To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
Directed by William Friedkin
When his longtime partner on the force is killed, reckless U.S. Secret Service agent Richard Chance vows revenge, setting out to nab dangerous counterfeit artist Eric Masters.
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17 films that influenced To Live and Die in L.A.
What critics say influenced To Live and Die in L.A.
Friedkin and his cinematographer Robby Muller managed to capture the essence of the city throughout the whole movie with some fantastic landscape shots, both in the daytime and at night, and the high-octane car chase echoes the classic move car chases of previous classics like Bullitt, where the layout of the city streets almost becomes as integral to the plot as the characters.
In the hierarchy of great movie chase sequences, the recent landmarks include the chases under the Brooklyn elevated tracks in " The French Connection " down the hills of San Francisco in " Bullitt " and through the Paris Metro in " Diva ."
Look for the incredible chase sequence, one that rivals anything you’ve seen in Bullitt (1968) or The French Connection (1971).
Entre abogados bien repugnantes y pancistas, club nocturnos con un fuerte dejo kitsch y una persecución automovilística legendaria con tiroteo múltiple que no tiene nada que envidiarle a sus homólogas de Contacto en Francia , Escuadrón Especial ( The Seven-Ups , 1973), de Philip D’Antoni, y Bullitt (1968), de Peter Yates, el opus de Friedkin y compañía constituye el epítome tanto de la exageración modernosa impostada de la década del 80 como de ese realismo sucio e impiadoso de índole suburbana que cristaliza en una cacería donde el depredador y la presa se confunden todo el tiempo debido a que ambos son núcleos fundamentales del absurdo del canibalismo metropolitano sin fin, como decíamos previamente un esquema lúdico en el que el narcisismo y el afán de trastocar la voluntad del prójimo parecen constituir el único horizonte vocacional de unos agentes del poder público -el de las sombras o mafioso clásico y el que se maneja al descubierto desde el aparato represor estatal- que adoran j…
Il y a aussi quelque chose de hawksien dans To Live and Die In L.A. : pas seulement parce que le héros joué par Petersen se nomme « Chance » tout comme le shérif joué par John Wayne dans Rio Bravo (USA 1959) de Howard Hawks.
Lo stesso Cimino, nel già citato L’anno del dragone , sceglie di risolvere il film con un duello marcatamente western, mentre – come fa notare Ghezzi14 – il protagonista di To Live and To Die in L.A. si chiama come John Wayne in Un dollaro d’onore [ Rio Bravo , 1959] di Howard Hawks.
That theme music, along with the rest of Wang Chung's score for the film, may anchor this entry squarely in its mid-eighties milieu, but in other waysis a callback of sorts to some of director William Friedkin's earlier efforts, notably The French Connection (also available in this edition).
To me, To Live And Die In L.A. plays like a combination of director William Friedkin’s earlier cop classic The French Connection and the Miami Vice TV series.
Among them were Hal Ashby’s strident, coke-fueled 8 Million Ways to Die , John Frankenheimer’s seamy extortion saga 52 Pickup , and William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A. , a neon-hued noir reworking of the morally ambiguous cops-versus-criminals terrain he had staked out a decade earlier in The French Connection .
William Friedkin's distilled pulp is a sleek corrosion of The French Connection, hotshot and ghoul circling each other with the serenity of the soulless.
And speaking of stylized visuals, William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) looks much more dated today than The French Connection , made fourteen years earlier.
Sans oublier l'aspect psychopathologique (surajouté à l'aspect purement criminel) du personnage de Masters dans Police fédérale Los Angeles qui annonce, par son pessimisme, ce film noir presque maudit que sera Le Sang du châtiment [Rampage] (USA 1987) de William Friedkin, fugitivement distribué en Europe et qui le fut encore plus mal aux U.S.A. NOTES 1) Entretien visible dans l'ancienne édition Wild Side Vidéo (comportant deux entretiens avec Lang — dont celui-là) du très rare film noir mi-policier mi fantastique qu'est le House by the River (USA 1949) de Fritz Lang.
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There is the safecracking in Michael Mann's Thief (1981) and other heist movies, and the painstaking efforts of prison escapees, like those of Fontaine in A Man Escaped (1956).
Poor George Sanders (he was in All About Eve, for crying out loud!) appears as the film's villain, while William Friedkin makes his directorial debut (if nothing else, Good Times remains one of the few films in his oeuvre to lack a gritty car chase).
Bearing in mind this cinematic influence, one might also recall Travis Bickle’s nighttime workshop in Taxi Driver (1976), where a mechanical appendage for the ejection of a gun is fashioned by the lonesome cabbie.
In The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968), The French Connection (1971), Sorcerer (1977), The Brink’s Job (1978), Deal of the Century (1983), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Blue Chips (1994) and, more recently, Killer Joe (2011), the pursuit of money entails underhand tactics, struggle, betrayal and violence.
William Friedkin es uno de esos directores de antaño que a pesar de haber formado parte del glorioso y rupturista Nuevo Hollywood de la década del 70, en esencia su producción artística puede categorizarse sin problemas como la de cualquier otro director de la fase inmediatamente previa, la del Hollywood Clásico, ya que sus películas fueron de lo más variopintas y pueden dividirse en obras maestras o faenas muy interesantes, hablamos de Los Chicos de la Banda ( The Boys in the Band , 1970), Contacto en Francia ( The French Connection , 1971), El Exorcista ( The Exorcist , 1973), Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), la televisiva 12 Hombres en Pugna ( 12 Angry Men , 1997) y Killer Joe (2011), trabajos atractivos pero de segunda línea, pensemos en Fiesta de Cumpleaños ( The Birthday Party , 1968), Los Alegres Veintes ( The Night They Raided Minsky’s , 1968), ¿Y Dónde Está el Ladrón?
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Si articola qui uno dei percorsi più battuti dal cinema di Friedkin (già declinato in Festa di compleanno , Cruising , probabilmente anche ne L’esorcista e sicuramente nello smarrimento “intellettuale” dei protagonisti di Festa per il compleanno del caro amico Harold [ The Boys in the Band , 1970]) che però si colora di ulteriori sfumature, forse anche più perturbanti.
William Friedkin es uno de esos directores de antaño que a pesar de haber formado parte del glorioso y rupturista Nuevo Hollywood de la década del 70, en esencia su producción artística puede categorizarse sin problemas como la de cualquier otro director de la fase inmediatamente previa, la del Hollywood Clásico, ya que sus películas fueron de lo más variopintas y pueden dividirse en obras maestras o faenas muy interesantes, hablamos de Los Chicos de la Banda ( The Boys in the Band , 1970), Contacto en Francia ( The French Connection , 1971), El Exorcista ( The Exorcist , 1973), Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), la televisiva 12 Hombres en Pugna ( 12 Angry Men , 1997) y Killer Joe (2011), trabajos atractivos pero de segunda línea, pensemos en Fiesta de Cumpleaños ( The Birthday Party , 1968), Los Alegres Veintes ( The Night They Raided Minsky’s , 1968), ¿Y Dónde Está el Ladrón?
Anche la colonna sonora dei Wang Chung lo ancora pesantemente agli anni ‘80 ma i difetti finiscono qui, lasciando la sensazione di un capolavoro non troppo compreso di un regista che ha avuto molti alti (tra cui The Boys in the Band – Festa per il compleanno del caro amico Harold , 1970 – The French Connection – Il braccio violento della legge , 1971 – The Exorcist – L’esorcista , 1973 – ma anche il contestato Cruising , 1980) e altrettanti bassi (tra cui Jade , 1995, e Rules of Engagement – Regole d’onore , 2000).
Per William Friedkin, negli anni ‘80, la forma sembra prevalere sul contenuto, come a voler esorcizzare (senza riuscirci, perché il suo cinema deve sempre essere bigger than life, e quindi bellissimo e perdente) le incomprensioni e i fraintendimenti che hanno accompagnato il suo cinema dopo il clamoroso e inaspettato successo di The Exorcist.