Here's a great cult film for you to get stuck into, Streets Of Fire is a 'Rock & Roll Fable' that was released in the summer of 1984 and failed but has since become a cult fave. I absolutely love this film and im going to tell you why...
Director Walter Hill is kind of like a Hollywood Outsider, his films are know by many people, mainly cult films enthusiasts and they're critically acclaimed, but he's never been a huge box office draw. Hill's output is usually of the violent type and also quite stylistic. With Streets Of Fire, he's created a world that is neither 80s or 50s but seems like an amalgamation of both decades with it's West Side Story style gangs and 50s Cars, but with some 80s fashion and a very 80s soundtrack. Infact, at the start of the film it does state that it's set 'in another time, in another place', making it a sort of fantasy.
The plot follows the kidnapping of singer Ellen Aim, Leader of her band Ellen Aim and The Disasters, buy the ruthless and S+M clad biker gang, The Bombers. Ex soldier turned Merc Tom Cody is called home by his sister Riva to help rescue Ellen and is offered $10,000 by Ellen's manager/boyfriend Billy Fish to go back into 'The Battery' to rescue her. Tom accepts the job and meets up with drifter/tomboy ex-soldier McCoy. Together With Billy Fish, they enter the battery and rescue Ellen from the leader of the Bombers, Raven. They Commandeer a bus carrying an all black doowop band called 'The Sorels'. The return home only to discover that Raven and The bombers are coming to take down cody.
The Casting of Streets Of Fire is pretty good, it has some stars who went on to have quite good careers. These included and 18 year old Diane Lane as Ellen Aim, who gives a good performance as young rock singer.
Willem Defoe stars as Raven, The leader of The Bombers and well, It's Willem Defoe, he's the green goblin. Raven is the kind of gang leader that's all talk and at the end is defeated infront of all of his gang.
Rick Morranis stars as billy fish, Ellen Aims manager and boyfriend and if you know what Morranis looks like, there is no way in hell that He would score with Diane Lane, but he's cool as the smooth-ish talking Billy.
Then there's Amy Madigan as McCoy, the tomboyish drifter and ex soldier who becomes Cody's right hand man/woman/possible lesbian?, and she's a straight talking no nonsense kinda gal. Madigan is pretty bad ass as McCoy and it's a very long way from her role in Field Of Dreams.
Finally we have the star of the film...Michael Pare as Tom Cody, this guy is one badass mother fucker, almost 6.5", built and mean as fuck, with his silver shotgun, larconic tone and all around badassery, Pare is the ultimate anti-Hero, he doesn't play the book and takes no prisoners. Pare, in my eyes has always been a top notch B movie actor, sure, he's never gonna win any awards but the guy is just freaking cool. Another great Pare flick is Werewolf movie, Bad Moon.
There are also a lot of familiar faces among the supporting cast such as Mykelti Williamson (Species 2, 24), Elizabeth Daily (Rugrats, Devil's Rejects) and even Bill Paxton.
The action flows very well in Streets Of Fire, from the opening Brawl to the hammer fight at the end, Walter Hill's eye for action is a great addition to an already fine film. But the real reason to watch this is it's absolutely awesome soundtrack that features music from Fire Inc, The Blasters, The Fixx and some truly great music from Ry Cooder. It's a strange mix of 80s epic anthems, 50s rockabilly and 60s soul and strangely it all works really well.
The films was a hard one to come by, at the time i was searching for it, UK and US dvds were out of print. I managed to snag a Korean copy off of ebay for less than £5.00 and it's a great dvd, there's no extra's but the picture is widescreen and looks great. Now though, Universal have a UK release that's 4:3/1.33:1 aspect ration which i can imagine would look a bit ropey and has really bad cover art or there's a R1 widescreen release again from Universal that is currently under £7.00 on Amazon. But for me, until there's a definitive blu-ray or special edition dvd, My Korean dvd will do me fine. I really do recommend getting a copy of this film as it could be considered a lost classic, but for me it was a hidden gem.
Film: 10/10
Original Trailer
The plot follows the kidnapping of singer Ellen Aim, Leader of her band Ellen Aim and The Disasters, buy the ruthless and S+M clad biker gang, The Bombers. Ex soldier turned Merc Tom Cody is called home by his sister Riva to help rescue Ellen and is offered $10,000 by Ellen's manager/boyfriend Billy Fish to go back into 'The Battery' to rescue her. Tom accepts the job and meets up with drifter/tomboy ex-soldier McCoy. Together With Billy Fish, they enter the battery and rescue Ellen from the leader of the Bombers, Raven. They Commandeer a bus carrying an all black doowop band called 'The Sorels'. The return home only to discover that Raven and The bombers are coming to take down cody.
The Casting of Streets Of Fire is pretty good, it has some stars who went on to have quite good careers. These included and 18 year old Diane Lane as Ellen Aim, who gives a good performance as young rock singer.
Willem Defoe stars as Raven, The leader of The Bombers and well, It's Willem Defoe, he's the green goblin. Raven is the kind of gang leader that's all talk and at the end is defeated infront of all of his gang.
Rick Morranis stars as billy fish, Ellen Aims manager and boyfriend and if you know what Morranis looks like, there is no way in hell that He would score with Diane Lane, but he's cool as the smooth-ish talking Billy.
Then there's Amy Madigan as McCoy, the tomboyish drifter and ex soldier who becomes Cody's right hand man/woman/possible lesbian?, and she's a straight talking no nonsense kinda gal. Madigan is pretty bad ass as McCoy and it's a very long way from her role in Field Of Dreams.
Finally we have the star of the film...Michael Pare as Tom Cody, this guy is one badass mother fucker, almost 6.5", built and mean as fuck, with his silver shotgun, larconic tone and all around badassery, Pare is the ultimate anti-Hero, he doesn't play the book and takes no prisoners. Pare, in my eyes has always been a top notch B movie actor, sure, he's never gonna win any awards but the guy is just freaking cool. Another great Pare flick is Werewolf movie, Bad Moon.
There are also a lot of familiar faces among the supporting cast such as Mykelti Williamson (Species 2, 24), Elizabeth Daily (Rugrats, Devil's Rejects) and even Bill Paxton.
The action flows very well in Streets Of Fire, from the opening Brawl to the hammer fight at the end, Walter Hill's eye for action is a great addition to an already fine film. But the real reason to watch this is it's absolutely awesome soundtrack that features music from Fire Inc, The Blasters, The Fixx and some truly great music from Ry Cooder. It's a strange mix of 80s epic anthems, 50s rockabilly and 60s soul and strangely it all works really well.
The films was a hard one to come by, at the time i was searching for it, UK and US dvds were out of print. I managed to snag a Korean copy off of ebay for less than £5.00 and it's a great dvd, there's no extra's but the picture is widescreen and looks great. Now though, Universal have a UK release that's 4:3/1.33:1 aspect ration which i can imagine would look a bit ropey and has really bad cover art or there's a R1 widescreen release again from Universal that is currently under £7.00 on Amazon. But for me, until there's a definitive blu-ray or special edition dvd, My Korean dvd will do me fine. I really do recommend getting a copy of this film as it could be considered a lost classic, but for me it was a hidden gem.
Film: 10/10
Streets Of Fire: Nowhere Fast Music Video
You sold it to me mate. A copy is on it's way to me. I love being introduced to all these great 80's films, first Vamp and Savage Streets from Cult-labs and now this. Keep up the good work
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