For last week’s re-watching survey, I picked a batch of 7 titles that (apart from Long Riders) I have not seen again since their VHS releases. Charles Bronson’s mysterious loner Chaney almost seems destined to save chronic gambler Speed (James Coburn), and junkie doctor Poe (Strother Martin) from their vices. After serving his time as screen-writer, Hill’s directing debut HARD TIMES (1975) looks well crafted, despite its low-budget. Sets and locations are carefully shot with painterly care to enhance social struggles of the Depression era. Bronson’s fisticuffs generate whatever mercenary thrills and amorality that western styled action themes promise to deliver, while sequences like cage fighting are sharply edited by Roger Spottiswoode (who, like Hill, also worked for Sam Peckinpah). Restored to 4K standard, Eureka’s MOC Blu-ray has a pictures booklet, with a contemporary review by Pauline Kael.
Renowned for its unique casting of actual brothers (Keach, Carradine, Quaid, Guest), playing outlaws from families, THE LONG RIDERS (1980), re-mints gunslinger lore with revisionism like meta-movie authenticity. Curiosity values aside, this version of the ‘James-Younger gang’ sees director Hill blasting his way into western mythology, tackling bank/ stagecoach/ train robbery, with ruthless guns and attempted chivalry.
Outsmarting Pinkerton agents, or getting brutal revenge after ‘Robin Hood’ failures, Jesse James and Cole Younger get increasingly violent when lawmen harass a widow and kill innocents. Previously filmed as Kaufman’s Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid (1972), the gang’s climactic job results in a bloody shoot-out of slow-mo stunts, a ride through shop-windows, and inventively stylised bullet-zinger effects. The appearance of a steam-tractor that spooks horses symbolises the cowboys’ finale while a time-lock defeats armed robbery. Here, musician Ry Cooder begins a career doing soundtracks for six Hill movies, while Pamela Reed and James Remar have Starr turns, providing witty characters for unhappy loner Cole to fight. Kino special edition R1 Blu-ray has a disc-load of extras, including retrospective cast interviews, plus 1 outstanding hour of German documentary, Outlaw Brothers (2013), made by Robert Fischer, for Fiction Factory.
An engagingly persistent comedy of American excess, filmed several times before this version, BREWSTER’S MILLIONS (1985) celebrates rags-to-riches fantasy with links to Twain’s story Million Pound Bank Note, and John Landis’ class-conscious money-bags bet in Trading Places (1983). Can a baseball pitcher spend-but-never-squander $1 million every day for a month, to inherit a mythically vast fortune? If any wealthy life-style is only a tawdry game, should the results be a win or a loss? Hill’s approach to farcical humour is fuelled by tragedies about frequently mercenary attitudes, and wholly tasteless extravagance, in the premier decade of yuppies. Its amoral schemes and thematically virulent greed gained even greater cultural resonance after Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (1987), but none of all that detracts from a sense of overindulgent fun, boosted by John Candy wittily playing sentimentalism for keeps.
After his cross-genre “rock ‘n’ roll fantasy” Streets Of Fire, director Hill explored the roots of US music in CROSSROADS (1986). Wannabe guitar-star Eugene ‘Lightning Boy’ teams up with legendary bluesman ‘Blind Dog’ Fulton for this road-movie with a mojo bag, heading into southern gothic. Dangerous dreams on the Mississippi delta shape their quest for one ‘lost song’ by Robert Johnson (feature debut of TREK’s Tim Russ) whose mythic deal with Legba makes an eerie prologue. Hitchhikers on trail to celebrity, with decades of culture between them, the heroes windup in an electric duel against Steve Vai. Ralph Macchio and Joe Seneca are fun as the kid and Willie, while Jami Gertz’s runaway heart-breaker Frances provides the young man his final lesson in getting the blues. Pained silence... needs no explanation. Joe Morton almost steals the show as Scratch’s assistant.
Not to be confused with Joel Schumacher’s last movie, 2011’s home-invasion thriller, starring Cage and Kidman, actioner TRESPASS (1992) is Hill’s reworked updating of John Huston’s classic Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948). On an urban adventure, reckless fire-fighters, Don and Vince, stray into a conflict between black gangs led by King James (Ice-T). A disused factory becomes a death-trap for all concerned, when a lockdown siege seems influenced by John Carpenter’s Assault On Precinct 13 (1976). Sniper shots and hostage crisis ramps up tension, while suspense cranks higher from army weapons in gunfights over turf. Philosophical angles ensure the hoods are more than just angry thugs, and it’s grimly amusing when they act like black yuppies. There are talky smarts against feral greed on both sides of racial issues, but adding maniacal impatience and junkie-level desperation to this wholly mixed-up situation generates a wealth of thieving violence for the long lost stash of churchy gold. William Sadler and Bill Paxton make for engaging leads, especially when their moral dilemmas become a nightmare of explosive demolition, where it’s always the savvy of survival that counts.
Yes, that’s how trouble starts in GERONIMO: An American Legend (1993). Blue-coats played by Jason Patric and Matt Damon escort Apache leader Geronimo (Wes Studi, deserving stardom here after his great performance in Last Of The Mohicans), to meet US army General ‘Nantan Lupan’ Crook, before his tribe are confined to Reservation land. Old hands Gene Hackman and Robert Duval express acting proficiency for their co-stars, and need only grins and nods to communicate effectively on-screen. Narration adds depth to a story observing that freedom (wild like the wind?) is never civilised, while USA’s cultural dilemma prompts the question: can ‘pacification’ ever be honourable? But for Geronimo’s visions, this movie is almost drama-doc in approach, and yet Hill just cannot resist doing splendidly arty compositions for locations. It’s also not a bio-pic, but a powerful character-study. Look out for Scott Wilson and Stephen McHattie in a fine supporting cast of 'White-Eyes'.
Notably, except for Another 48 Hrs. (1990), director Hill does not create sequels, and rarely repeats his past work beyond signature in-jokes like a pub/club called Torchy’s. WILD BILL (1995) crams plenty into a brisk 90+ mins. As famous gunslinger, James Butler ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok, Jeff Bridges improves upon previous western performances, in Hearts Of The West and Heaven’s Gate, and seems to perfect grouchy mannerisms he later displayed for the Coens’ excellent True Grit remake, succeeding John Wayne.
Slowly going blind, Hickok faces down foes and outrages even friends, like ‘California’ Joe (James Gammon, never better), and Charley Prince (John Hurt). Hurt’s extra job as narrator sticks close to Hill’s formula by providing insights, not just details, to help viewers ‘see’ the unfolding narrative clearly. Wild Bill is roundly portrayed as walking nightmare, not a cowboy hero. “I don’t explain myself.” He’s a serial killer, sometimes wearing a badge. Just daring to touch Bill’s hat is annoyance enough for him to shoot anyone. Ellen Barkin’s Calamity Jane looks definitive, and is certainly far superior to Jane Alexander’s 1984 TV film, or Anjelica Huston’s series Buffalo Girls (also 1995). A fabulous supporting cast showcases Diane Lane, David Arquette, Bruce Dern, and James Remar, with Keith Carradine’s witty cameo as ‘Buffalo Bill’.
