To Live and Die in L.A.
To Live and Die in L.A. was written and directed by Friedkin in 1985. It is
based upon a novel written by Gerald Petievich, who was a United States Secret
Service Special from 1970 through 1985(petievich.com) and was co screenwriter
for the film. Friedkin is probably best known for directing The Exorcist and
The French Connection. The main characters are played by William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow, and Debra Feuer, john Turturro, and dean
stock well. It also had famed stunt coordinator buddy Joe hooker. The music for
the film and the original soundtrack was composed by Wang Chung.
The Plot:
This film is a neo-noir tale that
follows similar plot themes, devices, and visual elements of film noir from the
1940s and 50s. The characters in these movies are usually conflicted antiheroes
who become trapped in some kind of situation. They end up making choices out of
shear desperation and a loss of morality, all leading to a tragic and dark
conclusion. The main female character is often bad and referred to as the femme
fatale. In traditional noir the lighting is dark and there is a strong use of
shadows. The traditional structure involves low camera angles and other
specific shots. They often use voiceovers, flashbacks, and have complicated
storylines.
A central theme to the film is about
how far someone is willing to go for revenge. Two secret service agents (Richard Chance and Jimmy Hart) are working on busting a large counterfeit money scheme run
by Rick(played by Willem Dafoe). One is close to retirement and the other is a
loose cannon (sounds very similar to lethal weapon there). The older agent Hart
(played by Michael Greene) goes to investigate a building on his own and ends
up being murdered. The loose cannon Chance (played by William Peterson) will
now do anything in order to get revenge for his murdered partner, even break
the rules. One problem, he’s been assigned a new partner, John Vukovich (played
by John Pankow), to assist. Add to the mix Ruth (played by Darlanne Fluegel),
the lover and snitch working for Chance. And Bianca (played by Bianca Torres),
the lover and assistant to Rick. The
loose cannon gets his new partner in some bad situations to where he cannot
walk away, and has no choice but to see things through to the end. It’s a
counterfeit world, with counterfeit relationships that these characters live
in.
Description
In the films directors’ commentary,
Friedkin said that a script is made flesh by the actors [1] .
This is very true in this movie. The casting was really spot on. The actors
truly became the characters that they were playing, which is one of the things
that stands out for me in this film. The Casting Director was Bob Weiner and he
had extensive knowledge of actors around the world and had helped with casting
the French Connection with Roy Scheider and other actors. Friedkin brought
Weiner back to do this film because of the similarities to the two. Friedkin
wanted to bring in relatively unknown actors because he preferred to do that
and also because of budget constraints. They had a $6 million dollar budget
which was low for studio standards [1] .
William Peterson (Richard Chance): Friedkin and Weiner both flew to Toronto to watch
Peterson perform a streetcar Named
Desire. They were both impressed with the fact that he didn’t try to just
do an imitation of Brando in the play. They found him to look unusual but still
have a sexual presence. He was a cowboy, an athlete, and an actor. He never had
to perform any screen tests and was cast right away. He was considered to be
pretty athletic. There was a foot chase planned in the L.A. airport. The
airport had made many restrictions, requesting that they use extras and that
Peterson was to stay off the rails. But William said that he could do it and he
did almost all of the stunts in the movie. The airport officials freaked out
and they almost couldn’t finish filming there [1] .
The
character Richard Chance is a thrill seeker who is constantly pushing himself,
looking for the next dangerous high. In the DVD documentary Counterfeit World, Peterson says that
his character is “above the law and above life and death” [1] . His partner Jeff
Rice, whose a few days to retire, can see it. He’s also somewhat of a bad guy
to begin with, using Ruth for sex and information. The death of his partner
pushes him over the edge and he’s willing do anything to catch or kill Masters.
With the death of Rice, we see Chance continue to go into a deeper darker path
as he bypasses the law for revenge.
William
Peterson has a great natural presence and intensity. He was simply made for
this part. Another actor could have replaced him, but it just wouldn’t have
been the same. He was also excellent in Manhunter.
Unfortunately, since both movies didn’t gross well he didn’t really get the
chance to become a big star.
Willem Dafoe (Rick Masters): The Casting Director, Bob Weiner, suggested casting
Dafoe for this role after he had seen him perform at the experimental theater
company The Wooster Group. He had done a couple of films and was still
relatively unknown, which are cult movies now. Friedkin said on the DVD
commentary that his process for casting is mainly to go on instinct [2] .
Masters
character was a counterfeiter with his cover being that of an artist. Friedkin
brought in German Expressionist painter Rainer Fetting to provide paintings in
the title sequence and later in the movie, Dafoe also studied the artist and
his process for the film. In one scene, Masters burned a canvas that was
actually one of Fetters that he made for the movie. Masters is cool throughout the whole movie
showing no emotion, even if he’s mad about a specific situation. Zen was what
Friedkin told to Masters to keep calm external [2] .
He is also a voyeur. He looks at things, evaluating. His most important feature
is his eyes [2] .
Masters is also kinkier in the movie than in the book, Friedkin wanted him to
have an ambisexuality quality [2] .
Despite his external coolness, internally he is both tempting and seeking
death. He wants to burn. Dafoe as an actor reminiscent at times of Klaus
Kinski; I could envision him having been able to take on this role.
John Pankow (John Vukovich): Peterson was also the one to suggest John Pankow for
the character of Vukovich [2] . Pankow and Peterson
both spent time together going out with police and Secret Service Agents along
with Friedkin. Friedkin wanted to get them to adopt their behavior and have a
sense of their personal, private lives and attitudes [2] .
Vukovich
is Chance’s new partner and he is the only truly moral person at the start of
this film. He’s heavily influenced by his family history of his father and
uncle being law officers. This family history gets him caught up in loyalty to
his partner and justice. At one point, Chance steels evidence from a crime
scene. Vukovich disagrees but can’t turn in his partner because of loyalty;
this is the point where he sees Chance as psychotic and willing to do anything [2] . He’s been seduced
and can’t turn away and ends up compromising for the rest of the film. Despite
all of this and without revealing any important plot points, Vukovich has the
largest arc for any of the characters.
John Turturro (Carl Cody). Turturro is employed by Masters to run his counterfeit
money. He was cast because he has a strange look to him. The Casting Director
said that he thought he looked like Peter Lorre, known for among other films The Maltese Falcon [2] . Friedkin said
on the DVD commentary that Turturro had basically created that character and
his voice, and also focused on looking into the eyes of the other actor. He
also improvised a lot of the dialogue [2] . There is an
excellent scene between him and Masters in jails visiting room.
The
female characters don’t get as much attention, but they play the form of
contemporary femme fatales and somewhat end up the winners in this sad tale.
Ruth Lanier is using Chance for money and to avoid prison time. Bianca Torres
is using Masters for all of his money. If something happens to him, she stands
to gain a lot.
Technical Analysis
In the DVD commentary,
Friedkin said that he likes to play the movies out as unpredictable. He wants
the viewer to discover what’s going to happen and not have it just explained to
him. He says that he values the ironic and unpredictable and referenced
directors Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman. He wants to show the true nature of
the characters and isn’t concerned with back stories like other directors. He
was also very practical with his style, shooting scenes very quickly and often
using the first take. Friedkin didn’t believe in rehearsal, often when he said
it was a rehearsal the camera was rolling and the scene was used. In the DVD
extra Counterfeit World, Peterson
discusses a bar scene that he thought was a rehearsal and it ended it up being
the take being used in the film [1] . He also didn’t
employ storyboards; he would just come in with a plan for each day. This is an
interesting look into the style of directing and filmmaking that the director
employs, sometimes you get something better when the actor is just being.
Friedkin had heard Wang Chung and liked their unique
sound and lyrics, finding them to be sensual and evocative. They are from
Europe, but there was just something about their music and its mood that fit
with what he was looking for. He asked them to be involved before there was
even a script. Once they had a script ready, he gave it to them and told them
to go ahead and write and do it freeform with a long stretch of track. The
musicians never saw the film by the time they had scored and composed the film.
The opening theme song originally was not supposed to have any lyrics, they
still recorded a song and it was using [2] .
The opening presidential sequence was shot after the film had already
been cut. Friedkin wanted to show the surrealist nature of the life of a Secret
Service Agent, going from protecting the President to hunting down
counterfeiters the next day [2] .
A Louma crane,
from France, was used for a bridge scene where there is an overhead shot of
Peterson jumping off the bridge. Friedkin stated that this was the first time
that this particular crane had been used in a movie. It was used several other
times during the making of the movie.
Friedkin was very concerned with making the counterfeiting
scenes look authentic, so Gerald brought in a con to consult on this portion of
the film. He helped teach Dafoe and the others the process and was in some of
the close ups of the counterfeit montage [2] . They were all
scared of what may happen legally because they were printing money, around a
million dollars worth [1] . Most of it was one
sided $20s. A couple of kids of the crew actually got hold of some of the fake
bills and tried to spend them. The Secret Service, Treasury Department, and
U.S. Attorney all got involved at various points, but in the end the crew ended
up not getting into any legal trouble [2] .
There is an excellent dance scene in the film that really
stands out and incredibly mixes Kabuki Theater and a Matisse painting. Lesli
Linka Glader was the choreographer for the film. She had experience with
classical dance and Kabuki, being the first female to perform as a male samurai
dancer in 1980 [3] . The clothing in the
movie replicates the colors of the well known Matisse painting La Dance, while the dancers where Kabuki
style face makeup. The choreography that Glader created utilized the Matisse
robes while being Kabuki based [1] . The combination of
the dancing and the kabuki makeup created some great visuals.
There is also a good fight scene involving four people.
There’s also a couple of other action related scenes where there is some combat
involved. The stunt coordinator for the film was Pat E. Johnson, who is a 9th
degree black belt in the art of American Tang Soo Do [4] . Pat is well known
in the martial arts world. He was captain of Chuck Norris’ black belt
competition team from 1968 to 1973 [4] . He also was a
stuntman in several Hong Kong cinema films, including Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon [5] . Friedkin wanted
the action to look like a real impromptu brawl using any available objects,
specifically the one inside of the room [1] .I think they pulled
it off, there definitely that feeling that this could be real.
There are some very good special effects involving blood.
Without spoiling anything important in the film, the crew employed some
innovative and I believe knew technique to get the effect that they were
looking for. There were also two fire scenes involved in the movie. Also
without spoiling anything big, it created a nice contrast in the scenes.
The cinematography is an important part of why this film
is great. Famed cinematographer Robby Muller, known for working with famed
directors Win Wenders and Jim Jarmusch, worked on this film [6] . He uses his
European sensibility of sticking with simplicity, using natural light and
trying to avoid zooms [6] . He also tries to
avoid making cuts in a scene; Friedke said that he is a master of shooting
without cutting, just find the right light and shoot it [1] .
Muller didn’t shoot the memorable car chase scene; this
was done by second unit director of photography Robert Yeoman [1] . Friedkin didn’t
necessarily want to top the French
Connection chase scene; he just wanted it to be different. Once again he
employed famed stuntman and stunt drive Buddy Joe Hooker. They had cooperation
from the city as long as they filmed on the weekend when there was less
traffic, early in the morning until 4 [1] . You don’t need a
large crew for a chase scene, because the sound can be recorded later and its shot
one at a time with multiple cameras [1] . Friedkin says that
making a chase scene is like knitting, “knit one and purl 2,” you have to be
open to the unexpected and try to weave it into the sequence. [1] . Multiple cars were
added to chase Chance and Vukovich to create a feeling of Kafkaesque paranoia [1] . The scene where
they go down the wrong way of traffic had never been done before, but Hooker
was able to come up with a way to do it [1] .
This is a one of the greatest film chases and there are many arguments on the
internet that say that it is the best one ever.
Conclusion
This is a counterfeit world that we are observing and
like a true noir film there is no one that is truly morally just. The line
between being good and evil is very thin. The cops and criminals are all very
similar; there is just that imaginary line that we all may cross. In the end,
this movie is worth seeing for the story, excellent ensemble acting, and the
historical car chase scene.
