Category Archives: Walt Hill

Brewster’s Millions [1985)

If you don’t follow your dreams at least a little bit, you die.

Me and my friends…we tried.

Maybe there wasn’t any friends in reality.

But I was a jerk too.

15 years.  For four years I was a professional musician.

Took 11 years in the minor leagues to get there.

In all honesty, we all have shitty karma.

And so how do we explain the rich and the poor?

Maybe some people didn’t have as good of opportunities as the rest.

We can’t take that for granted.

I ain’t the Pope.

When I was younger I could get down on my knees and grovel, but I threw it all away.

There’s a train (!) going through the goddamned outfield.

Hard not to lose your concentration.

This ain’t no sob story.

I’m the mustache man from way back.

You know the plot.

Well, this film is pure genius.  Forty years after the original?

I say a little prayer for Richard Pryor.

I say a little prayer for John Candy.

And I thank Walter Hill for looking at me askance once upon a time.

Maybe, just maybe.

-PD

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Bullet to the Head [2012)

I’m in this one.  Just had to get that out of the way up front. 

For some reason I didn’t expect this film to be particularly great, but it is surprisingly awesome.  Credit director Walter Hill with coaxing an excellent performance out of the singularly talented Sylvester Stallone. 

My biggest beef with this flick is the editing.  It seems someone in the corporate hierarchy wanted the whole thing to resemble CSI:  Miami.  Not exactly my notion of cinema.  I suppose it was an effort to relate to audiences who live for their favorite TV shows.  Television mise-en-scène these days is generally deplorable…revolting…you get the picture. 

Aside from that one concession, this is a thoroughly enjoyable film.  Sure, Sung Kang is pretty stiff here and there in the delivery of his lines, but his character is generally an automaton anyway (until his redeeming moment near film’s end). 

Sarah Shahi is fantastic as Stallone’s daughter.  Stallone is excellent and droll throughout…like Charles Bronson or Humphrey Bogart.  His performance really is an astounding feat for someone his age. 

In closing, don’t expect a nouvelle vague masterpiece here.  You will be sorely disappointed.  But if you watch this with an open mind you might just end up agreeing with me that Walter Hill (like Guy Hamilton) is an overlooked auteur. 

-PD

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Hard Times [1975)

Pauline Kael may have written about this film, but ultimately Susan Sontag’s recognition of Godard’s Vivre sa vie is more important to my philosophy of film criticism.  I mention Kael because she certainly championed director Walter Hill and for that I commend her.  I am even inclined to gravitate towards Andrew Sarris instead of Kael (though both seem mostly inconsequential to my understanding of cinema).  I eye aye. 

Let this suffice to lay the groundwork for what is auteur Walt Hill’s first film.  I have a soft spot in my heart for Mr. Hill because I was fortunate enough to once work with him.  He shook my hand and looked at me with a grandfatherly gaze of transference (or so it seemed).  Never had I been surrounded by Panavision cameras and the whole thing really made an impression on me, but the biggest impression was made by Hill’s kindness.

So I am unequivocally biased as concerns his oeuvre.  That said, this film isn’t perfect.  The script girl missed a big anachronism right off the bat:  an electric diesel locomotive.  Oops.  Set in the Great Depression, there are plenty of steam trains in this period piece, but the first train engine we see hadn’t yet been invented.  I credit my father with the keen eye (and rely on his expertise as a lifetime railroad man).

Also bad is James Coburn.  I LOVE James Coburn, but he is not particularly good in this flick.  I will mention The Carey Treatment till my dying breath as an example of his depth as an actor (especially when juxtaposed with his equally brilliant portrayal of Derek Flint).  Not sure what the problem was.  Perhaps he played the character in question just as Hill wanted, but it is really not a great use of his talents. 

Now for the good news.  Charles Bronson is magnificent in what is really an astounding picture for a first-time director.  Furthermore, we see the New Orleans which Hill would return to in Bullet to the Head (2012).  The two films even share a finale:  a face-off in a cavernous warehouse. 

Hill’s direction of the taciturn Bronson makes the whole thing a terse masterpiece.  As befits its concision of expression, I shall stop here.  Bravo Mr. Hill!

-PD

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