This one’s about a rookie NYC cop, Megan Turner (Jamie Lee
Curtis (True Lies, Virus)), that
stops a robbery and blows Tom Sizemore (in his film debut) away on her first
day. Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver (Timecop, The Arrival)) was there to
witness it and decides to take the bad guy’s gun after he drops it. Eugene then goes on a killing spree with it
because you know, he’s insane. He’s also
kind of obsessed with Megan and shows his affection by scratching her name on
the bullet casings that he uses to murder people.
This is one of those movies where the less you know the
better it’ll be. For the first half or
so it seems kinda typical and you know where things are headed but then it
totally changes direction. And then
after that you think you know how things will unfold but again it veers down a
stray path. This picture keeps you on
your toes and I like that. What starts
out as an orderly and seemingly predictable film devolves into total chaos.
The reason why I checked this out is because it was directed
by Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker,
Point Break) and I’m a fan of some of her work. This was done in between Near Dark and Point Break,
right in the butter zone for a not great but potentially very interesting piece
of cinema. And actually I think this one
is kind of great.
Jamie Lee Curtis is pretty good in this and was a nice
choice because she’s not supposed to be a cop exactly. The story takes place over her first couple
of weeks on the force so she hasn’t become this hard boiled callous
person. She’s still new to the job and
hasn’t experienced a lick of action.
Curtis feels right because she’s not totally girly or totally macho. She’s believable as a regular person who
wants to be a cop.
But when it comes down to it this is Ron Silver’s show. I haven’t seen him in very many movies but
does he always play a creepy asshole? He
sure is good at it. I like that they
made sure we get that he’s a fucking lunatic but at the same time I also dig
that they left things vague. We don’t
delve into Eugene’s psyche or are told what his overall plan is. And I think that’s because he doesn’t know
himself. This guy’s just making it up as
he becomes more and more unstable.
The look of this one is very 90’s Tony Scott-esque (which is
good). There are lots of beams of light
shooting in from windows that turn rooms into these shadowy smoky spaces. Manhattan feels grimy and seedy. It’s shot well too, especially Bigelow’s superb
use of slow motion (a trademark for her).
When the guns are fired it’s so awesome because they sound like fucking
cannons that have a ton of firepower behind them. I liked the opening credits with close ups of
a gun (a .44 or .38 or something that has only six chambers, I don’t know dick
about guns) in blue lighting set to a very minimalist score. The end credits also have a cool song that’s
kinda eerie and empty.
The thing that might throw people is that this movie is
terribly segmented but I think it works because the next section is crazier
than the last and as long as you can keep that up you’re good. This is more how I thought Red State was going to feel because
Kevin Smith said that when he wrote it he purposely jumped to something totally
different when he felt the audience knew where he was taking the story. But I thought that film flowed pretty
naturally and worked real well. Sure you’re
in a completely different spot at the end from where you started but how you
got there makes sense. It’s a fun flick
that I recommend by the way. With Blue Steel all of the scenes in the second
half are like separate ideas unto themselves. It feels like Bigelow (who co-wrote this) wanted
to change the direction of the story and the type of movie it was on a daily
basis. That sounds like it should be a
fucking disaster but like I said this actually works and keeps things fresh.
There were so many times when I thought the film was going
to end but it just kept going. I got
excited when it didn’t because I wanted to see what dark alley it was going to
take me down next. I had a lot of fun
with this picture. It just needs a
better title than the generic Blue Steel.
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