Streets of Fire: A Rock & Roll Fable (1984)

Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) and the Attackers are preforming at a venue in the Richmond neighborhood when the Bombers, a motorcycle gang, storm in and kidnap Ellen from the stage.  Reva Cody (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) was in the audience; she contacts her brother, Tom (Michael Pare), for help.  Tom arrives on the train shortly thereafter and proves to be ambivalent about rescuing Ellen.  Ellen is a former girlfriend who is now with Billy Fish (Rich Moranis), her music promoter.  Tom demands a $10K payday to do the job, 10% of which will go to his new partner, McCoy (Amy Madigan).  Venturing into the dark district of the Battery, Tom and McCoy leave the place in flames and chaos with Ellen in hand.  The leader of the Bombers, Raven (Willem Dafoe), promises revenge.

Right out the gate, the movie states that it is "Another Time, Another Place," thus allowing for a world that does not match reality.  The setting is a stylized 1950s that is dark and dangerous.  Almost every interaction has an edge of hostility to it.  These are not friendly people, even to their friends.  The warmest relation is that between siblings Tom and Reva.  Everyone else offers threats and ultimatums as part of casual conversation.  Law enforcement is mostly useless and often corrupt.  There are seldom consequences to misbehavior.  Tom destroys multiple police vehicles but is not arrested when next he encounters a cop.  Like the biker gangs, the cops seem to have their territory.  The movie often seems like a series of music videos, fitting into the early years of MTV.  This is a terrible script that was meant to be saved because it had style.

Willem Dafoe has a small part but makes the most of his bit as the villain.  He emotes a smoldering rage combined with amusement.  By contrast, Michael Pare reminds me of Robert Mitchum here.  His emotions rarely bubble to the surface.  He is unfazed by the violence around him and unworried about the potential outcome.  Amy Madigan's character was originally written as male and it shows.  She's all tough tomboy and gearhead.  Just to make sure that there isn't any sexual tension, she assures Tom that he's not her type.  Yeah, that should work.

There are some surprise appearances.  Bill Paxton plays a bartender, Rick Rossovich plays a cop, Lynne Thigpen (The Chief from Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?) plays a subway driver, Ed Begley Jr. is a dirty crazy man named Ben Gunn (just like the guy from Treasure Island), Elizabeth Daily (Dotty from Pee Wee's Big Adventure) plays one of Ellen's adoring fans, and Robert Townsend is a member of a band.

Walter Hill, who directed & co-wrote the movie, constructed it with things that were cool in his youth and mashed them together.  According to IMDb, his list was "custom cars, kissing in the rain, neon, trains in the night, high-speed pursuit, rumbles, rock stars, motorcycles, jokes in tough situations, leather jackets and questions of honour."  Well, the movie has all of those.  If only he could have combined them with a reasonable story and believable characters.  Had the movie been a success, it was meant to be the first of a trilogy.

Silly but fun.

The Long Riders (1980)

While robbing a bank, Ed Miller (Dennis Quaid) becomes anxious and shoots the bank teller.  In the gunfire that follows, Jesse James (James Keach) is wounded.  After the gang makes good their escape, Jesse ejects Ed from the gang.  Ed's brother, Clell (Randy Quaid), agrees with Jesse and rides away with the rest of the gang.  The James-Younger gang consists of Frank (Stacy Keach) & Jesse James, Cole (David Carradine), Jim (Keith Carradine), & Bob Younger (Robert Carradine), and Clell Miller.  After returning to their Missouri home, the Ford brothers, Charlie (Christopher Guest) and Robert (Nicholas Guest) try unsuccessfully to join the gang.  Despite their rough profession, the gang pursues a fairly ordinary life when not robbing banks, trains, and stagecoaches.  While Jesse woos Zee (Savannah Smith Boucher), Cole has a long-standing arrangement with Belle Starr (Pamela Reed), whom he gladly calls a whore, which is why he likes her.  The Pinkertons' pursuit of the gang figures heavily and the fact that many Missourians preferred the James-Younger gang to the law explains how they often lived normal lives.

The movie pieces together some of the tales of the gang in an entertaining fashion.  The climactic battle in Northfield, Minnesota, is well done.  The famous gang met its match in a bunch of armed civilians.  Though the Northfield Robbery was in 1876, the story jumps to 1882 when Jesse has the Ford brothers over to discuss 'business.'  Of course, Bob Ford was more interested in the price on Jesse's head.

The big selling point of this version is that four sets of siblings were cast to portray these criminal families.  Though that is cool, it is beside the point.  In fact, it may have detracted from the film.  This is a good story and mostly well-acted.  The weakest parts are James Keach, who is surprisingly wooden, and David Carradine, who lacks range.  This is a problem because these are the two leading characters.

Good popcorn fun and recommended.