter and five years past the debacle that was (and still is) Heaven's Gate, made a move back into the mainstream with this violent tale about New York's Chinatown, where gangs and heroin-dealing Chinese "triads" hold sway--at least until police captain Stanley White comes on the scene, fiercely determined to put the bad guys out of business. As portrayed by Rourke, White is arrogant, boorish, and bullheaded, a thoughtless jerk who puts anyone who cares about him in mortal danger, all of which we're supposed to forgive because he served in Vietnam and is so righteously intent on doing his job. Problem is, White is almost completely unlikable, rendering his relationships with his long-suffering wife (Caroline Kava) and his TV reporter girlfriend (a wooden Ariane) implausible in the extreme. Add to that a script (by Cimino and Oliver Stone) filled with stilted, macho dialogue and a level of facile racism and sexism that would be unacceptable by new millennium standards, and you've got a tough sell. Still, Cimino knows how to direct the action sequences, and he's able to sustain a good level of tension as the story builds toward its inevitable confrontation between White and young crime lord Joey Tai (John Lone, channeling Al Pacino in The Godfather: Part II). And the aftermath? Cimino made only four movies in the ensuing twenty years, none of them exactly blockbusters, while Rourke sank into a self-inflicted oblivion from which he has yet to recover. Not exactly the hoped-for outcome, but neither of them should be ashamed to have Year of the Dragon on his resume. --Sam Graham
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