![]() If you’re fans of Hackman, it’s a must see and if you want to see a young Melanie Griffith or James Wood it’s worth a viewing. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think classic film noir buffs and noir fans in general will too. This is right up there with some of his best, but seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. ![]() He also was in a handful of other box office successes and classic films from the decade. Whenever Arthur Penn’s name is mentioned, most people probably think of Bonnie and Clyde. This Night Moves is like a suspense movie held in suspense: a thriller that behaves as if it is a gentle, indie-arthouse film concerned only with evoking the static beauty of nature. Check out my review of The French Connection here: Gene Hackman was one of the biggest stars in the 1970’s, starting the decade out with The French Connection and ending it with Superman. Our hero thinks the case is closed, but it is only getting started. The three see the scary remnants of a boat wreck which scares our step-daughter and she willingly goes back to California with our hero. We also find the step daughter here, us as the audience and our hero believe she is our femme fatale, but she is still just in training and doesn’t fool our hero. The case eventually takes him to the Florida Keys and he meets our real femme fatale of the film played by Jennifer Warren. His investigation takes him into the world of Hollywood movies and stuntmen. He is also having problems with his marriage, his wife is played by Susan Clark. Our story starts with our private detective played by Hackman getting hired by our aging starlet to find her step-daughter(Griffin). So with all of this, why isn’t this picture better known? TCM’s Ben Markowitz said “This is the best movie you have never seen.” I’m not sure why, this film just came on my radar earlier this year, and I’m glad I got to view it. ![]() We have a young James Woods just getting his career started and a 16 year oldish Melanie Griffith making her film debut. The settings are classic film noir locations, we start out in Los Angles and then go head to the Florida Keys. Or this great line from one of our female leads. We also have some classic film noir dialog, updated for a 1970’s audience. It has it all, the 16-year-old Lolita, the young rebel mechanic boyfriend, the aging starlet, the Hollywood stuntman, the unhappy wife and of course the ex-football player turned hardboiled private detective. This movie is a neo noir staring Gene Hackman in all his 1970’s glory. The plotting doesn't get as intricate or labyrinthine as it does in a film like The Big Sleep, but like that Bogart classic, it's more about spending time with the characters and seeing how they interact with and move through the world the characters' body language arguably says more than the dialogue throughout.“Nobody, one side is just losing slower than the other.” Night Moves (Film, Mystery): Reviews, Ratings, Cast and Crew - Rate Your Music Night Moves ADVERTISEMENT Rate/Catalog - Catalog Tags Review J. But if you can get past that (and the presence of James Woods in a supporting part), Night Moves is a fantastic example of what happens when a capable filmmaker takes cinematic tropes from 30 or 40 years before and modernizes them, letting his characters fully inhabit familiar roles with a fresh coat of paint. Melanie Griffith plays the teenage daughter at the center of the mystery, and there are several scenes where she's naked on screen that were shot while she was an uncomfortably young age. And like all great noir detectives, it's that stubbornness and persistence that gets him in major trouble. T he title of Kelly Reichardts Night Moves has a ghostly echo of Arthur Penns 1975 noir of the same name, which featured Gene Hackman as the private detective hunting a missing woman, and. Like all great noir detectives, Harry Moseby is stubborn and persistent. This is Hackman at his most Bogart-ish, sweating bullets in the oppressive Florida heat, roughing up punks to find a missing girl, and generally throwing himself into his case while his love life falls apart. Back in 1975, he starred in Night Moves, director Arthur Penn's terrific neo-noir that lets Hackman put his unique spin on a classic archetypal character: the down-and-out, deadbeat gumshoe. ![]() I just saw that Hackman is still alive and well, living in New Mexico, biking, and hanging out with friends at age 91. ![]()
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