This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
The Irresistible Force Meets the Immovable Object.
Plot Overview
L.A. County Chief Deputy DA Martin Larner (J.A. Preston)
has had to put the kibosh on many of the indictments suggested by
his eager beaver Deputy District Attorney Robert Caulfield (Gene Hackman)
whose zeal eclipses the practicality of a successful prosecution.
Now he thinks he's got something. The latents developed from
a crime scene belong to one Carol Hunnicut (Anne Archer) whose prints
were on file from an arrest back in her protest days. They've cross-
referenced her to a missing person's report filed by her girlfriend
Connie who spilled the beans that Hunnicut saw mobster boss Leo Watts
(Harris Yulin) & his henchman (Nigel Bennett) murder her hapless
blind date Michael Tarlow (J.T. Walsh.) Caulfield and Police detective
Sgt. Dominick Benti (M. Emmett
Walsh) get permission to bring her in under police protection.
During her protest days Carol's
older brother had fled to Canada and evidently prospered. She is now
holed up in his remote cabin “someplace in East Jesus.”
Furthermore, she's left her son in the care of her ex who was always
prepared to cut and run who knows where. A girl with such a background
is not likey to trust the police for protection. She plays dumb. Then a
helicopter gun ship forces her to flee with Caulfield.
Not knowing whom to trust on the force, and being cut off from communications anyway, they find themselves on a long train ride with two or more hit men on board. The bad guys can identify the shyster but not the sister—not yet, anyway—and are not above offering a bribe to the lowly paid prosecutor two years away from a pitiful retirement … if he'll just point her out.
Ideology
J.B. Mozley, D.D., in a sermon on Proverbs tells us, “Pious and good men took those truths which they observed themselves in the actions of men and the course of Providence, and made proverbs of them. They gave the rest of the world the benefit of their experience; they said, ‘We can vouch for this being true, because we have seen it; we have seen it constantly, time after time; you may depend upon it, because it is not a mere idea, it is a fact’” (98). Let's look at the words of the enigmatic Agur (Prov. 30:1) reputedly a member of the North Arabian tribe of Massa, which were appended to the Proverbs of Solomon, preserved by the Jews in their Tanakh, appropriated by Christians in their Bible, and eventually sneaked into movies subject to my reviews. (Prov. 30:24) “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:”
(Prov. 30:25)
“The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat
in the summer.” The first precursor to success is starting when
a tender youth, in the summer of life, to work for one's bread. Here
a kid Nicholas (Codie Lucas Wilbee) plays cops & robbers on the
train but allows himself to be deputized to provide the detective
with needed hardware. It's a start and there are other examples of
a healthy work ethic. Hunnicut's girlfriend set her up with a
blind date because she thought she was working too hard as an editor
who “takes a lot of work home at night.” The blonde passenger
Katherine Miller had a good divorce settlement (“I earned it”)
from her restaurateur husband but still haunted Los Angeles for parts
as an extra. Even Leo had to work hard to find the embezzler.
(Prov. 30:26) “The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks.” They do it for protection. It's as the real estate maxim goes, the three most important tenets of the trade are: location, location, location. A blind date should be conducted in a public place not in the stranger's room. Had the lady stayed down at their table when Leo lured him up to his room, he'd have had an excuse to leave to tend to her rather than sit in his digs and wait to be rubbed out. The detective justifies hopping the train saying, “We'd be sitting ducks out there. I have a much better chance of protecting you in here. These guys can't go just blasting everyone in sight. They're professionals. They start a war in the middle of the boondocks, they got a good chance of getting caught.” The bad guys concur that, “to have an ugly incident occur on this train while there is no means of escape is not in our best interest.”
(Prov. 30:27) “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.” It's good to develop an informal support network. Besides his young deputy the detective was also able to suss out the incognito railroad cop on the train.
(Prov. 30:28) “The spider taketh
hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.” That palace
gets swept regularly but the spider will spin a new web. When the
lawyer Tarlow's position was terminated, Leo suggested he sell his fancy
apartment and his works of art to pay back the money he stole. Yes, I
suppose there's the option of a yard sale. I don't know what disgraced
lawyers do. Chase ambulances? Sometimes that spider gets squished.
Production Values
“” (1990) was directed by Peter Hyams who co-wrote it with Earl Felton and Martin Goldsmith. It was a worthy remake the 1952 film noir classic “The Narrow Margin.” It stars Gene Hackman and Anne Archer. Archer the female lead gives a performance that's tops in her career. Her sultry voice is alluring without any physical consummation. Hackman doesn't do bad himself including his deadpan humor. The secondary parts do well, too. A lot of the dangerous stunts were done by the actors themselves.
It is rated R. The Hunnicut part has good posture for
an overworked editor. This is in the days of paper copy before
computers & screen devices. The part of the blonde was a klutz
(“I tend to fall down a lot,”) sometimes to garner
sympathy, sometimes not. The director being one of the writers
and also the cinematographer made for a cohesive film. The exterior
train shots were Filmed on location in British Columbia, Canada.
Runtime is 1 hour 37 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This was an altogether enjoyable film. I suppose there being no atheists in a foxhole could apply here too, but any religion was kept private. The tempo and action varied obviating any tedium from a the clickety-clack progress of the train. They did not overreach from a basic successful formula.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Five stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Print.
Mozley D.D., J.B. Sermons Parochial and Occasional. New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1880. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org