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By
WAYNE KLEIN
A sly existential mystery,
"Night Moves" slipped in and out of theaters with
hardly a whisper in 1975. The film quickly became
a cult classic and has grown over the years.
Although it's a flawed film, "Night Moves" manages
to provide a perfect snapshot of a man unsure of
himself and what he wants to do with his life.
P.I. Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) takes a missing
persons case involving a 16 year old Hollywood
brat (Melanie Griffith) that's disappeared. His
life begins to fall apart even as the pieces of
the puzzle in his mystery come together. The more
that Harry discovers about the case he's working
on, the more likely he is to get killed in a
simple missing persons case. "Night Moves" has a
plot almost as convoluted as "Chinatown" with
performances equally as rich. Featuring the first
film appearance of James Woods (in a supporting
role) and the second film appearance of Melanie
Griffith (her first was in the film "Smile")
"Night Moves" failed at the box office because it
wasn't the right film at the right time. If it
were made around the time of "Body Heat," "Night
Moves" might have done a whole lot better playing
in theaters. The intelligent, well written script
by Alan Sharp ("Rob Roy") and taunt direction of
Arthur Penn ("Little Big Man," "Bonnie and Clyde")
make this low key thriller a worth while
investment of time for movie fans. Avoiding big
explosions and overblown performances, "Night
Moves" features one of Gene Hackman's finest
performances generating enough explosive moments
for two or three feature films.
Featuring a sharp, clean transfer "Night Moves"
looks better than it ever has before. Most of the
transfers of this film have been murky and dark
the colors are vivid and bright. The film appears
to be in exceptionally good shape considering its
age. The mono soundtrack comes across crystal
clear
We get a vintage featurette on the making of the
film that provides lots of behind-the-scenes
footage. The featurette acts as both a promo and
allows Penn to comment on his approach to film
directing as well as the various issues that dog a
film director prior to, during and after principle
photography. It's actually a very good promo. We
also get the original theatrical trailer for the
film. With Gene Hackman, Melanie Griffith, Arthur
Penn (as of this writing) and others still around,
it would be nice if someone had the budget to get
a commentary track for this film. It's a pity
because this fine film is a classic on the same
scale as "Chinatown" although it's about a very
different time. The themes at the heart of "Night
Moves" are still the same.
A classic marvelous movie gets a deluxe treatment
for its initial DVD treatment. It's taken awhile
to show up but I'm very happy that it finally did.
My only complaint is the lack of a commentary
track. If "Mildred Pierce" deserves a commentary
track then so does "Night Moves." Image quality is
top notch. My compliments to Warner for doing such
a fine job with this classic film. |
