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Movie Reviews
Women in Prison
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48 Hrs. (1982) |
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| Eddie Murphy's star turn makes 48 Hrs. a must see. |
Younger readers probably know Eddie Murphy largely from his roles in movies like The Nutty Professor (1996) and Doctor Dolittle (1998) and their sequels. They probably think of him as occasionally funny, in a predictable and mild fashion. This is far cry from the Eddie Murphy who burst on the scene as a 19-year old on "Saturday Night Live" and in his first movie role in 48 Hrs. (1982). Back then, Murphy was anything but predictable. He was edgy, coarse, and often uproariously funny. Beverly Hills Cop (1984) was the movie that made Murphy a superstar (for a time, well before he was cruising for transvestites on Hollywood Boulevard), but his best movie is still his first, 48 Hrs.
48 Hrs. largely invented the action-comedy genre that has been a staple of Hollywood summer releases ever since. Of course, it is head and shoulders above the vast majority of films in the genre, especially since it invented many of the conventions -- the buddy element, the comic banter, the violent action -- the others have followed (watch 48 Hrs. and then Rush Hour (2000) to see the influences. The movie is also a well-paced and taunt thriller. It clocks in at a lean 96 minutes, a tribute to a time when editing was considered an important part of the movie making process, and still manages to find time for comic banter and even a musical interlude.
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| The movie opens promisingly with a dusty chain gang working on a rail line. |
The movie opens with a shot of a pickup rumbling down a dusty road. Nearby a group of convicts are working on a chain gang clearing a railway bed. The film is washed out giving an impression of unremitting heat and brightness. The truck slams to a halt beside the inmates and a tall Indian (a.k.a. Native American) steps out. He starts to talk to a guard, but one of the convicts jumps in and taunts the new arrival. Soon, the two men and trading blows. As the guards close in to break up the fight, the two men suddenly separate and open fire on the hapless guards, killing two and sending the third scurrying for cover. The guns are loud. That is, I think, one of the most distinctive features of 48 Hrs. Everyone is packing artillery. Even out in the open, the gunshots sound like explosions, and when guys are hit they go down like a ton of bricks. It creates an air of palpable menace. Whenever one of the characters pulls out a gun, you expect all hell to break loose.
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| Former porn "star" Sonny Landham plays "Billy Bear." |
With the last guard calling for help, and the other inmates scattering across an open field, the two gunmen hop in the truck and take off. They are the villains of the piece: the homicidal escaped con, Albert Ganz (James Remar, who played gang tough Ajax in The Warriors (1979)) and Billy Bear (Sonny Landham, who you may remember as "Chink" in the Stallone clunker Lock Up (1989) and, of course, from the 1975 classic They're All Sluts, which, much to my chagrin, I haven’t seen). Billy Bear is, um, the Indian, 'cause you know, he's got a traditional Indian name, sort of. Billy and Ganz hightail it to San Francisco, where they quickly proceed to off an old, um, business associate before calling for a couple of hookers to join them in their hotel room. Luckily, San Fran has a large population of prostitutes because their demands are quite precise – Ganz wants a long-legged gal in a sun dress while Billy wants an Indian, a "squaw" as Ganz puts it.
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| Ganz aims a gun at Luther's head while Billy holds onto Rosalie. |
They also take the time to hook up with Luther, (David Patrick Kelly, who also played "Luther" in The Warriors. I don’t think it is supposed to be the same character... although it could be). Luther is also an old associate of Ganz’s, and Ganz wants Luther to turn over some stashed loot left over from the job they all pulled together. In order to make Luther cooperate, Ganz and Billy kidnap Luther’s girlfriend Rosalie (Kerry Sherman, who played "Patti" in Satan’s Cheerleaders (1977)) and hold her hostage. I guess there is no honor among thieves after all. Despite Ganz’s pursuasive approach, Luther claims he can’t hand over the money until Monday because the money is locked up until then. Ganz and Billy take Rosalie and promise to be in touch.
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| The long suffering girlfriend. No cop should be without one. |
Meanwhile, we see tough cop Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) waking up at his girlfriend Elaine’s (Annette O’Toole) apartment. Their relationship seems to consist of two things: (a) sex and (b) fighting. A real "stormy romance" in Cates' evocative words (albeit talking about another couple). O’Toole is quite the hottie, actually, so it is easy to see what he sees in her... what she sees in him is less clear. O’Toole, btw, is according to IMDb now married to Michael McKean -- Lenny from "Laverne and Shirley." Squiggy gets MS and Lenny gets O’Toole. What do you make of that? Bad karma? Anyway, we know Cates is a "tough cop" because he’s played by Nick Nolte who sounds throughout as if he smokes three packs of cigarettes a day and because he’s a slob. Oh and he drives beat up, powder blue Caddy convertible. If that doesn’t spell tough cop, I don’t know what does.
Cates is the kind of character you almost never see in a movie anymore – at least not as one of the heroes. He’s a borderline misogynist, and at times openly racist. He believe that "hit first and ask questions later" is proper interrogation procedure. He’s a slob. He smokes. He’s almost realistic actually – a lot of cops in real life are a little overloaded on testosterone. He doesn’t like crooks, but he doesn’t have any particularly noble views about crime and justice. He just likes being a little above the law.
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| A rumpled Cates (Nolte) regroups at the police station after the shootout. |
Well, anyway, on his way into the precinct, Cates runs into a couple of his buddies getting ready to roust a couple of guys in a hotel room. Cates asks to tag along. They grudgingly agree. Grudgingly because he’s a "cowboy." They have him stay in the lobby and serve as back up. The other two cops go to the second floor and knock on the door. Inside, Ganz pulls a gun and orders one of the hookers to stall for time. While she does, Ganz sneaks intg the adjoining room and then he and Billy burst out into the hallway, guns blazing. One of the cops gets killed right away, the other gets shot in the shoulder and staggers back into a room. Cates charges up the stairs in time to find his wounded colleague but too late to catch Ganz and Billy who take the elevator down with Rosalie.
Cates charges back down the stairs in time to stop the crooks, but after an initial exchange of gunfire, the wounded cop stumbles onto the scene. Billy Bear gets a drop on him, and Ganz orders Cates to hand over his gun or his buddy will get shot. Cates reluctantly complies, and of course, Ganz uses Cates’ gun to finish off the other cop. Cates dives behind a counter as Ganz and Billy run away.
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| Cates' supervisor advises to be more of a "team player." For once this advice is actually quite sound. |
Back at the station house, Cates seems almost as pissed off about losing his gun as about the dead cops. His supervisor is the stereotypical abusive police lieutenant who chastises Cates for being too much of a Lone Ranger -- did Dirty Harry (1971) invent this stereotype or was it common earlier? This scene feels like a cliché, and it is, but actually, it demonstrates the movie’s keen sense of pacing because even while Cates is being chewed out we get a whole bunch of quick exposition. Ballistics links the dead associate with the shots fired at the hotel -- man that was quick. Cates finds out that Ganz and the dead guy were partners, and that another one of the gang is still in the pen. So in a couple of minutes of tumultuous activity we get all the info we need to set up the rest of the movie. Cates decides to track down the locked up member of the gang...
...said convict is Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy). His first appearance is a memorable one, Murphy wearing headphones and sunglasses and bleating out an off-key version of Roxanne. Cates rousts Reggie. He tries to question him about the gang. Reggie demurs, pointing out that he’s six months away from getting out, and has no interest in working with the cops. He changes his tune when Cates mentions that Ganz has busted out of jail and is back on the street. Suddenly Reggie volunteers to help track down his former comrade, although he insists he has to be out on the street to help. Cates initially refuses, but quickly changes his mind and forges a 48 hour release for Reggie – hence the name of the movie, eh? All of this seems a little unlikely, even for a loose cannon like Cates. I mean, can convicts really even get 48 hour passes without any form of court intervention?
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| Cates is not impressed with Reggie's vocal stylings. |
As they leave the prison, Reggie tries to initiate a conversation, which leads to their famous exchange: "Cates: Listen! We ain't partners, we ain't brothers, and we ain't friends. I'm putting you down and keeping you down till Ganz is locked up or dead. If Ganz gets away you'll be sorry you ever met me. Reggie: I'm already sorry." Later one, Reggie will get the opportunity to make the same speech to Cates.
Putting Reggie down involves Cates using various racial epithets, including referring to Reggie as a "nigger," "watermelon," "an overdressed charcoal-colored loser" and a "spearchucker with a number stenciled on the back of his prison fatigues." Frankly, 20 years later, all of this is jarring and a little hard to take. In the end, Cates apologizes to Reggie, basically saying that he was using those insults to let Reggie know who was the boss. The movie tries to have it both ways here, because actually the insults are played for laughs initially, and the later explanation comes off as a little ass covering. That said, the interesting part is that I doubt a movie today would dare have any character use that kind of language, and if it did it would be in some sort of serious drama about white supremacists. Is that a good thing? I guess in a way it is, representing as it does a greater sensitivity to the effects of racist comments. On the other hand, of course, it isn’t clear to me that not talking about something necessarily means it no longer exists... which I guess is a long way of saying that our current squeamishness about talking about race issues in public in anything other than rote banalities may not really be much of a step forward. Anyway, it was something I noticed in watching the movie, so I thought I’d mention it.
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| Questioning little punk Luther. |
Reggie first leads Cates to Luther’s house. Luther doesn't seem like the type to keep a consistent address for more than a few months, but whatever. Cates knocks on the door and announces himself as police. Luther, who is a little punk, takes a shot at Cates and tries to escape, but Reggie intercepts him with a car door, disarming Luther in the process. Cates, however, is not amused to find Reggie now holding Luther’s gun, and he order him to drop the weapon or be shot. Reggie grudgingly complies. Reggie spend a lot of the movie trying to get a weapon for himself. Cates then proceeds to question Luther by banging his head against the car door. Luther holds out, and Cates hauls him off to jail for "resisting arrest." Luther is a moron, of course. Until he took a shot at Cates, he was essentially in the clear.
Well, since that lead didn’t pan out quite as hoped, Reggie leads Cates to a cowboy bar where Billy Bear once worked. Outside, they have a stilted exchange about what it takes to be a good cop. Reggie says that having a badge and a gun goes a long way; Cates counters that experience is key. All of this is just to set up having Reggie enter the bar pretending to be a cop, while Cates watches, pretending to be a patron. All of this feels contrived, but you can’t argue with the payoff, which turns out to be the best scene in the movie, and the single scene that more than any other signaled Murphy as a real star.
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| Everyone is having fun until Reggie shows up... |
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Anyway, it’s a redneck bar of the type common at the time, and which you can see more of in such bad movie stalwarts as Rhinestone (1984) and Urban Cowboy (1980) (some people like Urban Cowboy... I find it insipid). Actually, it is a little raunchier than most, with a barely clad cowgirl strutting like a hillbilly go-go dancer – the country bar I used to frequent back then was a little more tame... unfortunately. Needless to say, Reggie is out of his element at first. He deadpans, "Not a very popular place with the brothers." Still, he flashes Cates’ badge, and when the bartender offers him a "black Russian" and then refuses to answer any questions, Reggie heaves a shot glass through a mirror and rousts the patrons: "Okay, listen up. I don't like white people." He find a knife on one guy, a gun on another, and a big wad of the cash in the pocket of a third. When the latter explains that it is his tax refund, Reggie snaps back, "Bullshit! You're too f___in' stupid to have a job!" Reggie struts, bullies, and cracks wise, and finally the bartender gives up the address of Billy Bear’s girlfriend just to get Reggie out of the bar. As Murphy says on leaving the bar, "there’s a new sheriff in town."
It is a minor success, but it does provide Cates and Reggie with a lead. They track down the apartment, and knock on the door. Two women answer (one of whom is a young Denise Crosby... like most geeks, I have something of a Tasha Yar fetish). Needless to say, they are a little suspicious about two ruffians showing up at their door in the middle of the night. One of them takes a bat to Reggie, while the other draws a gun on Cates. After Cates makes the introductions, the girls calm down, but they deny knowing where Billy Bear and Ganz might be. Indeed, one claims that she and Billy broke up a while ago and that he isn’t welcome back. Cates surprisingly accepts this convenient claim at face value.
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| The lovely and talented Denise Crosby (with bat). |
Back out on the street, Cates accuses Reggie of holding out on him. Reggie points out, reasonably, that he’s already provided Cates with two decent leads. Cates, however, decides that the best course of action is to try to beat the truth out of Reggie. Hmmm, I’m not sure this is standard police procedure... well, unless Cates interned with the LAPD. Nolte is 6'1" and looks about 210 lbs to me, Murphy is 5'10" and was probably 150 lbs at the time. The fight ends up closer than these measurements would suggest. Reggie gets in a bunch of good shots, but in the end Cates tackles him into a pile of garbage. More than anything else, this fight acts as an ice breaker between the two men. This is really one of the few scenes in the movie that just doesn't work. They needed way to start moving Reggie and Cates from antagonists to partners, but the whole bonding through fighting stuff feels forced.
Well, anyway, soon thereafter Reggie comes clean about the details of the heist he pulled with Ganz. They ripped off a drug dealer, and now have 500K hidden away in the trunk of Reggie’s car which is sitting in a long-term parking garage. Needless to say, Cates is a little upset to hear that Reggie had an easy way to track down Ganz, et. al. Still, they hunker down and stakeout the garage.
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| Reggie does better than expected given Cates' size advantage. |
Monday morning arrives, and immediately after the garage opens, Luther arrives to take possession of the car and the ransom for Rosalie. Reggie and Cates follow Luther, who soon parks and takes off on foot with a satchel of money. Our erstwhile heroes follow their quarry to the metro. They spot Ganz and Billy along with Rosalie, but before they can capture the whole group together, Ganz spots Cates and takes off. Now, call me crazy, but it seems to me that trying to apprehend two cop killers/kidnappers and another skittish punk who has already taken a shot at a cop with just an unarmed convict as backup is a little reckless. I mean there is a fine line between aggressive and foolhardy... but that fine line is really sort of irrelevant in this case which is so far over the line that it vaults into stupid territory. Not surprisingly, Ganz and Billy get away, and Cates even loses track of Reggie who takes off after Luther. Cates has passion, but truth be told, he's a crappy cop.
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| Reggie's likes working girls... but he ends up hooking up with the ever-accommodating Candy for free. |
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Well, Cates slinks back to the precinct, probably wondering how is going to explain having botched the investigation so badly. Luckily, Reggie saves his bacon by calling from a nightclub across the street from the hotel where Luther is hiding out after fleeing the subway. Cates goes to meet Reggie, who, in the meantime tries to hook up with some female companionship. Reggie, by the way, has been talking about sex from the time he meets up with Cates. As Reggie puts it, "I've been in prison for three years. My dick gets hard if the wind blows." Anyway, his technique involves approaching random women, puffing up his chest, and bellowing, "Hi, I’m Reggie Hammond." As far as opening lines goes, it is direct, though uninspired. (For the record, I prefer "Baby, if I said you had a great body, would you hold it against me?" Works like a charm. Try it and email me your experiences.)
Amazingly, Reggie is actually making time with Candy (Olivia Brown, who you will probably remember from "Miami Vice") when Cates shows up. He chases her away momentarily. Reggie explains that Luther is in the hotel across the street and has left an early morning wake-up call. Good solid police work for a con. As a result, Reggie has the opportunity to spend some quality time with Candy... if Cates can lend him money for a room. In the meantime, Candy is already talking to some other guy... the girl gets around apparently. Reggie chases the guy off, and romantically informs Candy that he expects to be having sex within ten minutes. She protests, "You can’t ask me any better than that?" But surprisingly, she doesn’t slap him and walk away... ah yes, the low standards and loose morals of the early 1980s. How I miss them. Well, as they step outside to find a cheap hotel, Reggie spots Luther on the move.
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| The bus-car confrontation ends exactly as expected. |
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Reggie demonstrates his character by ditching Candy and going back to find Cates -- or at least he demonstrates that he values money above sex ever after 30 months in stir. The two set off to find Luther, which surprisingly enough they do. There are a lot of coincidences here. Had Reggie and Candy not left the club at exactly that moment, he would never have spotted Luther. Luther in the meantime get picked up by Ganz and Billy driving a stolen bus – an inconspicuous choice, eh? Cates and Reggie end up finding the bus almost immediately, which again strains credulity since they had no way of knowing everyone would be on a bus. Would the movie have been better for the inclusion of a more time consuming yet plausible sequence? Not really. In an action movie, pacing is everything... an insight that would improve current action pictures that often drag out over 135 minutes and often include long, boring romantic subplots, and equally tedious back stories on paper thin characters. Just get on with it.
Alright, so Luther hands over the cash, but makes the mistake of asking Rosalie if she is okay. This infuriates psychopath Ganz who proceeds to plug Luther full of lead. Just at this moment, Reggie and Cates pull up alongside the bus and engage in a running gun battle with the bad guys. It is actually pretty hard to hit a moving target from a moving vehicle (heck it is hard to hit a stationary target from 15 feet until you get some practice), and realistically, despite many shots no one gets hit. That leaves the confrontation as bus vs. car, and in that case bus wins. Billy runs Cates off the road and through a storefront. You’d think that a running gun battle and a stolen bus might draw some other police attention, but amazingly enough Ganz and Billy get away. Ominously, we never see Rosalie or Luther again.
Alright, so Cates get back to the precinct house, and we get the expected chewing out by his supervisor, who oddly seems more upset about the property damage in the bus chase than the fact that two cop killers got away because Cates was too pigheaded to call in backup. Both Reggie and Cates defend each other, a staple scene of the buddy picture. Well, Cates starts to take Reggie back to prison, but first they stop to have a drink. While in the bar, Cates suggests maybe paying another visit to Billy’s girlfriend. Reggie is dubious, but as Cates points out, Reggie has little to lose and nowhere to go besides a cell.
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| Billy draws a knife on Reggie. Happily Reggie has a gun. Checkmate. |
They burst in to find the bad guys relaxing and unaware. This is a little surprising, since Cates had already visited the place. But whatever. Reggie gets the drop on Billy with a gun. Billy demonstrates a stunning lack of common sense by pulling a knife and advancing on Reggie. In life there are some simple rules: as demonstrated earlier, bus beats car, and as we now see, gun beats knife. Actually, Billy is really gambling on Reggie not having the guts to shoot him in cold blood, but then again, once Billy starts advancing knife in hand Reggie has few options. He takes the best one and shoots Billy.
In the meantime, Ganz takes off down a fire escape with Cates in pursuit. They drop into an alley filled with stage smoke, um, fog. Well, really localized fog I guess since it only seems to be thick in that one alley. Anyway, Reggie follows into the alley, and Ganz quickly gets the drop on him. Uh oh. Cates appears out of the fog. Reggie tells him to "Take aim and blow his f___ing brains out." Much to his shock, Cates aims and plugs Ganz in the chest. Ganz, wounded and enraged, charges at Cates who proceeds to dispatch his nemesis once and for all.
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| Ganz gets the drop on Reggie, but in a scene out of a Hong Kong actioner, Cates emerges from the fog shooting. |
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The movie has a cute little epilogue. Cates brings Reggie by Candy’s apartment so he can get a little action from the ever-accommodating hussy. Reggie describes his performance thusly "I was great. Should have my dick bronzed." Cates then gives him an extra bonus, returning the money recovered from Ganz to Reggie’s trunk. It’ll be there waiting for him when he gets out. I wonder how Cates plans to explain all of this in his police report, but as it turns out the sequel to this movie (Another 48 Hrs. (1990)) does not address Cates' adventures with internal affairs.
This movie is not particularly groundbreaking, although I think the mix of action and humor is different from 1970s action movies. The action sequences are well done. The are some genuinely funny moments. And in the end, there is good chemistry between Nolte and Murphy. Sometimes, less is more, and in this case, 48 Hrs. works precisely because it is a stripped down, well-paced thriller.
48 Hrs. is one of two really super films Walter Hill made as a director, the other being The Warriors. Strangely most of his other stuff is really second tier at best. He’s probably just a technically competent director who happened to get lucky twice. Both 48 Hrs. and The Warriors have a solid cult following. Hill really excels at tight pacing and filming short, burst of action. 48 Hrs. benefits from Murphy’s breakout performance, while The Warriors has a sustained, self-consciously stylishness that marks it as unique and unforgettable. Both of those movies really should be in your home library. Walter Hill has a prison movie coming out this year, Undisputed (2002) with Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames; hopefully, this one will feature Hill at his best.
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